Game 78: Spy Hunter

Here it is, Spy Hunter, the incredibly successful 1983 arcade game from Midway. Excellent gameplay and perhaps the most popular game theme music ever are largely responsible for its success. This is a direct port from the Nintendo game, the closest to the original arcade version.

I stumbled across a copy of the original manual online, so here's the official mission statement!;

Pilot your vehicle through the track. Seek and destroy enemy agents

who will use every means to wipe you out. You must avoid the road

hazards and protect the friendly pedestrian vehicles. There's terror

at every trun - tire slashers, torpedoes, bomb dropping helicopters -

standing in your way of the most diabolical collection of enemy

agents ever to hit a video screen. You have your skill and reflexes

along with Smoke screens, Oil slicks, and Heat seeking missiles to

outmaneuver your opponents. One mistake and it's all over. So strap

yourself in; no need to check your ammo. You've got more than enough;

and take the challenge. Be: SPY HUNTER (tm)

CONTROLS:

Steer: Arrow Keys Activate Weapons: X

Turbo: UP Arrow Start Mission/Call Weapons Van: ENTER

Brake: DOWN Arrow Weapon Select: CTRL

Machine Guns: Z

Game 36: Orange Runner

THIS GAME CONTAINS FLASHING LIGHTS AND COLORS, IF YOU ARE PRONE TO SEIZURES, PLEASE DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME.

It's always a bonus when a game captures the essence of the music it's set to. This is one of those games, and the essence it captures is that of booming trance. You just have to run and jump, much like the endlessly addictive Dino Run. But unlike that game, this isn't endlessly addictive, its just good fun.

Get your stick-guy running and the music gets going, the background blurs as you build up speed. Pick up batteries and you crackle with energy. When the bass drum kicks in the whole window flashes and the hairs on your neck bristle, your pupils dilate and the blood rushes. Just watch out for those buzz saws... darn buzz saws.

Hold the right arrow to run, press up to jump over the obstacles, and then, when you are racing, bat the space bar to speed up yet more!

Learn how long you get between warning and buzz-saw, then you can jump early enough not to catch your feet.

Game 32: Shopping Cart Hero

If you've never taken a ride in a shopping trolley then you can probably quite accurately imagine what it would be like. Here you can take that dream to the edge, where the line between endless glory, and blood soaked disaster is a thin one.

Build your speed, pick you moment and nail you landing. There's the requisite 'extras' in the form of big effing rockets for extra speed, and stunts for extra style. Great game... yip yip.

Hold the right arrow to get running, hit 'up' as close to the flag as possible to get into the trolley, and then again at the lip of the jump for the best elevation. When in the air, use the left and right arrow to steady yourself for a safe landing.

Performing a successful flip in the air wins points, as do the prescribed tricks you can buy. Be careful when you've got passengers; if you don't land safely, you have to pay for more.

Game 31: Mirror's Edge 2D

When, oh when, will 'real' games developers realise the joy of flash? What's that you say? Flash Portal? They did gone made a flash game of Portal... and it was brilliant, you say? Great stuff. Well here's another one, the 'hotly anticipated... etc... one to watch... etc...' Mirror's Edge creators have quite literally 'jumped' onto the bandwagon by calling in Brad Borne (not to be confused with Jason Bourne), creator of the brilliant Fancy Pants Adventures, to put together a 2D version for all us slathering netaholics.The results are exciting to say the least. Like in it's 'big game' counterpart you take the reins of delivery girl Faith - the acrobatically excellent and depressingly alluring pixellated princess, whose job it is to free-run (Derivative of the French sport of Parkour which sees its subscribers finding the most graceful and off-kilter ways of getting from a to b... with the emphasis on its being free, so anything goes) across the rooftops picking up satchels and tokens. The music is ace too, so off you go - take to the skies.

Use the left and right arrow keys to run. Hit the down arrow when running to slide, or when still to duck. Use 's' to jump, hold it to jump longer and/or further. If you jump at a wall and press the up arrow key Faith will run up the wall some. There are a few other tasty little tricks but we'll leave you to unravel those.

Keep running... the main fun in this'un is to just see how good of a flow you can gather before the inevitable slip.

Game 29: Gride

Gride is an arcade-style action game in which the objective is to apply and remove abilities to an always-moving little pink car at just the right moments to make it as far as you can along the never-ending terrain. The controls to Gride are simple, but using them well is not. Rest your hand on any of the three keyboard layouts, or get ready to click the four icons at lower right with the mouse, then learn your upgrades: Anti-Gravity makes the car leap into the air. Feather speeds the car up. SuperDrag gives you a smaller speed boost than Feather, but works on steeper (and slipperier) slopes. And DeGride turns Feather and SuperDrag off.

The basic strategy in Gride is to use Feather and SuperDrag to gain speed, then Anti-Gravity to jump over the steepest parts of the hill. But be careful! If you land upside-down or start sliding backwards, it's Game Over. You have to finish on your wheels to get a high score, and high scores are the whole point: Gride has only two levels, but they both go on forever! How far can you get?

At first you may find Gride to be a little too difficult to make it very far at all. Remember, though, you're not expected to beat the game, just get as far as you can! Use your attempts to learn what terrain is coming and how best to handle it. It may take a while to get the hang of things, but with practice you will get better at it.