Special Criminal Investigation

Instead of the black Porsche 928 of the first game, the player commands a red example of the just-introduced (at the time) Nissan 300ZX Z32 T-Top Turbo. Unlike the first game, the player is able to fire at offending vehicles, with some cabinets containing buttons on the steering wheel, and others having a fire button on the gearshift, along with a button to activate the nitrous boost.

The game brings back protagonists Tony Gibson and Det. Raymond Broady of the first game, and their second game appearance. Broady has taken over the driver's seat this time, while Gibson, as the passenger, serves as the gunman. Also, instead of Nancy, Karen is the officer delivering reports of whom the criminal is pursuing, and what they are driving.

Conversions for Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum were released in 1990 by Ocean Software, developed by Glasgow's ICE Software. A conversion for the PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) was released exclusively in Japan by Taito on January 25, 1991.^[7] Natsume Co., Ltd. ported it to the Master System in 1992. An Amstrad plus/GX4000 version was written but never released, and only a small number of cartridges are known to exist.

In 1996, Taito released an emulation of the arcade original for the Sega Saturn in Japan, bundled together with Chase H.Q. on one disc.^[8]

More information Contemporary reception, Review scores ...

Contemporary reception
Review scores
Publication	Scores
	Arcade	Amiga	ST	C64	PC Engine	ZX
ACE	[9]
Commodore User	86%[10]	72%[11]
Computer + Video Games		84%[12]		79%[13]	85%[14]
Raze					89%[15]
Sinclair User	8/10[16]
Your Sinclair	94%[17]					80%[18]
Zero	[19]	81%[20]	79%[21]
Zzap!64	Positive[22]	91%[23]		93%[24]
Awards
Publication	Award
Crash	Coin-op of the month[25]

Close

In Japan, Game Machine listed Special Criminal Investigation as the second most successful upright arcade unit of November 1989.^[26] It went on to become Japan's third highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1990, below Super Monaco GP and Winning Run Suzuka GP.^[27] The arcade game was also a major hit in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, where Taito shipped 1,500 units by January 1990.^[1]