Spy Hunter
It is 1985, and according to this game I was a world class spy driving for my life in an ultra-equipped turbo-charged spy mobile. Trying to stop enemy agents on land and on water. In reality I was a teenage girl in a rural part of Somerset , too timid to even drive a bumper car. The game is Spyhunter from U.S. Gold Ltd and along with Deathchase is the reason I became, in later life hopelessly addicted to driving games.
I don’t recall the exact circumstances on how we ended up with a copy of this , I think possibly my father was to blame. He was responsible for my love of car racing, action TV shows, big budget adventure films with lots of car chases and explosions( my mother would have preferred me to be watching Delia Smith I’m sure!)
The first thing that struck me about this game was the colour , the first stage has that wonderful ZX Spectrum green with trees outlined in blue , it’s a drive in the Springtime, it really is a thing of beauty. It was the first time I had experienced a driving game in this type of ‘top down ‘ format , my only games being Chequered Flag and Trans Am. I began to realise something straight away , I rather liked this way of driving a car.
The game is tricky, other cars try to barge you off the road, even your own lorry that comes laden with missiles and oil slicks and other goodies seems to have a slightly sadistic streak that can land you exploding into the bushes. But the excitement comes when a sign appears telling you the bridge is out.
You take to the left hand side of the screen , along a little narrow lane and sploooosh, you are a speed boat (you may notice from my screen shots no speed boat screens….couldn’t quite manage it these days!) The novelty of driving a speed boat was a real buzz and that alone kept me coming back to the game.
You take to the left hand side of the screen , along a little narrow lane and sploooosh, you are a speed boat (you may notice from my screen shots no speed boat screens….couldn’t quite manage it these days!) The novelty of driving a speed boat was a real buzz and that alone kept me coming back to the game.
But as I got better, I got onto other levels and realised that the landscape also changed colour. Please remember this is back in 1985/86 , my mind was blown. The teenage brain went into overdrive, the Spyhunter became Face from The A Team ( my then current crush – yes, I’ve always had questionable taste!) This brought a whole new level of game play , I can’t say it improved my game playing skills though.
Returning to play this game a few days ago I did wonder how it would stand up, I’d had years of DOS, Sega and Nintendo to spoil me. Would this game just invoke nostalgia alone , or would it still have same game play magic that the modern games didn’t have?
Returning to play this game a few days ago I did wonder how it would stand up, I’d had years of DOS, Sega and Nintendo to spoil me. Would this game just invoke nostalgia alone , or would it still have same game play magic that the modern games didn’t have?
I needn’t have worried, that first level, the green grass, red tree trunks and blue outlines still entrances me now as it did then. The ZX Spectrum colours just add a certain something. They add a layer of innocence and beauty, a brightness and newness of landscape that some of the more modern racing games seem to lack. The colours are full of optimism , like brand new lego bricks.
Coming back to it a fresh , I did feel like a fugitive or a spy , sneaking back from the gritty realism of some of the modern racing games into this magical world , a world of optimism and magic . A simpler time , back into the world of nostalgia.
Coming back to it a fresh , I did feel like a fugitive or a spy , sneaking back from the gritty realism of some of the modern racing games into this magical world , a world of optimism and magic . A simpler time , back into the world of nostalgia.