Spy Hunter

North American NES box art.

Spy Hunter is an action driving game created by Bally Midway in 1982 and later released to a whole slew of platforms. The game was designed on the theme of a spy trying to escape in a sports car from the goons of a villain. You use common spy weapons like under the hood machine guns oil slicks and smoke screens while the goons try to drive you off the road, slash your tires, shoot you, and even drop bombs on you!

I first saw Spy Hunter in an arcade and watched the attract demo. Occasionally, I would see someone play the game, but I never saw anyone who was any good at the game. My first memory of the NES port was either from a friend of my brother's or my step-brother showing how you could purposely crash on the far right of the screen and continue driving off road for quite awhile. I played the game enough to get good at it, but never really loved it.

Status

I own the game on the NES. At my peak, I was good enough to play essentially indefinitely. I remember once playing for a very long time, I was well passed the point where all four enemy cars can be on the screen at once (happens around 150,000 points) and I still had three lives in reserve before eventually getting bored and quitting. I doubt I elapsed the score, because that takes several hours.

Review

• Overall: 4/10
• Best Version: NES

Good

• The game uses all the common spy tropes, oil slicks, smoke screens, tire slashers, etc.
• Using the Peter Gunn Theme was a good way to add to the spy atmosphere. Too bad they didn't get the rights to the James Bond theme.
• The arcade cabinet uses a cool steering wheel, gas pedal, and shifter to be more car-like.
• Beginning each game with a stretch of time where the player can't get a game over was a great way of ensuring even novices would get their money's worth.
• By game has a decent variety of environment changes. The backgrounds change palette, there is a river section, and even a snowy roads section. The NES port adds new graphics to each section and even a beach area.
• The designers of the arcade game used an interesting trick of halving the background resolution to speed up animation. This wasn't used in home ports which were stuck using low resolution for the whole game.
• The game cleverly increases its difficulty by slowly adding more enemy vehicles onto the screen at once.

Bad

• There isn't much to do in the game. There are four weapons, and six enemies. That's it.
• There is only a single tune which plays throughout the whole game.
• There is no ending to the game, you just drive until you can't drive anymore in hopes of amassing a high score.
• The arcade game's background graphics are pretty bad. The trees are mirrored and new sections are nothing but a palette swap, and it's very obvious when it happens. At least the NES port swaps the palettes when the player is over a bridge so it isn't noticeable.
• Most of the ports lack an obvious pause feature.
• The smoke screen is a difficult weapon to safely use in the NES port because, when it hits civilian drivers, and when they crash it prevents you from gaining points (unlike in the arcade version).

Ugly

• The NES port botched the river section making it much harder than the driving sections, and there is no incentive for entering it. Luckily, you're not forced to enter it like you are in the arcade original.

Media

Box Art

• Spy Hunter - ARC - USA - Marquee.png

  The marquee for the North American sit-down arcade cabinet. Great lettering on this one.

• 

  Variations of this box art were used on the majority of the PC and console markets of the time. It's very action packed, though not very accurate to the game. The player doesn't use a sub-machine gun or have an attractive woman on his side.

• 

  The North American NES box also looks great, and has a wonderful layout, but has likewise taken great liberties. There isn't a plane in the game, the motorcycle is only an obstacle, and there is not buxom female spy.

Documentation

• Spy Hunter - NES - Manual.pdf

  Game manual.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, part 1.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, part 2.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, blurb.

• 

  A German advert for the stand-up arcade cabinet.

Maps

• 

  NES, overview.

• 

  NES, area 0.

• 

  NES, area 1.

• 

  NES, area 2.

• 

  NES, area 3.

• 

  NES, area 4.

• 

  NES, area 5.

• 

  NES, area 6.

• 

  NES, area 7.

• 

  NES, water area.

• 

  NES, snow area.

Videos

• youtube.com/watch?v=PT_X-YELPjY - Arcade longplay.

Cheats

NES

At the title screen, hold right + A + B + select and press start to being the game with all three weapons. And, if you can make it through the timer without dying you'll get 9 free lives. You can easily do this by accelerating briefly and then breaking and waiting on the side of the road.

Due to the way the game handles road side collisions, you can safely drive off the road as long as you don't turn after exiting a weapons trailer. You won't get points, but it may help you avoid more difficult areas.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/spy-hunter - MobyGames.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_Hunter - Wikipedia.
• vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Spy_Hunter - Music.
• thealmightyguru.com/Games/Hacking/Wiki/index.php?title=Spy_Hunter - NES Hacker Database.