RoboCop

RoboCop is an action platformer from Ocean Software, based on the film of the same name, which was one of the most successful movie licenses on the Amiga in the late 1980s. The player takes on the role of a cyborg policeman moving through the streets of a corrupt Detroit, wiping out street gangs, drug dens, and hired assassins, before facing a final showdown against the deranged robot ED-209 and its creator. The game combines all-directions shooting with platforming sections and several special segments, such as driving a police car, in an attempt to faithfully mirror the episodic structure of the film.

Its game mechanics were built on a simple but effective aiming and cover system, in which RoboCop can collect bonus weapons and energy from defeated enemies, while the pace of the game escalates with each passing level. On the Amiga, the game stood out for its well-animated main character and a fairly faithful transfer of the film's atmosphere into the gaming medium, which was not the rule for licensed titles at the time. The graphical depiction of the streets, warehouses, and industrial halls matched the dark tone of the source material and reinforced the impression of a decaying metropolis ruled by crime.

The soundtrack drew on themes from Basil Poledouris's film score, adapted to the capabilities of the Amiga's sound chip and enhancing the tense atmosphere of the action shootouts. RoboCop was commercially very successful upon release, and the contemporary press ranked it among the better film adaptations of its time, especially thanks to Ocean Software's solid craftsmanship. Today the game mainly works as a nostalgic reminder of an era when film licenses on eight- and sixteen-bit computers could be surprisingly playable, and as a showcase of the craft with which Ocean Software built its reputation as a reliable publisher of licensed titles across an entire generation of eight- and sixteen-bit computers.

Why play it: For fans of the film and of action platformers, it offers solid craftsmanship and an atmospheric soundtrack inspired by the film, still a playable memory of the licensed-game era today.