Obscure Robocop-like game??

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:03 am

Get ready guys, here's another dumb "help me name this game" thread.

Back around '86 or '87, Imperial Lanes had this side-scrolling game with a top-down perspective. You were this Robocop-like guy walking across the screen. Some of the bad guys took hostages, you were supposed to shoot the bad guys and not the hostages. Once the hostage was free they would run across the screen, if they made it you got bonus points. If they got hit you didn't. The same hostages would repeat to save ROM. There was this one fat guy hostage who we called, get ready for this . .

Lardass.

Okay, fire away.

Post by **system11** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:22 am

The 'side scrolling top down' bit is throwing me - but the rest of it makes me think "E-SWAT" a bit.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?let ... me_id=7685

DC906270 · Post by **DC906270** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:25 am

yeah , sounds like E-SWAT to me too

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:29 am

No hostages in E-SWAT except for the boss of level two though.

It made me think of Crime City but there's no sci-fi/Robocop type stuff in that game. It's sidescrolling too though (except for that idiotic parking lot level).

D · Post by D » Fri Feb 10, 2006 10:03 am

Heh, Eswat is on the way.
Is it any good?

Marler · Post by **Marler** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:19 pm

Sounds like Banprestos Gundhara....
http://arcade.codebot.org/arcade/game/?rom=gundhara
Only recently discovered this on Mame, who woulda thunk Banpresto
made decent games NOT based on current anime series?!
It has some nice shmup style play on some levels, like the second
levels car chase. It's TOUGH tho', some may consider it cheap, or
maybe I'm making it hard on myself by allowing my passion for
homing lasers override my common sense.
That said, I'm also enjoying Banprestos Mazinger Z and Macross Plus
shooters, I reccomend trying them out.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:05 pm

It would be Gundhara...if Gundhara was a horizontal scroller and came out in '87. Everything else seems to be similar though. ...and it was JP only I think.

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:09 pm

D wrote:Heh, Eswat is on the way.
Is it any good?

I really like it myself. NOt as refined-feeling as some of the other greats of the genre though. Your character moves pretty damn slow and is a huge target. Fun stuff.

It has that awful feature wherein you can't buy in on the last level. Going to take some time to one credit.

Note during the profile shematic thing that plays in the attract mode, as it points out all the weapons/armor on the armor it points out a karaoke mic by the mouth. Oh Sega.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 6:38 pm

The description sounds kind of like Michael Jackson's Moonwalker or Aliens, only the main characters aren't robots and I don't remember if Aliens has hostages. I think that you may be able to become a robot a some point in Moonwalker and I think that one did have hostages, though.

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 6:43 pm

You're correct about Moonwalker, no hostages in Aliens though.

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:10 am

It definitely isn't ESWAT or Crime City. It has a top-down perspective like The Legend of Zelda, even though it scrolls horizontally. Kinda like Final Fight but with smaller characters.

It isn't Aliens, I remember that game. Moonwalker, well, that's really reaching. It was an arcade game anyway. I don't remember it having the name of the company on it. Maybe it was one of the more obscure companies. Around that same time the arcade had SMB, Gladiator and Gauntlet II.

If a civilian got hit a big red X would appear on them, kinda like some later gun games.

Post by **system11** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:23 am

doctorx0079 wrote:It definitely isn't ESWAT or Crime City. It has a top-down perspective like The Legend of Zelda, even though it scrolls horizontally. Kinda like Final Fight but with smaller characters.

What you refer to is known as 'forced perspective'. Top down horizontal would be like a vertical shooter, turned on it's side.

I'm sure you've checked as it'd be blindingly obvious - but it's not Robocop 2 is it? That had that perspective. EDIT: They'd have needed a time machine. In that case, I've no idea.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:32 am

No robot guy, but this game I looked up named Jail Break sounds similar to what you are talking about. It has the TMNT/Double Dragon/Aliens/Final Fight like perspective, has a guy with a gun, and has rescuing hostages. The date is around the right time too. http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?let ... me_id=8221

BTW, there is a Moonwalker arcade game that is quite different from the Genesis version. I know it's not what you are looking for, but it uses an isometric perspective and it's not a 2D sidescroller like the Genesis game. I know full well that you want arcade games, so I was talking about the arcade Moonwalker.

The only other game I can think of that is similar to what you are looking for is NARC, but I don't remember if it has hostages (which is bad since I actually have a version of the game).

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:49 am

doctorx0079 wrote:Moonwalker, well, that's really reaching. It was an arcade game anyway.

So was Moonwalker originally. Pretty different from the Genesis game too, definitely worth checking out even though it's definitely not hte game you're looking for.

Narc doesn't have "hostages" but on level four there are prostitutes that get knifed to death by the pervert clowns. You can blow them away mistakenly or save them to get some life.

Is it possible the game was just a hack of Jail Break?

Too late and not quite what you want, but is it Shadow Force?

Is it the 1985 Nichibutsu game Cop 01? Doesn't have forced perspective though now that I remember the game better.

ARG.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 4:02 pm

Could it be, by any chance, Alien Storm?

I remember you can free hostages on this game (But I dont remember if you can actually hit them), and one of the characters is a robot...

Its a 1990 game, so it may be a little too late too...

Edit: ARGH, of course it cant be, as you played it in 1986-87 ... well, at least you can put it in the "That's not the game" list

DC906270 · Post by **DC906270** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 4:07 pm

There was an SNK game called P.O.W. about that time i think, which was a horizontal scrolling "forced perspective" game, which had you controlling a "P.O.W." funnily enough. kind of like a beat em up, but you could pick up weapons and stuff too. maybe there were hostages tho i cant remember

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 6:55 pm

Fat chance, but I'd guess Crackdown.

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:22 pm

Definitely not Crackdown or P.O.W. Not Alien Storm either.

Kron · Post by **Kron** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:30 pm

Jail Break?

Used to be one of my favourites back in the day.

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:58 pm

From those screen shots I think it was Jail Break. Thank you!

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:12 pm

Could it be something like Speed Rumbler?