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Spy Hunter

Spy Hunter is a vehicular combat game developed by Bally Midway and released for arcades in 1984.[2][1] 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.[4] 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.

For other uses, see Spy Hunter (disambiguation).

Spy Hunter

Bally Midway (arcade)
Sunsoft (NES)

George Gomez

Bob Libbe, Michael Bartlow, Neil Falconer (Arcade)
Naoki Kodaka (NES)

Arcade, Amstrad CPC, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, C64, Apple II, ColecoVision, IBM PC, NES

NES
  • NA: September 1987

Vehicular combat

Single-player

Bally Midway MCR-Scroll

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.

Development[edit]

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.[5]

In the 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.

Murder, She Wrote

"Dev Hunter", a game made in the style of Spy Hunter is included as an in the first release of Microsoft Excel 2000.[24] It requires DirectX to work. Shortly after Excel 2000's release, Microsoft officially banned Easter eggs from its non-game software.[25]

Easter egg

In the 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.

Robot Chicken

Spy Hunter is parodied in the 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.

Teen Titans Go!

(1982), another game where the player can bump vehicles off the road.

Bump 'n' Jump

(1987), a later driving/combat video game also popular in arcades.

Roadblasters

at the Killer List of Videogames

Spy Hunter

at the Killer List of Videogames

Spy Hunter Pinball

at SpectrumComputing.co.uk

Spy Hunter