• Source: Spy Hunter

Spy Hunter is a vehicular combat game developed by Bally Midway and released for arcades in 1983. The game draws inspiration from the James Bond films and was originally supposed to carry the James Bond brand. The object of the game is to drive down roads in the technologically advanced "Interceptor" car and destroy various enemy vehicles with a variety of onboard weapons. Spy Hunter was produced in both sit-down and standard upright versions with the latter being more common. The game's controls consist of a steering wheel in the form of a futuristic aircraft-style yoke with several special-purpose buttons, a two-position stick shift (offering 'low' and 'high' gears), and a pedal used for acceleration.
Spy Hunter was a commercial success in American arcades, where it was one of the top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1984 and 1985. It was ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit computers, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Apple II, ColecoVision, MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, and BBC Micro. Spy Hunter was followed by Spy Hunter II, which added a 3D view and two-player split-screen play, a pinball tie-in, and a successor series of games bearing the Spy Hunter name. In addition, the NES received a sequel titled Super Spy Hunter.




Gameplay



Spy Hunter is a vertical scrolling driving game with the player in the role of a spy driving an armed sportscar. The object of the game is to travel the freeway destroying as many enemy vehicles as possible while protecting civilian vehicles. The game uses a top-down perspective. Controls consist of a two-position gearshift lever, a floor-mounted accelerator pedal, and a steering yoke with five buttons, and the cabinet also includes a dashboard with status lights.
The game begins with the player driving the fictitious G-6155 Interceptor, using the yoke, pedal, and gearshift to steer and control speed. The car is equipped with a machine gun that has unlimited ammunition and can be fired by pressing and holding the corresponding button on the yoke.
Various enemy vehicles try to destroy the player's car or force it off the road, including a helicopter that drops bombs from overhead. A counter increments the score while the car is moving and on the road. Additional points are earned by destroying enemy vehicles using weapons or forcing them off the road. After an initial lead-in time during which the player has an unlimited supply of cars, the player must earn extra cars by reaching score thresholds. Destroying non-enemy cars halts the score counter for a short while, and no points are scored whenever the player's car is off the road. The car can be destroyed by a hard collision with another vehicle, if it is hit by an enemy weapon (including the craters blasted into the road by the helicopter's bombs), or by running far enough off the roadway (or waterway).
Following periodic forks in the road, the player can enter new regions with different terrain or weather conditions. The player can also acquire special weapons by entering a weapons van, which appears in each new territory and can be periodically summoned by pressing its button on the yoke when its dashboard light is flashing. Available special weapons consist of oil slicks, smoke screens, and surface-to-air missiles; each is controlled by a different button, and the dashboard lights indicate which ones are available at any given time. Special weapons have a limited ammunition supply and are lost whenever the player's car is destroyed.
At certain points, the player will have the option to convert the car into a speedboat for a brief time by driving through a boathouse; at others, the player will be forced to make the transition. Enemy boats can attack from in front or behind, and the helicopter can drop bombs from above. While in speedboat mode, the oil slick becomes a flamethrower, while the smoke screen and missiles remain unchanged.
The game has no ending, and play continues until the player has lost all cars.




Development


Game designer George Gomez drew inspiration for the game from listening to an audio cassette tape of music from James Bond films. He designed the game with Tom Leon, with whom he had worked on Tron. Gomez sketched out the in-game road map on a long scroll of drawing paper and also came up with the idea of the weapons van. Originally the game was to be based directly on James Bond and have the "James Bond Theme" as in-game music, but the license could not be acquired. Instead, an electronic arrangement of Henry Mancini's theme to Peter Gunn plays throughout.




Reception



In the United States, it topped the RePlay upright arcade cabinet charts for four months during 1984, in April, September, October and November. It also topped the Play Meter dedicated cabinet charts for street locations in July 1984 and November 1984. It was listed by AMOA as one of America's top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1984, with AMOA later giving it the award for "most played" arcade video game of 1985 in the United States. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the arcade version 29th on their Top 100 Video Games. They praised the game music, controls and gameplay.
Computer and Video Games scored the ColecoVision version 80% in 1989.




Legacy



A pinball table based on Spy Hunter was released in 1984 by Bally.
The arcade game was ported to the ColecoVision in January 1985.
The original Spy Hunter was followed by an arcade sequel, Spy Hunter II in 1987. It retained the "Peter Gunn" music and incorporated a cooperative two-player mode, but the top-down view was replaced with a perspective from behind and above the car.
After Japanese video game developer Sunsoft ported Spy Hunter to the Nintendo Entertainment System, the company created Battle Formula with similar gameplay. Sunsoft America signed a deal with Bally Midway to release it outside Japan as Super Spy Hunter.
The series was reprised in 2001 with SpyHunter developed by Paradigm Entertainment and published by Midway Games for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Microsoft Windows. A sequel developed by Angel Studios was released in 2003. Another reboot of the series was developed by TT Fusion for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita and released by Warner Bros. Interactive in October 2012.
Spy Hunter was cloned as Major Motion, released by Microdeal for the Atari ST in 1986. Agent Intercept (2019) for Apple Arcade is an homage to Spy Hunter.
In the 2015 toys-to-life video game Lego Dimensions, the Midway Arcade level pack includes a buildable Lego G-6155 Interceptor. A playable emulation of the arcade version is also included as part of the pack. The player character from Spy Hunter also appears as part of a sidequest where the player has to destroy 20 cars in the Super Sprint racetrack.
The 2022 video game Gotham Knights includes a playable emulated version of the game as an easter egg.




= Re-releases

=
Spy Hunter was included in Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits: Volume 1 for Nintendo 64; Midway Arcade Treasures, a 2003 compilation of arcade games available for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows; Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for PlayStation Portable; and Midway Arcade Origins, a 2012 compilation available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.




= In popular culture

=
In the Murder, She Wrote episode titled "Hit, Run and Homicide", Jessica realizes the solution to the episode's mystery while playing Spy Hunter in the Cabot Cove grocery store.
"Dev Hunter", a game made in the style of Spy Hunter is included as an Easter egg in the first release of Microsoft Excel 2000. It requires DirectX to work. Shortly after Excel 2000's release, Microsoft officially banned Easter eggs from its non-game software.
In the Robot Chicken episode "Dragon Nuts", a spoof of Spy Hunter is featured in the sketch "Omaha's Number 1 News Team". The news station's traffic copter films two police cruisers in pursuit of the sports car from Spy Hunter, which failed to yield for a routine traffic stop. The sports car causes the cruisers to crash using its smoke screen generator, boards the weapon truck, equips itself with its surface-to-air missile launcher, uses it to destroy a helicopter, and the driver, tailed by several more police cruisers, escapes in a speedboat.
Spy Hunter is parodied in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Video Game References", as when it is Cyborg's turn to use the virtual reality system, he goes inside an arcade game called Pie Hunter, whose name is a reference to Spy Hunter.




Film adaptation



In the summer of 2003, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to the arcade game Spy Hunter from Midway Games. The following September, Universal signed actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to star in the film adaptation based on the game. Screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas were hired to write the screenplay, though a director had not been decided at the time. Spy Hunter was slated to begin its budgeted $90 million production in spring 2004 in time for a summer 2005 release. In January 2004, screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon replaced the original writing duo to rewrite the script, with production slated for June. By May, Universal Pictures acquired director John Woo to helm the project. In the same month, the previous screenwriters were replaced by screenwriter Zak Penn to rewrite the script once more. By August, production had been delayed, pushing Spy Hunter back to be released in summer 2006. In April 2005, Penn was replaced by screenwriter Stuart Beattie to rewrite the script. By May, however, director John Woo left the project due to scheduling conflicts. In August, Johnson said the film was still developing without a director. Pre-production work was underway with designs such as the morphing Interceptor vehicle driven by Alex Decker. Production was eventually halted for the time being, and Dwayne Johnson was detached from the project.
In May 2007, Paul W. S. Anderson was hired to replace Woo as the director with an all-new script unrelated to Nowhere to Run. He left the project a year later due to his commitment to Death Race 2 as a producer. In February 2013, Warner Bros. – the current theatrical distribution rights holders – announced that Ruben Fleischer was brought on board to direct from a screenplay by Carter Blanchard. In November 2015, Blanchard was replaced with the duo Neal Greaves and Sam Chalsen while Dan Lin and Roy Lee were set to produce the film. Whether Fleischer was still on board to direct remains to be seen.




See also


Bump 'n' Jump (1982), another game where the player can bump vehicles off the road.
Roadblasters (1987), a later driving/combat video game also popular in arcades.




References






External links


Spy Hunter at the Killer List of Videogames
Spy Hunter Pinball at the Killer List of Videogames
Spy Hunter at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
• Source: SpyHunter

SpyHunter is a vehicular combat game released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. It is a remake and sequel of the 1983 arcade game of the same name. It was later ported to GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Windows, Mac OS X, and Tapwave Zodiac. In the game, the player drives the G-6155 Interceptor, an advanced, weaponized spy vehicle. Unlike the original's top-down view, the remake is played with a chase camera, similar to a racing game. The PlayStation 2 version received positive reviews while reception for the ports was mixed. A sequel, SpyHunter 2, was released in 2003.




Overview


The game features variations of the Peter Gunn theme throughout the game, including menu screens and the main levels, as well as a variation with lyrics called "The Spy Hunter Theme" by Saliva. Each mission, of which there are fourteen (including 2 training levels), has one primary objective and a number of secondary objectives. There is a range of objectives, though the gameplay is similar on every level: the player must drive along shooting enemy vehicles, avoiding civilians and destroying set targets. Every mission must be completed within a time limit. Objectives are generally to destroy things like enemy weapons, equipment and communications towers, to avoid civilian casualties, to tag things with tracking devices and so on, although some objectives that are a little different include escaping from a warehouse using a trabant within a tight time limit, escorting and protecting allied vehicles and even chasing and destroying a stolen Interceptor vehicle.
The car features the same weapons as the original arcade game, although only the machine guns, and oil slick are available at first; the smoke screen and missiles are acquired later (in this game, there are two types of missiles: unguided rockets and guided missiles). New weapons include tracking devices (not really a weapon) and a flamethrower, rail gun, EMP launcher, IR scanner. Larger 20mm guns, then 40mm guns are unlocked as well. The weapons van also returns in this game, and features some of the same enemies (including "Switch Blade" Plymouth Prowler which has tire slashers, and the "Road Lord" Mack Superliner which can't be destroyed with machine guns). The Interceptor has three modes: car, boat and motorcycle (the third mode is new to this game), the latter mode appearing when the Interceptor's energy (in car or boat mode) is critically low. The game also features a two-player mode, where the player and a friend can race through any of the 14 missions after completing them in single player mode. Some are straight races, while others require the players to kill chickens or drive through icons along the way. The players can also destroy each other, after which they "respawn".




Plot


The plot deals with Alec Sects, an F-15 pilot who was trained by the FBI, as he tries to take down Nostra, an Israeli-based international company that produces food products, bio-chemicals, genetics, e-commerce and children's software. Daemon Curry, a man who believes himself to be the figure mentioned in several religions (for example: the second christ/antichrist and believes in the prophecies of Nostradamus), is the founder and leader. To deal with him, the IES create a team called Spyhunter. Curry has reason to believe that it is the same person who stopped him in 1983 (Spy Hunter). When he was trying to launch his plan, he sends all he has after him. Curry's plan is to use four EMP weapons mounted on satellites, dubbed the Four Horsemen, to stop all electricity in the world, then plans to rule. Originally Alec does light missions, mostly destruction of Nostra property (like a vehicle created from Nostra and stolen IES technology), but Nostra hijacks the "Weapons Van" and an Interceptor, and Alec is forced to destroy it. Eventually, the G-6155 Interceptor receives an upgrade (and a change of paint) to the G-6155 Interceptor II, complete with an EMP Launcher, Scanner, and a shorter Turbo lag time. Nostra's schemes become more dangerous, and Alec finds himself returning to most of the previous Nostra bases for more intense missions such as destroying weapons of mass destruction. Later, he finds the headquarters where the Four Horsemen are based in Petra. After a hard-fought battle, the Four Horsemen are defused and explode, while Alec escapes on the Interceptor II. Following a parachute dive from the cliff-side base and landing safely on the ground, he heads toward Russia, setting the stage for SpyHunter 2. Curry's fate is never shown, but he is most likely killed in the explosion as he is not mentioned among the Nostra ringleaders in the sequel.




Development


Word that the game was in development emerged in late 1997. At the time, it was titled "Spy Hunter Returns", was planned for release in late 1998 or early 1999, and had the Nintendo 64 as its target platform, but Midway already had plans to feature different versions of the original Peter Gunn theme throughout the game.




Reception



By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of SpyHunter had sold 900,000 copies and earned $29 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 64th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined console sales of SpyHunter games released in the 2000s reached 1.6 million units in the United States by November 2003.
The PlayStation 2 version received "favorable" reviews, while the rest of the console versions received "mixed or average reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.
Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "It's a sheer blast, and a find update to a classic game, but it's still more a rental than a keeper."
In Japan, Famitsu gave the PS2 version a score of one nine, one six, and two eights for a total of 31 out of 40. GameSpot's Ryan Davis praised the same version as "a solid reinterpretation of a video game classic that adds its own unique elements to the franchise without forsaking what made Spy Hunter what it was." However, he later panned the PC port as "a very modest arcade driving game that's simply not worth playing [...] Graphics and the gameplay have been compromised too much in the transition. The end result is a game with shoddy controls that looks more dated than the source material." Avery Score of the same website gave the Zodiac version 8.8 out of 10, saying that it "falls short of perfection, but is one of the best games in recent memory and a blast to play alone or with friends." GameZone also gave the Zodiac version nine out of ten, saying that it was "not just a must-buy for those who have a Zodiac, it's also a reason to buy a Zodiac."




Notes






References






External links


SpyHunter at MobyGames
SpyHunter (Game Boy Advance) at MobyGames

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