Driver (1999)
Martin Edmondson and Reflections Interactive's 1970s Undercover Car-Chase Action Landmark
Driver (marketed in North America as Driver: You Are the Wheelman) is a 1999 cinematic action-driving game directed by Martin Edmondson at Reflections Interactive and published by GT Interactive. Paying homage to 1970s crime thrillers like Walter Hill's The Driver and Bullitt, it cast players as undercover NYPD detective John Tanner across 3D recreations of Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City.
The Underground Garage Test and 1970s Muscle-Car Physics
Fresh off the vehicular carnage of Destruction Derby, Newcastle studio founder Martin Edmondson designed Driver around a pure obsession with gritty 1970s car-chase cinema—specifically Walter Hill's 1978 neo-noir The Driver, Bullitt, and The French Connection. Before seeing a single palm tree in Miami, players faced one of gaming history's most infamous skill gates: an underground parking-garage checklist demanding a burnout, handbrake turn, slalom, reverse 180, and full-speed lap within sixty seconds. Once cleared, Reflections' physics engine shone on PlayStation hardware: heavy American V8 sedans pitched dramatically on soft suspension, shed hubcaps in powerslides, bottomed out over San Francisco hills in showers of sparks, and groaned to Allister Brimble's wah-wah funk score.
Four Streaming 3D Cities and the Pioneering Film Director Suite
Two years prior to Grand Theft Auto III, Driver rendered four expansive, true-3D polygonal cities—Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City—populated by traffic signals, pedestrians, and relentless police blockades governed by an escalating Felony meter as undercover detective John Tanner infiltrated a crime syndicate. Equally ahead of its era was the built-in Film Director mode, which recorded telemetry from any mission or free-roam Take a Ride chase and let players place roadside tripods, helicopter tracking shots, and dramatic slow-motion cuts saved directly to PlayStation Memory Cards. Selling over six million copies, Driver defined three-dimensional urban pursuit mechanics at the close of the fifth console generation.