Games from that time are meant to run at a lower frame rate. It's just how it was I'm afraid. Wing Commander is another such game. When it's smooth, it runs too fast. It's much easier to play when it's choppy 😀

We had crappy computers back then. Test Drive 3 was notorious for being too fast on a faster computer. Think 80286 when TD 3 came out. That's what I played it on. But when I got my 80386... it was way too fast.

I use cycles 4000 myself. Seems close to how I remember playing it. It really never was a smooth or even fun game to play. It was just novel at the time for being polygonal and open world. You could drive way off road if you wanted to.

I thought it ran perfect on the 386SX 16 I first played it on.

Thank you all very much for your answers! @laxdragon, or anyone else, can you recommend me a fun arcade racing type of game from around Jan 1989-Jan 1992?

You'll probably want to try the Crazy Cars series, Hard Drivin' II/Race Drivin' (smoother) or Lotus

and of course, although it's not arcade, there's the legendary Indianapolis 500 from 1989 😀

Levee44 wrote:

Tcan you recommend me a fun arcade racing type of game from around Jan 1989-Jan 1992?

Stunts

Some that I liked:
Test Drive II (somewhat dull)
Wacky Wheels (like Mario Kart SNES)
Outrun (not the best port)
Nascar Racing (1994, little outside your range, but mentioning it anyway, as I put lots of hours into it)
Vette!

Tertz wrote:

Levee44 wrote:

Tcan you recommend me a fun arcade racing type of game from around Jan 1989-Jan 1992?

Stunts

Yes, definately Stunts!

Lotus Challenge was kinda fun too, plays like Outrun, RAC Rally Championship, Indycar Racing by Papyrus, Grand Prix by Microprose.
Though thinking about it my last 3 recommendations were simulators in it's day but they feel arcade for me now. 😜