Bimini Run

Bimini Run (1990) belongs to the early catalogue of the Sega Mega Drive and trades in scenery games of the era almost never used: speedboats and tropical waters. The player carves through island seas, weaves between obstacles and trades fire with enemy craft.

Powerboats were a favourite motif of action films and television at the turn of the nineties, and Bimini Run brings that atmosphere to the screen: chases across open water, islands on the horizon and missions mixing racing with combat. By console standards of the day it was an unusual blend.

In 1990 the Mega Drive was still a young platform, and publishers were probing which genres would take root on it. Aquatic action ultimately proved a dead end - which is exactly what makes titles like Bimini Run interesting, as documents of a searching period before the console's library found its settled shape.

Technically the game leaned on the fast scrolling Sega's 16-bit hardware loved to show off; the water streaming beneath the bow was in itself an advertisement for the machine. The boat's crew fills two roles - steering and manning the deck gun - and missions demand both: reach the objective in time and survive enemy attention on the way. The game alternates the tension of threading reefs with moments that come down to steady aim and steadier nerves.

Better yet, this boating expedition can be tried first-hand - on OldGame.cz the game runs right in the browser from its catalogue page.