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Chase HQ is finally ready for inspection. Hurrah! Matt Bielby borrowed T'zer's Mini, spent nine hours recharging the battery, then tootled along to give it the once-over. Let's go, Mr Driver!
Whew! Got here at last. T'zer's blooming Mini, I dunno. I can't think of a word to describe it. Oh, tell a lie, I've got one. It's crap. Right then, Ocean chappy, start telling me about Chase HQ, why don't you? "............................." Erm, you know, start any time you like... when you're ready. "............................." Gordon Bennet, is anybody in there? Chase HQ? Er, are you sure you even work here? "Oh, yes, my name's John O'Brien but my friends call me 'Jobbie'. I programmed the Speccy version..." Great! Then perhaps you can...? "... but I don't remember anything about it." Oh, brilliant, 'Jobbie'. Swell. You're a real help. Look, I'll start telling them about the coin-op, and in the meantime you try and gather your thoughts to tell us about the Speccy version a bit later, okay? Okay. Blinkin' Nora, kangaroos in the top paddock or what? Right, the coin-op. You should all have seen it of course, it's still one of the most popular machines up and down the country. Ciaran (Remember him? Yep, we try not to either) gave it a Corky Coin-Op last year, and pretty well deserved it was too. For those who don't know, it's a five level chase-and-smash-into-the-back-'em-up, with a story that goes something like this. You play a couple of undercover cops -- one black, one white -- cruising around a coastal American town in a rather posh squad car -- a Porsche 928!! All seems fine and dandy but... Yikes! What's this? There's a dangerous baddie on the loose and HQ want his collar felt p.d.q.!! And guess who gets the job? That's right, chummo! It's you. Basically the game's a bit of a swipe from Miami Vice, with each level split into two parts -- you chasing after the fleeing perp (the game puts helpful arrows along your route to tell you which way to go) and then you catching up with him and trying to push him off the road. What made it great was a) the posh cars (all the baddies seemed to drive Lotuses, Ferraris and so on in this neighbourhood), b) the superfast scrolling road and realistic sound, and c) the fact that there was more of an actual game to it than OutRun. The trying-to-smash-people-off-the-road thing made it loads more playable. So there we have it. A very, very nifty little arcade game -- but was it a natural for the Speccy? After all, Ciaran only gave it a Convertibility Factor of five -- I think he remembered what a disappointment the Speccy OutRun had been. Hardly set the world alight, did it? Of course there's another big stumbling block for Chase HQ, namely the sheer number of driving games already cluttering up the shelves this yuletide. With Power Drift, Hard Drivin', Continental Circus and Turbo OutRun competing for your seasonal dosh (to name but four) it'd have to be an exceptional game to really stand out from the crowd. So, John, er, 'Jobbie', what do you say to that then? "No." No? No what? "No, it won't be lost this Christmas, 'cos it's blooming good, that's why." Ah, brilliant. Since your memory seems to have returned (hopefully for long enough to get this Megapreview done at least) perhaps you can tell us a bit about the Spectrum conversion. "Well, certainly. I worked on WEC Le Mans -- the Amstrad version at least -- and I've been able to use tighter versions of those old routines in this one. So it's a much faster, smoother, less flickery game than that was. What else? Well, as you can see we've managed to include nearly all the elements of the arcade game. The little propeller icons at the bottom left are your turbo-boosts. You get three of these each level and they spin round when you're using them. Basically they make your car go twice as fast so you can really smash into the back of whichever baddie you're after and do some damage. You can tell when you've got them on too -- the car trails tell-tail smoke out the back. They only last a few seconds though, so use them wisely! "At the top of the screen you've got the faces of you and your partner grinning down at you and occasionally of Nancy from HQ -- with instructions and wisecracks appearing underneath. All the rest of the stuff at the top -- your speed and so on -- is self explanatory. Oh, except for the gear thing. Your car's an automatic, but you do have to switch from low to high gear. Do that with the fire button -- you have to reach over to the space bar with your big toe or something to get turbo-boost. "Once you catch up with the baddies' car your partner sticks the little police light on top of the car, and it's smashing time! Wa-hoo! A gauge on the right shows the damage you're causing him. First up it's a 'white English sports car' (Lotus Esprit) then a Lamborghini Countach (I think) then um, or..." Aww, c'mon, Jobhie, you were doing so well! What are the other cars? "Err, um... There's the Lotus, and the Lambo, um..." Yes, yes, we've had those. What else? "Urn, an XJS I think, no, no, it's a Ferrari, then an XJS, then, um..." Brilliant. You only wrote the damn thing. Okay, let's forget the cars. Anything else interesting to tell us? "Oh yes. Well, it's a multiload, there are lots of great bits in it like rough terrain, long tunnels, trucks to avoid, sort of girders over the road and so on. In the second level a helicopter comes overhead to give you your instructions, and in one level (I can't remember which it is though) you drive much closer to the city with the buildings all around you. The backgrounds are neat too -- you'll notice when you come out of a tunnel that the surroundings are totally different from when you went in." Great, 'Jobbie'. Nearly there now. Any final bits you'd like to tell us? "Yes! The 128K has sampled speech which is really nice, and all the opening sequences from the arcade are in there too. That's it really. It's basically a lot better than WEC Le Mans, very fast and very playable and very brill. Can I go now? Me mum's doing tripe and onions for tea." Yes, of course you can, 'Jobbie'. Take a bow. And there we have it. A very professional and very, very playable arcade conversion. Not to mention yet another contender for the Santa top slot. Now let's hope that stupid Mini doesn't need bump starting again.
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| LOOKING FOR EX-YS WRITERS! Do you know where any are? | ||||||||||
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