Stephen Briggs, a graphic and website developer/artworker took to Twitter today, because he was sorting out "the basement at his workplace after a good tidy", when he came across some promotion material for the UK launch of the original Driver game on the PSOne back in 1999.

The two promotional images shared today, show a Driver branded Dodge at Oxford Street, London in 1999, and the most interesting thing is that when looking at the Driver branded Dodge in both images, you'll notice that they are both different models of the Dodge Challenger, as indicated by the colour of the vehicles roofs. Check them both out below :

Link #1 Link #2

On top of that, Stephen has also "found a screen grab when making the manual," but when you look at the image, some of the HUD is different, which could indicate that it comes from an earlier, older build of the oringal Driver PSOne game, possibly a Beta or even Alpha build.

Check it out below :

Link

Finally, Stephen "also got scans of the ARCADE magazine" from back 1999, which includes a feature on Driver 1 as well as a review on the game. Then he published "one scan that includes young faces from long ago" and includes a talk about how the original plan was to bring Driver 2 to the PS2 - or the "PSX2" as they called it back in 2000 - and that it would've featured two-player mode, allowing you to play with a friend.

Check it out below :

Link

We'd like to thank Steve for brining all of these Driver images to our attention on his Twitter, and we hope that he can bring us more content in the future.

Looks like another Wii U game is coming from Ubisoft, because the LinkedIn profile of Luis Cascante, employee and associate producer at Ubisoft Reflections, said that the developer was working on a future game for Nintendo's new home console, which is the Wii U.

It could be a port of Driver: San Francisco on Nintendo's future home console, or a new title, either Driver related or not, and if it is Driver related then could be a sequel to last years critically acclaimed Driver: San Francisco, or like we just said, a port of the game from the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Unfortunately, Luis's profile has been fixed, with any reference to the Wii U removed, but here is a screenshot of it in its previous state :

This actually makes a lot of sense, because the original Driver on PC has never been re-released over the years, and it contain bugs that prevent them from being perfect on modern computers, particularly on Windows 7 and 64 bit systems.

Now we get onto the good news, as the wishlist section of GOG.com has an entry for the original PC version of Driver 1 where users can cast their vote, if enough users cast their vote for a game, the GOG team will then try and pursue getting that game on their website.

What does this mean? Well GOG.com patch older games themselves and fix small code problems that make them unplayable on modern operating systems, if they can't fix a problem, they'll bundle an external emulator instead (such as DOSBox). At the very least, they'll include some bonus goodies to download such as artwork, original manuals as PDF's, etc.

So with that in mind, it's worth voting for the original PC version of Driver 1 to see if we can at least try and get some of these compatibility issues fixed.

UPDATE : The PC versions of Driv3r and Driver: San Francisco have also been added to the wishlist of possible titles that might come to GOG.com in the future. Luckily the original PC version of Driver: Parallel Lines is already available through GOG.com for $9.99 (file size is 2.6gb) thanks to previously passing the wishlist test.

Check out the list of Driver PC titles in the wishlist below :

Driver 1 Driv3r Driver: San Francisco

UPDATE : Sorry to disappoint so many of you looking forward to this rather extrordinary version of Driver: San Francisco for the PlayStation Vita…as it is in fact an April fools, a rather dirty one at that!

Today Ubisoft have unveiled that the critically acclaimed Driver: San Francisco - which was released on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC last year - will be coming to the PlayStation Vita sometime during Q4 2012.

The announcement of Driver: San Francisco for the PlayStation Vita came in a press release from the publisher today, which stated that the handheld version will be an enhanced port of the PlayStation 3 version and will use both the front and rear touchscreens as well coming packed with all of the content seen in the PlayStation 3 version, including multiplayer over the PlayStation Network.

Ubisoft have said that the PlayStation Vita version of Driver: San Francisco will also include new content not seen before including new online multiplayer modes, more vehicles, new campaign missions, enhanced trophy support, high definition graphics, with a "spotless frame rate of 60 FPS, and cloud-saving using Sony's Continuous Play feature, which will allow players to transfer save files between the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita version for continuous play on the go.

The announcement also included the first three screenshots of Driver: San Francisco running on the PlayStation Vita, and you can check out two of them below, and one above.

Ubisoft has said it wants to offer enough value to PC gamers that the need for DRM eventually “goes away”, and to do this, the firm's digital boss Chris Early said a system similar to MMOs needs to be set in place.

Speaking with EuroGamer, Ubisoft VP of digital publishing Chris Early said :

“Is it fair for someone to enjoy our content without us receiving some value for that? I think at the core of that is, no. Otherwise, other than works of charity, there would be few games made. The balance, however, is, how do we do anything about that and not harm the person who is giving us value for that?" “That's been the delicate balance that the industry has walked over time. It continues to be one that we grapple with as an industry. How do we create content and receive good value for that, and at the same time, not inconvenience the player who has given us value there?”

Chris Early feels some will still pirate, but those who want a broader experience won't.

“The question is, with enough on-going content development, content release, engagement at the community level, can we create that kind of MMO value system. I think we can. As the rest of the game industry continues to evolve, the more you hear more about cloud gaming, the more you hear about companion gaming, the less a pirated game should work in all of that environment." “So, therefore the value of that pirated content becomes less. Will some people still pirate? Yeah, they will. Will the person who really wants that broad experience pirate? We hope not.” "I don't know that there is a perfect answer today. There are some technological answers. There are some design answers. There have been different approaches from different publishers at times, some doing no DRM and just assuming it's the cost of doing business. Some are doing a very strict DRM. Some doing an on-going content revision. I don't think we have a single, good answer yet. The interesting thing will be, how do we create enough value that that need for DRM goes away?"

Chris Early didn't go as far as offering that kind of commitment, but did promise to work to make its anti-piracy efforts less intrusive.

"As we continue to keep our player at the centre, we want to find ways that don't inconvenience that player who is paying for it. We've had a variety of degrees of success as we wind our way down that path. Our plan, our hope is we stay on the less intrusive, less cumbersome side of that path as we go on."

Ubisoft attracted gamers' anger when it announced that the PC version Driver: San Francisco required users to log on to the internet every time they played the game. Such was the outcry that Ubisoft changed its mind, tweaking the DRM of Driver: San Francisco so that players would no longer require always-on internet to enjoy the game.

But that didn't prevent a number of Ubisoft PC games, including Driver: San Francisoc, from being completely unplayable online and offline when the company moved its gaming servers from a third-party to brand new in-house servers. The publisher recently claimed its DRM policy was a success, insisting it had seen "a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection".

Ubisoft has pulled a Metal Gear style stealth manoeuvre on us all today, because Driver: San Francisco was released on MAC today and is now available for download. Also, the MAC version of Driver: San Francisco comes with DRM protection, and weighs at 8.9 GB of your HDD in order to download it. The MAC version is also just a simple port of the PC version, which makes us wonder why it was delayed for so long, and to hit the point home, there is no boxed retail version of Driver: San Francisco for MAC either.

Anyway, the standard version of Driver: San Francisco for MAC is priced at €29.99, while the Deluxe version is priced at €34.99 on MACGames.fr. Then on MACGamesStore.com, the standard version is selling for $29.99 and the Deluxe version is priced at $34.99. Also, both the standard and Deluxe versions of Driver: San Francisco for MAC are available on Steam for £14.99 and £24.99, respectively. The Steam version also supports Play, which means that you only have ot buy it once, and then it'll play on both Windows PC's as well as MAC systems.

Buy the Deluxe version of Driver: San Francisco for MAC or PC, and you'll get a selection of bonus items. Check out the unlockables below :

3 unlockable cars for multiplayer : Aston Martin DB5 - 1963 Lamborghini Miura - 1972 Shelby Cobra 427 - 1966 4 new challenges in single player : Mass chase - Escape the whole police force of San Francisco Relay race - Change cars between laps to win the race Russian Hills racers - Race against 3 super cars in this famous district Taxi - Race against other taxis in downtown

We also have the specs for the MAC version of Driver: San Francisco, which you can view below :

Minimum MAC Specifications : Supported OS: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo RAM: 2 GB Video Card: 512MB video card Hard Drive: 11 GB Grapics Card : ATI Radeon Radeon HD 2000 Series Radeon HD 4000 Series Radeon HD 5000 Series Radeon HD 6000 Series * Laptop models of these cards may work but are not supported. Recommended MAC Specifications : Supported OS: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Processor: Intel Core i7 RAM: 3 GB Video Card: 1024MB video card Hard Drive: 11 GB Grapics Card : ATI Radeon Radeon HD 2000 Series Radeon HD 4000 Series Radeon HD 5000 Series Radeon HD 6000 Series * Laptop models of these cards may work but are not supported.

Driver: San Francisco was one of Ubisoft's most anticipated titles of 2011 and it seemed like the publishers confidence in the game wasn't misplaced, as last month, we brought you the news that the title had sold well over one million copies throughout Europe alone, which saw the title heading the PlayStation 3's Platinum range as well as the Xbox 360's Classics lineup on 2nd March 2012 for a price of £19.99 / EUR €30.00.

The good news is that both the PlayStation 3's Platinum and Xbox 360's Classics versions of Driver: San Francisco are out now throughout Europe. Here are the price round-ups :

Amazon UK PS3 Platinum - £18.15 Xbox 360 Classics - £19.98 Play.com PS3 Platinum - £14.99 Xbox 360 Classics - £14.99 Amazon France PS3 Platinum - €30.00 Xbox 360 Classics - €30.00

There is currently no word as to when or if Driver: San Francisco will be heading to the PS3's Greatest Hits or the Xbox 360's Classics Range's throughout North America, and there is still no news on the MAC version of Driver: San Francisco, which has been further delayed, but we'll keep you posted when we hear more.