The History of Spy Hunter - Arcade documentary

if you like my videos and want to support me on patreon please click the link below thank you in the early 1980s there were two people that were too cool for school the first one was Arthur Fonzarelli otherwise no one has the Fonz the other one was double-oh-seven himself James pond with his high-tech gadgets in his super slick car he made being a spy extremely cool and extremely fun no matter which actor was portraying the character he always preferred his martinis and possibly his women shaken not stirred but no matter what he was up to he would always save the day with a cocky smug smile upon his face and today's video we're not talking about the man behind the three-digit number we're talking about the game that was inspired by the James Bond franchise Spy Hunter what TV show did this game draw inspiration from what was the original name of this game so grab your weapon and get ready to fire because this is the history of Spy Hunter the year is 1982 and game designer Jorge Gomez is vacationing in Japan his next arcade game was going to future helicopters but by chance he had picked up a walk pin and a cassette tape of James Bond's Greatest Hits while listening to the music he could see the game unfold in his head not only was he a fan of the music but he was also a big fan of the movies he loved the spots where bond would have to outmaneuver or outdrive his opponents and that music played a big part in the overall experience he wanted to replicate that feeling in an arcade game when he returned home from his trip he went straight to his bosses at Midway who greenlit the project immediately mr. Gomez opted to use the MC r3 board which was used on previous Midway games says Tron [Music] journey [Music] and Tapper this game was to be Midway's first vertically scrolling arcade game games released prior to this would have to be either on a single screen or a flick style type of scrolling mr. Gomez had used a giant roll of graph paper had mapped out the entire play filled with obstacles events and game notes littering the pages mr. Gomez was also a fan to the TV show night Raider in particular the star of the show of the car kit at various times the car will drive unto the back of a moving truck to get upgrades or Diagnostics to run on it he knew that in his game the car would have to get various upgrades but didn't like that the car would just automatically grow weapons he decided to add a similar truck to his game taking inspiration from Knight Rider after you successfully enter the truck and your weapons are upgraded the theme from Peter Gunn please in the background the Nightrider influence was even more apparent when you take a look at the arcade flyer specifically the dashboard of the car you're driving looks very similar to KITT also that sure looks more like Michael Knight otherwise known as David Hasselhoff than it does James Bond according to an internal memo some of the original titles included spy mobile Leadfoot and drunk tank originally the James Bond theme was used here but unfortunately that could not get the license for the music so they had to change it in earlier prototypes the card looked too similar to James Bond's Aston Martin vehicle so obviously they had to change it the name of the car in the game is g6 one five five which is actually George Gomez's birthday the arcade cabinet came in two flavours a stand-up version as well as a sit down model you control your vehicle with a steering wheel which is equipped with four buttons to use your various weapons with there is also a low and high gear shift as well as a gas pedal Spy Hunter was released in 1983 by Midway you take control of your g6 one five five interceptor as you barrel down the road at top speed ticking out as many enemies as you can all the well is trying to score as high as possible your car is equipped with twin machine guns but there are various weapon upgrades throughout the game including a smoke screen oil slicks and missiles you can bump into enemy vehicles and ran them off the road or shoot them with your machine guns if the collision is too hard with another vehicle your car can be destroyed if you go too far off the road your car will be disabled also a helicopter will drop bombs leaving craters in the road which have to be avoided be careful not to shoot any civilians because your score will not increase for several seconds to upgrade your weapons you have to enter the weapons ban which can be summoned periodically there are certain points of the game where you can enter a boat house in your car will be transformed into a decked out superfast interceptor speed boat you will face enemy boats for a brief period of time after doing this if you drive far enough into the game the season will change into a winter wonderland the game was a bonafide hit in the arcades and was ported to various computers and consoles the first version we're going to take a look at is the ms-dos port now let's get the bad out of the way first if your colors of choice are pink and blue pastels then this is right up your alley while the graphics are fairly detailed especially for a 1984 DOS game the sound effects and music leave a lot to be desired if you stick your fingers in your ears at just the right angle it does sound just like your kid game otherwise you'll be treated to a series of bloops and bleeps which makes it sound like a computer is passing gas now that we've got the bed out of the way what's left well it is fast and fairly smooth in terms of animation and gameplay but really that's about it up next is the Atari 2600 version and all in all it's a pretty good attempt the game moves in a fast phonetic pace which perfectly captures the speed of the original there are plenty of enemies on the road and most of the features from the arcade game are included the music and sound effects are pretty good with a nice little attempt at the Peter Gunn theme included one downside is that you have to use the other controller plugged into the second joystick port to select your weapons due to the Atari only having one fire one first impressions of the BBC micro version are pretty good but if you spend more than 30 seconds with it you'll realize that looks can be deceiving everything moves along at a nice speed and the graphics are detailed although the palette is a bit garish the sound effects and music are pretty good with a nice rendition to the Peter Gunn theme so what's the problem there were hardly any enemies on the road rather than fight against the enemies you end up fighting with the road as you try to stay on for any length of time it feels like you're driving on glass the spectrum version is a decent attempt although speed wise it falls a bit short the scrolling is a little too choppy with a speed of the game running at about 75% of the arcade original the sprites are large in detail with color clash kept to a bare minimum the controls are responsive with the ability to maneuver in and out of traffic with ease there are lots of enemies on the road to take out so you better be on your toes there is no music which is a bit of a shame but there is rudimentary machine-gun fire you say you're looking for the worst conversion of Spy Hunter I think we may have a winner while on the surface the Apple 2 version does a decent job of replicating the arcade games graphics it all goes downhill once you see it in motion the scrolling is too jittery making it hard to maneuver around your enemies there is very little sneaking of the highway when combined with the speed of the gameplay makes this game just a bit too easy the water sections have also been completely removed as well how about the music nowhere to be found the Amstrad version is up next and while the graphics are nice and colourful the speed of the gameplay really lets it down the scrolling is very choppy as well as making it hard to compensate when dealing with the enemies on screen that is if you can find any another thing you have to compensate for is the slippery as ice controls there is also another music or sound to speak of putting this near the top of the worst Spy Hunter conversions ever the Atari 800 port is very well done aside from the limited color palette the scrolling is very smooth and fast almost as fast as the arcade original there isn't as much traffic on the road as found in other versions but that just makes it a little bit easier the playability is top-notch with your car being nice and responsive that Peter Gunn theme is well represented along with very good sound effects overall an excellent port the good old commodore 64 has one of the best ports of spy under looking very similar to the excellent Atari 800 version but with brighter visuals and more traffic on screen the speed of the gameplay is top-notch and the controls feel very similar to the arcade original the sound effects and especially the Peter Gunn theme sounds great thanks to the wonderful sid chip the ColecoVision port is another excellent conversional the speed of the gameplay is very close to that of the arcade game with large sprites the controls are nice and tight with plenty of on-screen enemies to contend with the Peter Young theme sounds great especially considering the hardware it's running on as an added bonus you can even use the super controllers with its extra buttons to control your weapons midway Arcadia's was released for the Game Boy Color and featured two games moon Patrol and Spy Hunter spy hunter is very well done as it should be considering the game was released sixteen years after the arcade original detailed colorful sprites and fast-moving gameplay makes this accurate in every way possible even the tiny gameboy color belts out a pretty good rendition of their Peter Gunn theme the game was also released for the Game Boy Advance and is actually the best portable version no spy hunter not running under emulation everything looks very close to the original arcade game from the colors to the speed of the gameplay just the sound effects and music are very faithful to the original arcade game upon first glance you would think this was the actual arcade game and finally we have the NES version this game appears to be running way too fast making split-second decisions even more difficult the graphics are well done although not quite as colorful as other versions there are plenty of enemies on screen at once with nary a slowdown in sight sound effects and music are very good thanks to the success of the original arcade game Spy Hunter 2 was released into the arcades this game ditches a top-down view point and instead switches to a 3d overhead behind the card viewpoint much to its detriment your old garage of weapons are back including oil slicks missiles and smoke screens but unfortunately the playability of the sequel is just not there however there is a two-player co-op mode where players can help each other out but honestly it's just not very fun this game was so bad in fact that not one single home conversion was ever produced our remake was released in 2001 for the various old consoles and windows simply titles 500 this was a very good reimagining of the original arcade game only with current gen graphic game gameplay a lot of the same weapons are available but this time around the focus mission-based aiming with a total of 14 levels to complete your vehicle will transform seamlessly from land to sea just like in the original the Peter Gunn theme plays the route so all in all is a very good updated version in 2003 the game was released as a part of the compilation pack called Midway arcade treasures this collection includes 24 classic Midway arcade games which are running under emulation so what you're getting is the actual arcade game at home Spy Hunter was very innovative for its time not only was the gameplay addicting but the atmosphere was as well thanks to the Peter Gunn theme with the steering wheel in your hand you felt like a spy on a mission trying to save the day it's another one of those arcade games that's nice to try out at home but to get the overall experience you need to try it out in a real arcade if you never have before give it a shot you'll be glad you did if you like my videos and want to support me on patreon please click the link below also be sure to LIKE share and subscribe to my content it's the only way my little channel can grow thanks for watching you

Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 137,020

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, Atari, James Bond, Aston Martin, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Peter Gunn, Knight riDer, David Hasselhoff, KITT

Id: vRGchMxPSDE

Length: 14min 24sec (864 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 23 2019