Ocean Software‘s Amiga port of RoboCop was fairly impressive when it first came out in 1989, but – playing it now – it hasn’t stood the test of time particularly well. It’s a scrolling run-and-gun shooter that is loosely-based on the Data East arcade game of the same name (although the arcade game and the home computer versions were developed in parallel).

RoboCop can only punch initially, and he doesn’t get his gun out until he’s shot at. Crates will stop RoboCop moving forward and must be punched to clear the way (and also reveal any power-ups within).

To make RoboCop jump, you either push down, then push up and fire, or you can just press the space bar. Either way, it’s a clumsy and not-very-satisfying way to make him jump.

There’s some digitised speech when the game starts up, but it bothers me that RoboCop has an obvious English accent when he says the word “law” and doesn’t sound like Peter Weller at all (the actor who played RoboCop in the film the game is based upon).

RoboCop on the Amiga is playable to a degree, but it’s also very hard to make progress in, because it’s difficult to not take damage – especially during boss battles.

The Amiga version of RoboCop was published by Data East in North America.

More: RoboCop on Wikipedia