Sometimes known simply as S.C.I. or Chase HQ 2: Special Criminal Investigation, this high octane driving sequel to Chase HQ is another fast-paced driving game with you playing a cop hot on the heels of some nasty criminals.
It was developed and manufactured by Taito and released into arcades in 1989, and – for my money – is one of the most exciting and heart-pumping 2D chase games ever made.
Out Run Europa is an interesting game in that it was designed and written by British developer Probe Software in 1991. Sega simply provided a license and Probe made the game. And: this wasn’t a conversion of an arcade game – it was a spin-off from Out Run, produced only for home computers at the time.
Car Battler Joe is an interesting cross between a JRPG and a driving game. It was developed for the Game Boy Advance by Ancient and published in 2001.
In some respects the driving sections remind me of Tranz Am, but they’re much more varied and the car you drive is more dynamic than in Ultimate‘s classic driving game. In truth Car Battler Joe is probably more influenced by Origin‘s 1985 game Autoduel and Steve Jackson‘s post apocalyptic RPG, Cars Wars.
Published by Titus in 1994, Lamborghini American Challenge is a decent 2D racing game originally published on the Amiga under the title Crazy Cars III.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of Black Thunder. It is a remake of Tony Crowther‘s previous game, Suicide Express, with slightly different graphics and released a year later by a different publishing house (Quicksilva).
Percy the Potty Pigeon (to give the game its full title) was coded by Tony Crowther and published by Gremlin Graphics for the C64 in 1984. It was a minor hit at the time.
Published by Activision in 1985, Tour de France is one of the rare times in gaming history where cycling has proven to be a hit with gamers.
Konami‘s Frogger was released into video game arcades in 1981 and was an instant hit with gamers.
The basic premise of Frogger is to guide a hopping frog over a road and a river, to reach a safe haven on the other side.
The 1991 Super Nintendo version of Will Wright‘s classic SimCity was developed by Nintendo themselves, so is somewhat different to previous versions. It’s actually one of the best versions of SimCity around.
The very first version of SimCity 2000 was released for Apple Macintosh by Maxis in 1993, followed soon after by a PC MS-DOS version.
