RoboCop (1988 video game)

RoboCop
North American arcade flyer
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
Data East
    • Data East (Arcade/DOS/NES/Apple II)
    • Ocean Software (Amiga/Atari ST/C64/CPC/ZX Spectrum)
    • Erbe Software (DOS/MSX)
    • Tandy Corporation (TRS-80 CoCo)
    • Game Boy
Designer(s)Yoshiyuki Urushibara
Tomo Adachi
Programmer(s)
  • Ryōji Minagawa
  • Mr. Deco Men
  • Kenji Takahashi
  • S. Tamura
  • Masaaki Tamura
Artist(s)
  • Tomo Adachi
  • Asami Kaneko
  • Mix Man
  • Yoshinari Kaiho
Composer(s)
  • Hiroaki Yoshida
  • Hitomi Komatsu
  • Hiroyuki
SeriesRoboCop
Platform(s)Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy, MS-DOS, MSX, NES, TRS-80 Color Computer, ZX Spectrum
Release
1988
  • Arcade
    • JP: 1988
    • WW: 1988
    Amstrad CPC, MSX
    Apple II
    ZX Spectrum
    Commodore 64
    Atari ST
    DOS, TRS-80 CoCo
    Amiga
    NES
    • JP: 25 August 1989[1]
    • NA: December 1989
    • EU: 25 April 1991
    Game Boy
Genre(s)Beat 'em up, run and gun
Mode(s)Single-player
Multiplayer (not in all versions)
Arcade systemData East MEC-M1[3]

RoboCop is a run & gun and beat 'em up video game developed and published by Data East for arcades and Ocean Software for home computers in 1988 based on the 1987 film of the same name.[4][5] It was sub-licensed to Data East by Ocean Software, who obtained the rights from Orion Pictures at the script stage.[6][7] Data East and Ocean Software worked in conjunction with each other to release games for the Arcade and home computers respectively for a joint release, with the home computer versions translating the sections that Data East had shown Ocean from an early unfinished build of the game which Ocean then had to expand upon.[8]

The game was a critical and commercial success. The arcade game was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1988 in Hong Kong, and reached number-two on Japan's monthly Game Machine arcade charts. On home computers, the game sold over 1 million copies worldwide, and it was especially successful in the United Kingdom where it was the best-selling home computer game of the 1980s.

  1. ^ "FAMICOM Soft > 1989". GAME Data Room. Archived from the original on 2016-10-20. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  2. ^ "GAMEBOY Soft > 1991". GAME Data Room. Archived from the original on 2018-09-09. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  3. ^ "Data East MEC-M1 Hardware (Data East)". system16.com. 2015-02-12. Archived from the original on 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2018-09-08.
  4. ^ "RoboCop - The Future of Law Enforcement". arcade-history.com. Archived from the original on 2018-09-12. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
  5. ^ Kenjō, Kōji (October 1988). "Video Games - ビデオゲーム新作インフォメーション". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 76. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. pp. 268–269.
  6. ^ Mason, Graeme (January 19, 2014). "The making of Robocop - Thank you for your co-operation". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  7. ^ Mellor, Robert (January 2008). "The Making Of: RoboCop". Retro Gamer. No. 46. Future Publishing. pp. 62–65. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  8. ^ "Sinclair User Spectrum Review C64 Review".at ZZap64