''Techno Cop'' is a 1988

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, 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 sign ...

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 S ...

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mold ...

, Atari ST, Commodore 64,

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 communicat ...

and

ZX 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 Colou ...

. It was subsequently ported to the

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in 1990. The gameplay combines pseudo-3D driving in the graphical style of ''

Out Run (also stylized as ''OutRun'') is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi, and ...

'' with side-scrolling action as the player controls a police officer driving to and then moving through various seedy locations in a one-man war against crime. The game was the first game on the Genesis to have a warning label due to its violent content. An NES version was developed by

Probe Software Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game publisher from Long Island, active from 1987 until filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on September 1, 2004. Through a series of acquisitions between 1990 and 2002, Acclaim built itself a large portfo ...

and supposed to be released in 1992 by Tengen, but was cancelled as Tengen scrapped the idea for the game, due to legal troubles Tengen was dealing with from Nintendo. Only a few sprite-sheets and music by

Jeroen Tel Jeroen Godfried Tel (born 19 May 1972), also known as WAVE, is a Dutch composer. He is best known for numerous computer game tunes he wrote in the 1980s and early 1990s for the Commodore 64. His most popular compositions appear in the following ...

exist from the project. The game was largely panned by video game critics for its simplistic graphics, sound, and the fact that many of the levels looked too similar. A Sega Genesis sequel, ''Techno Cop: The Final Mission'', was planned but never released.

Storyline

In the single-player side-scrolling game the player is a cop in a seedy futuristic urban city. Armed with a pistol, the player has to kill various thugs, before the timer runs out. While the game has several levels, the background in the game does not change often. The other half of the game is a driving sequence, similar to other computer games such as ''

RoadBlasters ''RoadBlasters'' is a combat racing video game released in arcades by Atari Games in 1987. In ''RoadBlasters'', the player must navigate an armed sports car through 50 different rally races, getting to the finish line before running out of fuel. ...

''. ''Techno Cop'' was one of the first games made for the Mega Drive/Genesis from a third party developer and was part of an attempt by

Razorsoft Acclaim Studios Austin (formerly Iguana Entertainment) was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by Jeff Spangenberg, previously lead designer for Punk Development, and originally located in Sa ...

to test what sort of content would Sega allow on a game made for one of its systems.

Violent content

Both Nintendo of America and Sega of America insisted upon previewing games made for their system, prior to release, to check for bugs and potentially controversial or offensive content. Sega allowed ''Techno Cop'' to be released without requiring Razor Soft to remove or tone down the game's violent content. Along with the blood, when the playable character shot at another character, they would be blown apart.

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 t ...

'' gave the game a positive review, saying "despite occasional boredom in the driving segment, the game is extremely absorbing."

References

External links

* *{{WoS game, id=0005163
Play ''Techno Cop'' online
on Game-Oldies. 1988 video games Sega Genesis games ZX Spectrum games Amstrad CPC games Commodore 64 games Atari ST games Amiga games Apple II games DOS games U.S. Gold games Video games about police officers Video games scored by Jeroen Tel Video games developed in Canada