RoboCop Longplay (Arcade) [60 FPS]

Developed by published by Data East in 1988.

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Released in 1988, the arcade version of RoboCop took it's place alongside other cabinets, hungry for gamer's hard-earned cash. Loosely following the plot of the film, the game is a hybrid beat 'em up and shooting game where the player takes control of everybody's favourite law-enforcing cyborg, Alex Murphy.

Having deposited a coin in the slot, the player is greeted to a short set of images that attempt to set the scene for the game, but they disappear from the screen so quickly as to be impossible to read; the game challenges you to "Restore law and order, if you can", where as the challenge should be "Read and understand this text, if you can". I understand that an arcade setting isn't conducive to watching an introduction sequence, but that begs the question as to why it was included at all?

I remember seeing the cabinet in various arcades during my childhood and even sank a few ten-pence pieces into the slot. Having been limited to the C64 version of the game, this seemed positively exotic!

The game is a standard side-scrolling affair that sees the player shoot and punch his way through a succession of bad guys in levels based on scenes from the movie, as well as levels unique to the game.

A bonus round follows certain levels where RoboCop must shoot targets in the police shooting range. Scoring well in this mini-game will restore lost health and can even extend the maximum amount of health available for a particularly adept display of sharpshooting. It certainly feels as though someone replaced RoboCop's Kevlar-laminated titanium and replaced it with tissue paper, so the chance to gain extra health is always welcome.

The game throws in a smattering of additional weapons and power-ups that, whilst not totally in keeping with the film, add some variety to the proceedings. The cobra assault cannon is particularly powerful and can destroy end-of-level bosses in a few hits, so it's best to conserve ammunition if you manage to acquire one.

Having played the game for this video, I think that the main reason why I like the game as much as I do is down to the presentation, rather than the actual gameplay; it's solid, if unremarkable and nothing that hadn't been seen in plenty of games before.

If there a reason why RoboCop is a success, it's because the developers managed so capture many of the details that made the film great within the game. Most importantly, the main RoboCop sprite looks fantastic and is highly detailed considering it's size; the detailing on the arms and legs is particularly impressive and the artists even went to the trouble of including separate sprites for when the character moves left and right.

On the subject of fine detail, if you look closely, you will also notice that the slide on RoboCop's gun actually kicks back when firing. The firing is also accompanied by a sound effect that attempts to recreate that oh-so iconic sound from the film whenever RoboCop fires his Auto-9 handgun.

There's something particularly exciting about the opening level where you start out unarmed where you are punching similarly unarmed thugs. The moment when RoboCop's leg holster opens up and draws his weapon is still great and it's at that point that you know that things are about to get serious.

The game features some excellent sound and music, including digitised speech samples taken directly from the film. The in-game music replicates the brilliant motion picture score and will have you humming along whilst protecting the innocent and upholding the law.

Whilst Ocean Software released a slew of versions for the 8-bit and 16-bit computers of the day (some of them actually quite good), the arcade game is definitely worthy of your attention and is worth checking out.
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