''Predator 2'' is a 1990

rail shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

video game developed by Oxford Mobius and Arc Developments and published by

Image Works Image Works was a British video game publisher that served as a publishing label for Mirrorsoft between 1988 and 1992, when the parent company went bankrupt. History The first two games published under the Image Works label were '' Fernandez M ...

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

and

Mirrorsoft Mirrorsoft was a British video game publisher founded by Jim Mackonochie as a division of Mirror Group Newspapers. The company was active between 1983 and 1991, and shut down completely in early 1992. History In the early 1980s, Jim Mackono ...

for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

,and the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

. It is based on the film of the same title.

Gameplay

The Gameplay bears a lot of similarities to other first person shooters, particularly ''

Operation Wolf is a light gun shooter arcade game developed by Taito and released in 1987. It was ported to many home systems. The game was critically and commercially successful, becoming one of the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988 and winning the Go ...

'' and ''

Dynamite Duke is a 1989 action arcade game developed by Seibu Kaihatsu. It was later ported to the Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis and X68000. Being a ''Cabal''-based shooter, it can be considered a follow-up to Seibu's '' Empire City: 1931'' and '' Dead An ...

Plot

The plot of the game follows the plot of the movie in which the player assumes the role of Lieutenant Mike Harrigan as he fights the Jamaican Posse, Colombian Cartel, and the Predator himself.

Development

The

, and

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...

versions of ''Predator 2'', as developed by Arc Developments and published by

, began development in July 1990, and were released in the Spring of 1991. In a December 1990 issue of British gaming magazine ''

The One The ONE is a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is built on the site of the former Tung Ying Building at 100 Nathan Road. It was developed by Chinese Estates Holdings and opened in 2010. Owner Joseph Lau Luen-hung g ...

'', ''The One'' interviewed team members from Arc Developments for information regarding ''Predator 2's'' development in a pre-release interview. The majority of the game's development was to be completed in five months. Image Works initially requested that ''Predator 2'' have five levels, but Arc Developments negotiated with Image Works, with the final compromise being that the game has four levels, but level one is double the length of the other levels. Input from

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, the copyright holder of ''Predator'', led to content restrictions upon ''Predator 2''; Paul Walker, ''Predator 2's'' designer and graphic artist, stated that they have to "approve all graphics", and further expressed that Fox disallowed death and blood, which Walker described as "impossible" due to the content of the film. Walker stated that these restrictions were due to Fox marketing the game to a younger audience, and said that "The film's all blood everywhere, but they say 'It's a kiddies game, we don't want killing in there'." These limitations were a complication in ''Predator 2's'' development, but the team came to a solution wherein characters "fall over backwards and disappear" when defeated, as opposed to dying. Another complication was that the likenesses of actors in the film had to be approved by their agents. To keep interference at a minimum, Arc Developments kept a list of actors who 'didn't care' about their likeness in the game, as well as a list of those who did;

Danny Glover Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films include ...

, the actor who played Harrigan, had to approve his likeness in ''Predator 2'' whenever new sprites were made. ''Predator 2's'' graphics were made on a

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

386 Despro PC running

Windows 3.0 Windows 3.0 is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, launched in 1990. It features a new graphical user interface (GUI) where applications are represented as clickable icons, as opposed to the list of file names seen in its predecesso ...

, and the DOS version of '' Deluxe Paint II Enhanced''. ''Predator 2's'' graphics were designed on PC as opposed to an Amiga due to greater flexibility and being faster overall; the game was also programmed on PC, and this consistency allowed the team to transfer data between computers through serial or

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

s. Walker expressed that Windows 3's ability to multitask was useful, allowing him to work on the graphics of different versions of the game simultaneously in different windows of ''DPaint''.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' praised the Amiga version's graphics but called the Commodore 64 version "extremely disappointing", and criticized the lack of a save game option as "extremely frustrating". In Germany, ''Predator'' was put on the 'German index' by the

Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (german: link=no, Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien or ''BPjM'') is an upper-level German federal censorship agency subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Family Affair ...

, which made it illegal to sell or make the game available to minors in Germany, as well as making it illegal to advertise the game in any form.

References

World of Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colour ...

1990 video games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Konami games Predator (franchise) games Rail shooters Side-scrolling video games Single-player video games Video games about police officers Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games featuring black protagonists Video games set in 1997 Video games set in Los Angeles ZX Spectrum games Mirrorsoft games Image Works games Arc Developments games {{rail-shooter-videogame-stub

Gameplay

Plot

Development

Reception

References

External links