Robocop

The year is 1989, the monitor glows with an orange EGA flash, and the speakers screech out some attempt at Basil Poledouris's theme. RoboCop stands on screen — and I'm ten years old, I've seen the film three times, and I'm ready for anything.

Data East released a licensed action game based on the 1987 film of the same name. You play as Alex Murphy in a steel suit, walking through the streets and buildings of dystopian Detroit, shooting at everything that moves. At the end of each level, a boss awaits, after which you get a piece of the story — and then it all repeats. It's exactly the formula that Final Fight, Shinobi, and Double Dragon were pushing back then: level, boss, cutscene, repeat.

The gameplay is straightforward to the point of pain. RoboCop moves slowly — but that's intentional, not a flaw, because in the film it was the same way. You shoot forward, crouch occasionally, pick up power-ups. The difficulty fluctuates irregularly and some sections are more about patience than reflexes. Keyboard controls on PC were standard back then; you'll spend a while tweaking them today. EGA graphics do solid work — characters are recognizable, environments legible, if not exactly dazzling.

What feels average today was average back then too — but with a meaty film license that sold boxes. RoboCop by Data East was far from the best game inspired by the film (better ports existed on Amiga), but on DOS, this was the game if you had the right logo on the box. It's aged exactly as expected: mechanically simple, visually functional, sonically grating.

Today it's mainly played by those wanting to recall what licensed gaming looked like before licenses became an industry. Or those who love short, straightforward action from an era when the word "platform" didn't mean a business model yet. Through emulators in your browser, you can breeze through the whole thing in an afternoon — and you might catch yourself realizing that after thirty-five years, it doesn't really matter all that much anyway.