Cisco Heat

STORY / GAMEPLAY
A charity race is set on the streets of California US! Unfortunately, the Tram Services seem to have total disregard for this race and insist on trying to operate their usual routes. Not only that, but the law-abiding public can be found trundling along the bumpy roads in their sedan cars! Your police car has only two gears: High and Low (can be switched by pulling up or down and pressing fire on your joystick or by hitting spacebar), enabling you to reach speeds of around 200 km/h (170 M/ph). You can start your race by choosing between two police cars, a 70s style bi-colored Ford or a modern 90s Nissan ZX Roadster. During the race, the only weapon you have is your horn! You can honk until cars ahead move out of your way (but this is not quite effective every time). While dodging the trams and the traffic you also have to be ready for 45 degrees slopes and 90 degrees bends (that is why, San Francisco is being chosen). And remember, avoid driving in the middle of the road as much as possible because many road block objects are set on your way (such as construction signs, oil leaks etc). The corners were Cisco Heat's primary claim to arcade fame, an effect that marked it out from the other race-based coin-ops. Well, Cisco Heat has a rather amateurish feel, it is far too short to provide a decent amount of joy and in no way competes with similar racers. But as an original (and quite famous) arcade title, we decided to include this game on our list.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Atari ST conversion is technically good compared to the arcade in terms of graphics and sound but some unique graphics details are missing (as in all other home computer versions). The visuals are colorful, and although fail to offer a 3D feel of the trucks and cars you overtake (plus the surroundings i.e. buildings, trees), the game runs faster than the Amiga version! Both road and hills move quite fast but the vehicles are poorly animated. Note that the game on the ST plays in a smaller gameplay area than the Amiga. The ST conversion offers good sound. The introductory and in-game music are both nice and for some reason I like it more than the Amiga game (although in both versions have a repetitive in-game tune)! During gameplay there are several sound effects including police sirens and engines (but not sampled on the ST).

GAMEPLAY SAMPLE VIDEO
On our video below, you may watch the Atari ST, Amiga and MS DOS versions of the game!