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Description

The first video game I fell in love with and mastered was Spy Hunter. As a little kid my mother would drag me along with her on shopping trips and because I got bored easily and just tended to annoy her she’d give me quarters and let me play whatever arcade machines the stores we went to had and the grocery store we frequented the most had Spy Hunter.

It was the classic standing arcade cabinet (The company Midway also made a version you could sit inside like a real car) with a gas pedal, a gear shift and a steering wheel that looked like it came off an airplane with buttons and finger triggers built into it as well as a button to summon your ally, the Weapons Van, when possible.

So literally every time I went with her I parked my ass at the Spy Hunter machine and played. It got to the point where I became so good at it I could last the entire hour or so she spent wandering around the store shopping on a single quarter. A lot of times kids older than me would stand around and watch me play and actually got excited and cheered me on when I would make it to the levels they had never seen before.

I would often have to hand my game off to whoever was waiting to play next and it gave me a weird sense of pride when they would take over and immediately die because I had gotten way farther in the game than most of them ever had.

There is no end to the game itself its challenge lies in points and endurance. The longer you play the more points and extra lives you earn.

On top of this the longer you play the enemies increase in number and aggressiveness and the environment itself turns against you. Roads narrow and zigzag wildly, large puddles of water cause you to skid or slow down, bridges are out and you have to force your way onto a detour road or crash into an unforgiving river.

Also added to this was civilian traffic. Little blue roadsters, orange muscle cars and pink jacketed motorcyclists all make life difficult for you since you can’t kill them because it pauses your point counter which effects your score and ability to earn lives. When your traveling at high gear the civilian vehicles can kill you if you accidentally ram them from behind.

If you could last long enough you could make it to the icy roads levels where even the enemies had trouble navigating the ice and snow slick blacktop.

But the real fun was the boat house. Every so often whether the bridge ahead was out or not you could find a small access road, fly down it and enter a boat house where your car transformed into a high speed attack boat, skimming the river destroying enemy boats that launched torpedoes or depth charges at you.

The plot of the game is simple. You’re Spy Hunter, a James Bond meets Michael Knight character who drives the G-6155 Interceptor, a modified 1978 Mercedes-Benz CW311 concept car that is equipped with a cache of secret weapons most of which are supplied by a Weapons Van you can summon or find at certain moments in the game. The G-6155 Interceptor has 3 front mounted surface-to-air missiles, rapid fire machine guns that extend from each headlight and finally oil slick and smoke screen nozzles located in the rear.

With these weapons you hunt the enemy spies of the organization called Nostra who all drive tricked out cars and boats of their own roaming the roads and waterways determined to kill you.

For me though the icing on this bad ass cake was the theme song. Because Midway couldn’t get the rights to the James Bond theme like they originally intended they went with an equally cool and catchy theme from the classic detective TV series Peter Gunn. Known simply as the Peter Gunn theme it would play the second you started a game and once you die the theme would abruptly do a wrap up. If you managed to survive long enough the jazzier elements of the song would start giving an added feeling of excitement and tension to what was already happening in the game.

This song became such a part of me I’ve downloaded most every version of it I could find. In my opinion the original TV version and the Blues Brothers version are probably the best.

Since 1983 Spy Hunter has lived on in various ways. The original game has been ported to many different platforms and is still available on Game Cube, PlayStation 2 and X-Box as well as online and mobile game ports.

Bally Midway also made a pinball machine version complete with all the game sound effects and Peter Gunn Theme

The Interceptor has been made into a metal model car as well as most recently a Lego kit. The game itself spawned several sequels and was even going to be a live action movie starring Dwayne Johnson as the lead character but apparently the film ended up in development hell while the game adaption based on the original script wasn’t well received.

Still I live in hope that some day Spy Hunter will return and I’ll get to fight Nostra again behind the wheel of the Interceptor with my trusty weapons van.

G-6155 Interceptor

The Enforcer

The Road Lord

Switchblade

The Mad Bomber

Spy Hunter, Nostra symbol and above mentioned characters copyright Bally Midway

Description

The first video game I fell in love with and mastered was Spy Hunter. As a little kid my mother would drag me along with her on shopping trips and because I got bored easily and just tended to annoy her she’d give me quarters and let me play whatever arcade machines the stores we went to had and the grocery store we frequented the most had Spy Hunter.

It was the classic standing arcade cabinet (The company Midway also made a version you could sit inside like a real car) with a gas pedal, a gear shift and a steering wheel that looked like it came off an airplane with buttons and finger triggers built into it as well as a button to summon your ally, the Weapons Van, when possible.

So literally every time I went with her I parked my ass at the Spy Hunter machine and played. It got to the point where I became so good at it I could last the entire hour or so she spent wandering around the store shopping on a single quarter. A lot of times kids older than me would stand around and watch me play and actually got excited and cheered me on when I would make it to the levels they had never seen before.

I would often have to hand my game off to whoever was waiting to play next and it gave me a weird sense of pride when they would take over and immediately die because I had gotten way farther in the game than most of them ever had.

There is no end to the game itself its challenge lies in points and endurance. The longer you play the more points and extra lives you earn.

On top of this the longer you play the enemies increase in number and aggressiveness and the environment itself turns against you. Roads narrow and zigzag wildly, large puddles of water cause you to skid or slow down, bridges are out and you have to force your way onto a detour road or crash into an unforgiving river.

Also added to this was civilian traffic. Little blue roadsters, orange muscle cars and pink jacketed motorcyclists all make life difficult for you since you can’t kill them because it pauses your point counter which effects your score and ability to earn lives. When your traveling at high gear the civilian vehicles can kill you if you accidentally ram them from behind.

If you could last long enough you could make it to the icy roads levels where even the enemies had trouble navigating the ice and snow slick blacktop.

But the real fun was the boat house. Every so often whether the bridge ahead was out or not you could find a small access road, fly down it and enter a boat house where your car transformed into a high speed attack boat, skimming the river destroying enemy boats that launched torpedoes or depth charges at you.

The plot of the game is simple. You’re Spy Hunter, a James Bond meets Michael Knight character who drives the G-6155 Interceptor, a modified 1978 Mercedes-Benz CW311 concept car that is equipped with a cache of secret weapons most of which are supplied by a Weapons Van you can summon or find at certain moments in the game. The G-6155 Interceptor has 3 front mounted surface-to-air missiles, rapid fire machine guns that extend from each headlight and finally oil slick and smoke screen nozzles located in the rear.

With these weapons you hunt the enemy spies of the organization called Nostra who all drive tricked out cars and boats of their own roaming the roads and waterways determined to kill you.

For me though the icing on this bad ass cake was the theme song. Because Midway couldn’t get the rights to the James Bond theme like they originally intended they went with an equally cool and catchy theme from the classic detective TV series Peter Gunn. Known simply as the Peter Gunn theme it would play the second you started a game and once you die the theme would abruptly do a wrap up. If you managed to survive long enough the jazzier elements of the song would start giving an added feeling of excitement and tension to what was already happening in the game.

This song became such a part of me I’ve downloaded most every version of it I could find. In my opinion the original TV version and the Blues Brothers version are probably the best.

Since 1983 Spy Hunter has lived on in various ways. The original game has been ported to many different platforms and is still available on Game Cube, PlayStation 2 and X-Box as well as online and mobile game ports.

Bally Midway also made a pinball machine version complete with all the game sound effects and Peter Gunn Theme

The Interceptor has been made into a metal model car as well as most recently a Lego kit. The game itself spawned several sequels and was even going to be a live action movie starring Dwayne Johnson as the lead character but apparently the film ended up in development hell while the game adaption based on the original script wasn’t well received.

Still I live in hope that some day Spy Hunter will return and I’ll get to fight Nostra again behind the wheel of the Interceptor with my trusty weapons van.

G-6155 Interceptor

The Enforcer

The Road Lord

Switchblade

The Mad Bomber

Spy Hunter, Nostra symbol and above mentioned characters copyright Bally Midway