#24 (Tie) – Spy Hunter
38 Points, 3 Lists, Top Vote: #11 Pak-Man Production Date: 1983
Manufacturer: Bally Midway
Now here is a game that I really loved as a kid, despite not understanding at all what you were supposed to be doing. "Wait, I'm
not supposed to shoot everyone?"
This was originally conceived as being based on James Bond. In fact, they tried to get the rights to use the James Bond theme music, but couldn't. So instead they went with Henry Mancini's theme for the TV show "Peter Gunn", a show which is best remembered as being the show with the "Theme from Peter Gunn" music. I believe you're supposed to be transporting secret documents, but it's never made clear where you're transporting them to. Wherever it is, you never get there. No matter which road you choose at the forks, it just keeps going. There was a rumor of a "Graveyard" level which was presumably the end. But to my knowledge, there was no such level and the game is endless.
The game starts you with a machine gun with infinite ammo. The game is also nice enough to start you on a timer, during which it doesn't matter how many times you crash. Once the timer ends though, you start with one extra life (two if you already have at least 18K points). After each fork, you'll pass a parked tractor trailer, which will then catch up to you. If you enter it you can get one of the other three weapons:Oil Slick which causes cars behind you to veer off course, Smoke Screen which clears everything behind you, and Missiles for shooting down helicopters.
The cabinet itself was where the game got a lot of it's appeal. Instead of a joystick, or a steering wheel, the game used something more akin to flight controls, or if you watched Knight Rider, like the steering wheel on KITT (Speaking of which, the tractor trailer is reminiscent of Knight Rider as well). The stick had four weapon buttons, two triggers and two top buttons, and a fifth button in the center for calling the weapons van. Also, a gear shifter and an accelerator pedal. There was even a dashboard that kept track of which weapons you currently had. Which is a problem for anyone playing on MAME, since the lights are built into the cabinet.

Occasionally, you'd get a "Bridge Out, Detour on Left" warning, where you would switch to a boat. It's always bugged me though, where is all the traffic who's cars can't turn into boats supposed to go? There were also plans for a helicopter segment, but that idea got scrapped.
There's a well known trick, where if the weapons truck drops you off, when the side of the road is right at the edge of the screen, you can stay off the road and just drive right through trees, and in some cases, even over bridges that are out.
https://www.youtube.com/v/h34MviiKXXcFun fact: There is in fact a Spy Hunter 2, and it is awful. Opinion of the initially produced cabinets was so bad that Midway never put the game into full production. I've seen and played the game, and I can say, that negative reaction was justified.
Up next, a game with fully voiced profanity, sort of.