The Commodore 64 version of RoboCop was first released by Ocean Software in 1988, and it is well-presented, but does have one major fault that I find completely puzzling…

And that is: you only get one life! I tried various versions of the game, including original tape releases, and they were all the same. You get one solitary life, and your energy bar goes down very quickly when taking damage. Meaning: getting anywhere, without cheating, is only possible if you know exactly how to avoid getting hit. Which seems nigh on impossible…

Every other version of RoboCop I’ve so far played has given you multiple lives – usually three – so I really don’t understand what the developers were thinking here. It’s almost as if they’re encouraging you to use a trainer…

You can pick up health potions to top up your health bar, but those seem to be dropped randomly by defeated enemies, so aren’t guaranteed.

RoboCop on the C64 was given an upgrade in 2023 by Nostalgia, which is the version to play, if you want to play it today. It of course has a fully-featured trainer, some bugfixes, documents, and a new loading screen.

It’s a pity C64 RoboCop isn’t fairer to the player, because it looks and sounds pretty decent. Overall, I’d have to chalk this one up as “unplayable“… Unless I’m missing something… If I am, please let me know in the comments below.

More: RoboCop on Wikipedia
More: RoboCop on CSDb