The Running Man (video game)
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- EU: 1989
| The Running Man | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Emerald Software |
| Publisher(s) | Grandslam Entertainments |
| Platform(s) | Amiga Amstrad CPC Atari ST Commodore 64 ZX Spectrum |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Beat 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Running Man is a 1989 beat 'em up video game based on the 1987 film of the same name. It was developed by Emerald Software and published by Grandslam Entertainments for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum.
The Running Man is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game based on the 1987 film of the same name.[1][2][3] Set in Los Angeles in 2019, the player takes control of former policeman Ben Richards, who was framed for the murder of innocent civilians. He is chosen by host Damon Killian to compete for his survival on the television game show known as The Running Man. The player can crawl, kick, and run. The game is played across five levels, each one featuring a primary enemy. The first four enemies are "stalkers", who are tasked with killing Richards. As in the film, the stalkers include Subzero, Buzzsaw, Dynamo, and Fireball.[4][5][6][1][7] The final enemy is Killian, who is confronted by Richards in the TV studio.[3][6] Other enemies throughout the game include dogs and guards.[7] Energy can be regained by kicking the dogs.[1][5][8] In between levels is a time-limited puzzle game, which restores full energy if it is solved. The puzzle game presents two images side by side, with the left one being jumbled. The player is tasked with arranging the image on the left side to match the image shown on the right.[3][5][1][8]
Development and release
The Running Man was developed by Emerald Software and published by Grandslam Entertainments.[9] The game includes an introduction sequence that makes use of digitized images. The sequence is set before Richards starts The Running Man as he tells Killian "I'll be back", suggesting he will succeed in surviving the game.[3][4][5][1][8] The Amiga version of the game was released as a two-disk set, with the introduction sequence getting its own disk of the two.[1] For the ZX Spectrum version, each character has a minimum of 20 frames, and some use up to 30; to overcome memory constraints, special encoding methods were used.[10] The game was released in Europe in 1989, for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64 (C64), and ZX Spectrum.[6][11][12]
The programmers included Fran Heeran, Mark Cushen, Bobby Healy and Jonathan Broggy.[13]
