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  • Greetings and welcome to a different kind of thing here on LGR today! Although

  • it's not entirely different, it still has to do with computer games. But this is

  • the Texaco 2001 Summer Promotion kit: "Need for Speed," item number who cares and

  • an 800 number that may or may not work anymore. This is a very nondescript

  • package because this is something that was just sent to all sorts of vendors

  • around the country here in the US in 2001. Maybe elsewhere too, I know Texaco is

  • a pretty international company. But yeah I remember seeing these back then very

  • briefly. And then I forgot about them until I ran across these packages once

  • again on eBay some years ago. So, just a tiny bit of context here, even though

  • there's not a whole lot to go on: this was apparently some sort of partnership

  • between Texaco, the petroleum company and distributor, and Electronic Arts and some

  • kind of manufacturer of die-cast model cars. I'm sure I'll find out more in a

  • moment when we get this package open but yeah. Because not only does it come with

  • artwork and branding for the Need for Speed game but it also comes with an

  • exclusive demo of the game itself for Windows PCs. Now there was a demo that

  • you could download for free online, but these, as far as I know, were

  • exclusive to the packages that were sold in Texaco stores. So gas stations, service

  • stations, truck stops, what-have-you. I remember seeing these next to the cash

  • register in various gas stations just kind of stacked up next to the Slim Jims

  • and chewable tobacco. Anyway let's go ahead and get this thing open because

  • I've had this for a while and I've been itching to get into it and I figured "ahh

  • why not to unbox it?" And we're gonna try out the demos as well.

  • [box-cutting sounds interspersed with jazz tunes]

  • Okay, well it looks like we got a note in here from the seller I got it from.

  • It's just saying which ones that it came with. As far as I know though this was

  • supposed to come with at least one example of each of the different car

  • packs that were available. Okay! Oh wow, this brings back some memories. I worked

  • in retail for... uh, too long. Setting end cap planograms and ohmuhgahd it's all

  • coming back and I don't like it. But anyway I'm gonna go ahead and separate

  • these out into the individual kits but you can kind of see what's going on there.

  • All right so here are the five different ones that you could collect!

  • So yeah each one of these comes with a different race car model based on a

  • real-world car. And then each one of these will also come with their own

  • individual demo for Porsche Unleashed. It is kind of an odd promotion if you think

  • about it. Like you have NASCAR and CART racing in here, and this is a promo for the game

  • Porsche Unleashed which is all about racing through histories in classic

  • Porsches, and there's nothing to do with any of these American racing things.

  • And there have been other Need for Speed things sold in retail stores too, like

  • Walmarts, and in fact they still sell them for different modern games like

  • here's a Forza Motorsport one sold by Hot Wheels.

  • This one actually makes sense because this is a car and a configuration that

  • you can actually get in the game. And look at all those like, I kind of want to

  • collect all those. I just picked this up randomly when I saw it the other week

  • and was like "hey that reminds me of my things that I, you know!" All right let's

  • go ahead and take a look at these individually here and see what we get.

  • All right so first up here is the "Mario's Last Car." It's interesting, it

  • seems to be that the car was like secondary, they were really selling the

  • demo to Porsche Unleashed and the collector car is listed as a bonus.

  • That's interesting. But yes "custom CD-ROM game inside!" And this comes with the 1988

  • 944 S Turbo Coupe. "Texaco offers you an exclusive collection of the

  • award-winning game Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed by Electronic Arts. This sampler

  • series offers you the mind-numbing..." Mind-numbing? That's kind of a weird

  • way to put it. "...open road racing experience that Need for Speedis

  • known for." Look at that it's even got installation instructions on the back

  • and some controls right there for the game. So here's the company looks like put

  • it out: Equity Marketing Incorporated, Los Angeles, California. Yeah I was wondering

  • who was responsible for actually putting out this package for EA and Texaco and I

  • guess that answers that question. I got a little bit off track there but

  • let's just take a quick look at what the other ones are. So this one here with the

  • 2000 911 Turbo, that was an exciting car in 2000. Came with the bonus car the

  • number 28 custom Texaco race car. Okay so car number 3 is the 2000 Boxster S and

  • the bonus car is the number 28 Ricky Rudd race car, that one is the

  • official Texaco car. Next up the fourth car here is the special Havoline race

  • car number 28. Mmkay. And then the version of the game that it comes with, or the

  • demo, is the 1959 Porsche 356. Very cool classic convertible. And then finally the

  • fifth car here it comes with the custom Texaco race car and this is the 1973 911

  • Carrera RS 2.7 coupe. Mmm that is a lust-worthy mode of transportation.

  • Okay so let's go ahead and open up Mario Andretti's last car here.

  • [cutting, shuffling noises] Alright.

  • Some nice details on there. It's not quite up to the quality of something like a Hot

  • Wheels or even a Matchbox but it does have rubber wheels and some nice little writing on

  • there I mean, like, I like the decals. So this is the company that makes it? 'Action'

  • something or other. I'm not familiar with that brand at all.

  • There's the CART logo right there, so it is an officially licensed CART

  • product at least. Yeah cool. [plop]

  • Okay. And now let's just get to the CD which it looks

  • like that opens up on the back here. [light slicing noises]

  • It doesn't look like there's any really

  • easy way to open that... so we're just gonna go for it. I'm curious what the CDs

  • look like exactly because I don't really recall actually having seen what's

  • inside here. Most sellers just leave these sealed. Well that's interesting.

  • So we got the game logo right there, "sampler version," got Texaco and EA logos and then

  • it says which one of these is on the disc.

  • And it actually says on the back here too, yeah it says the violet package, it says it

  • comes with the 944 coupe. And here we go, went ahead and opened all of them got

  • them all laid out nicely here for you. Each of the cars are pretty much the

  • same quality, actually not that bad the more I look at them. They just feel like

  • really cheap in terms of the metal but the details are nice visually. And of

  • course the CD-ROMs themselves I mean, they're proper CD-ROM pressings, they look

  • good. The only thing really distinguishing them, of course other than the text, is

  • that little color that associates with the car demo that it comes with. Enough

  • unboxing teasing let's go ahead and install these demos on Windows 98! I'm

  • curious if they come with the same track or anything like that, y'know I'm just curious.

  • Okay so I'm gonna go ahead and try these demos out in the order of the

  • release of the cars that we'll be demoing, starting with the 1959 356.

  • [engine rev sound]

  • Hm, this is already different! "This sampler version is intended for promotional

  • purposes only," and blah blah legal stuff. So this autorun looks pretty much like

  • what you would get with the full game, except it's way laggier. And it has

  • these different menus here, what is this "buy the full game," what does that do.

  • Website probably? That's an offline website, that's interesting. "Buy the game

  • get a free die-cast miniature race car complete with Need for Speed decals! Hurry

  • this order is available while supplies last." Okay so apparently there was also a

  • Texaco version of Porsche Unleashed? I mean seriously yeah, "type promotion

  • code Texaco when you order online." Man. I'm curious what that car was that it

  • came with or the decals or whatever. Alright let's go ahead and play here,

  • "install the car, race, register" yeah let's just install this car. So this is known

  • as Texaco Web Demo 3 apparently. Wonder why they chose this one to be the third

  • demo? Clearly my sorting system by age of the car's release in real life is a much

  • better way to sort things out. Heh, so it looks like it put it in the Electronic

  • Arts folder with my full versions of the rest of the games as Texaco Web Demo 3.

  • Okay, let's try this out. Ahh I was wondering how it handled this!

  • So you get a custom menu here just in the autorun and it shows which cars are

  • installed. Okay so let's check just this one and then we'll install the rest of the cars.

  • [whooshing menu sound plays]

  • The user is "tex." Sure let's go with tex. All right well, that's one

  • thing that's different immediately: there are no background images here and

  • there's no music either. Kind of makes sense, the music it does say it's on but

  • nothing is playing. And of course pretty much everything else is blanked out as

  • you would expect. So I'll just go straight into single player here, we have

  • difficulty selection -- go with advanced. And we'll do a quick race here and of

  • course that is the only car that we can select. And just the one track, thete d'Azur.

  • Makes sense, that is pretty much the first track that you get in the game if

  • I recall. We can at least choose any color we want for the 356 A convertible

  • here. And we'll put the roof down because heck yeah. And we can select some

  • opponents, we'll just do one.

  • [vrooooooooom]

  • [more engine revving]

  • "Three! Two! One! Go!" Well it's Need for Speed five,

  • just on one track with one car. Which you know, that's pretty much what the demo

  • was for just the one you could download online for free for anyone.

  • I only tried it very briefly because I just ended up buying the full game

  • anyway because I knew I wanted it. Whoops. There we go. All right well that's pretty

  • much all I wanted to know, so let's go ahead and install the other cars and see

  • if we do get any other tracks or anything else with that but I'm

  • doubting it. Okay so I have all five discs installed and they all go into the

  • same folder here, in Program Files\Electronic Arts\

  • Need for Speed Texaco Web Demo folder. And we've got five demo folders here.

  • And it's kind of weird it has installed everything five times, the only thing

  • that's different is of course the car information. So each one of these has

  • each separate car. Like we saw earlier all of them are right here able to be

  • selected so there really are five different games. It's just a kind of a

  • messy situation but yeah. This also means that if you changed any of the options

  • like say, miles per hour to kilometers an hour or the graphics options... then yeah,

  • you'll have to change that every time you switch cars. It's the price you pay

  • for not having the full version. Oh wow so you do get a different track per car!

  • Interesting! So we've got Corsica here let's go ahead and just try this out.

  • And here we are, a totally new car, new track.

  • "Three! Two! One! Go!"

  • Uou actually do have some pretty good incentive for collecting all five!

  • Y'know, or I guess really just buy the full version because wow, what a pain to

  • have to switch completely different programs every time you want to try

  • another car and track combination. Although it makes me wonder if you can

  • combine all of them -- oops I was not paying attention -- if you could combine

  • all of them into one. I might have to try that here after we try all these

  • individual ones. All right and this one comes with the Alps track.

  • And we had a lot more pre-made colors here, we're just gonna go with nice

  • bright red. Yeah that's crazy to me that each one of these actually comes with a

  • different track. I was honestly not expecting that because you know, I didn't

  • think that EA would be 'giving away' so much of their goods. Still, of course

  • you're missing out on a lot of the experience: no music and no career mode

  • or anything, but uh. Man I would've been happy to have collected these back

  • before I bought the full version. Because like the normal demo that you got online

  • was something like -- yeah this game does not work well with a keyboard like this,

  • I can barely see where I'm going too, this track is so dark... Anyway yeah, the normal

  • demo that you would download for free I believe only had Normandy and like the

  • 1995 911 and that was it. What? There's a different user this time tex and nenad.

  • Huh! Neh-nad? Nuh-nod? Why is there a separate user here? Sure okay, so we get

  • the Industrial Zone, I always liked that one. It's a very well... industrial-looking

  • track. Yeah whatever it's fine, silver Boxster, four opponents in the industrial

  • zone. It reminded me of Empire City and Need for Speed III and

  • unlockable in, well, unlockable in both three and four. But I am I'm also not

  • noticing any traffic on any of these maybe I just didn't

  • enable it or it's possible that it doesn't actually come with any oncoming traffic.

  • I'll have to check on the last last one here. And the last one is the 911 Turbo

  • from the year 2000. The title car, the one that graced the cover art. Alright so we

  • just got tex this time again. There we go let's see what we got here. Okay, 911

  • Turbo, let's go for nice bright yellow like the cover has. And we have

  • Auvergne is the track here. No, we cannot actually change the location settings so

  • I guess there just isn't any traffic, which, I mean that makes sense.

  • "Go!" GO, HYAUUGHH.

  • I don't actually remember playing this track a whole lot. Don't remember if it's

  • because I didn't like it or what.

  • [chuckles at car flying] Oh I'm fine! [laughs aloud] Oh man!

  • Ah, this game's a lot of fun. Not ideal with a keyboard whatsoever, but

  • you know, good game. Gooood game. All right let's try to just combine everything

  • into one folder, see if that works. I'll be shocked if it does. All right,

  • so in theory all we really need are these three folders. And I mean there's

  • some stuff in here too that may determine where it's actually going to

  • be looking, so if it's that involved I'm not gonna mess with it I'm just gonna

  • try and copy over everything into one folder and see if it works.

  • Hey we have our other user again, nenad. Alright single player, quick race...

  • cannot select anything else. I expected as much really. Just curious if it'll

  • work with this executable which seemed to give me a car selection thing, like a

  • drop-down menu. Nope it doesn't work at all, we still just get the one car and

  • the one track of whatever the executable is. So I'm sure that maybe it could be

  • modified somewhere but I don't remember enough about the way NFS5's file

  • structure works. And it might just have that blocked off, I'm assuming

  • that they would try to do that but yeah it's got me curious.

  • At least tentatively but not enough to do it in this video, hehe. I'm definitely glad that

  • I picked these up when I did because, well, they're just curious releases and I like

  • exploring things like this on LGR. Especially games that were favorites of

  • mine back in the day and are obscure-ish releases that I don't really know

  • much about and there's not much information online. So I hope that you

  • enjoyed exploring with me and if you did then perhaps you'd like to see some more

  • LGR things. There are new videos right here every Monday and Friday so stay

  • tuned if you'd like. And as always thank you very much for watching!

Greetings and welcome to a different kind of thing here on LGR today! Although

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