Spy Hunter

Did You Know?

• Game designer George Gomez drew inspiration from listening to an audio cassette of James Bond film music.
• The game was originally intended to be based directly on James Bond and use the James Bond Theme, but the license could not be acquired.
• An electronic arrangement of Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme plays instead.

Gameplay

Spy Hunter is a vertical scrolling driving game with a top-down perspective. The player controls the G-6155 Interceptor using a steering yoke, floor-mounted accelerator pedal, and two-position gearshift lever. The car has a machine gun with unlimited ammunition, fired by pressing a button on the yoke. The objective is to travel the freeway destroying enemy vehicles while protecting civilian cars. A counter increments the score while the car is moving on the road; additional points come from destroying enemies or forcing them off the road. After an initial lead-in with unlimited cars, extra cars are earned by reaching score thresholds. Destroying non-enemy cars pauses the score counter briefly, and no points are scored when the car is off the road. The car can be destroyed by hard collisions, enemy weapons, helicopter bomb craters, or running off the road or waterway. Periodic forks in the road lead to new regions with different terrain or weather. A weapons van appears in each new territory and can be summoned when its dashboard light flashes; it provides oil slicks, smoke screens, and surface-to-air missiles, each with limited ammunition. Special weapons are lost when the car is destroyed.

Reception

In the United States, Spy Hunter topped the RePlay upright arcade cabinet charts from April to November 1984 and the Play Meter dedicated cabinet charts for street locations in July and November 1984. The AMOA listed it among the top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1984 and awarded it the most played arcade video game of 1985. Flux magazine ranked the arcade version 29th on its Top 100 Video Games list in 1995. Computer and Video Games scored the ColecoVision version 80% in 1989.

Legacy

A pinball machine based on Spy Hunter was released by Bally in 1984. The arcade game was ported to the ColecoVision in January 1985. An arcade sequel, Spy Hunter II, followed in 1987, replacing the top-down view with a perspective from behind and above the car and adding cooperative two-player mode while retaining the Peter Gunn music. Sunsoft, after porting Spy Hunter to the NES, created Battle Formula in 1991 with similar gameplay; Sunsoft America released it outside Japan as Super Spy Hunter. The series was reprised in 2001 with SpyHunter by Paradigm Entertainment for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Windows, followed by a 2003 sequel by Angel Studios. A reboot by TT Fusion for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita was released by Warner Bros. Interactive in October 2012. Spy Hunter was cloned as Major Motion by Microdeal for the Atari ST in 1986. Agent Intercept (2019) for Apple Arcade is an homage. In Lego Dimensions (2015), a buildable Lego G-6155 Interceptor and a playable emulation of the arcade version appear. Gotham Knights (2022) includes a playable emulated version as an easter egg. Spy Hunter appeared in several compilations: Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits: Volume 1 for Nintendo 64; Midway Arcade Treasures (2003) for GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows; Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for PSP; and Midway Arcade Origins (2012) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In the Murder, She Wrote episode Hit, Run and Homicide, Jessica solves the mystery while playing Spy Hunter. Dev Hunter, a game in Spy Hunter's style, is an Easter egg in Microsoft Excel 2000.

Film adaptation

In summer 2003, Universal Pictures acquired film rights from Midway Games. Michael Brandt and Derek Haas were hired to write the screenplay, but no director was decided. Production was budgeted at $90 million, slated for spring 2004 with a summer 2005 release. In January 2004, Mark Swift and Damian Shannon replaced the writers, with production planned for June. By May, John Woo was attached to direct, and Zak Penn replaced the writers. By August, production was delayed to a summer 2006 release. In April 2005, Stuart Beattie replaced Penn. In May, Woo left due to scheduling conflicts. Johnson said the film was still developing without a director; pre-production included designs for the morphing Interceptor driven by Alex Decker. Production halted, and Johnson left the project. In May 2007, Paul W. S. Anderson was hired as director with a new script, but left a year later due to his commitment to Death Race 2. In February 2013, Warner Bros. announced Ruben Fleischer would direct from a screenplay by Carter Blanchard. In November 2015, Blanchard was replaced by Neal Greaves and Sam Chalsen, with Dan Lin and Roy Lee producing; whether Fleischer remained was unclear. No further reports have emerged, and the project is believed cancelled.