1990 · Jaleco · Racing

Cisco Heat

Cisco Heat is a racing game with a two-speed shifter and a chase view. Take on the role of an officer who must race his squad car through San Francisco in an attempt to win the first ever 'National Championship Police Car Steeplechase'. The roads have 90-degree turns, and it includes sights such as the famous trams and the Golden Gate Bridge. The player can pick from two police cars, one designed for power and another designed for handling.

Released: 1990
Platforms: Amiga Amstrad CPC Arcade Atari ST Commodore 64 Commodore C64/128/MAX MS-DOS ZX Spectrum
Genres: Racing
Developers: Jaleco
Publishers: Jaleco Image Works
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Country: Japan

About

Cisco Heat: All American Police Car Race is a 1990 racing video game developed and published in arcades by Jaleco. Players control a police squad car racing against computer-controlled vehicles. The goal is to finish each race in first place. Players can take different routes to bypass certain portions of the course. Three cabinet types were created, a standard upright, a sit-down, and a motion-based "deluxe" machine; both of these could be connected, or "linked", together to enable multiplayer.

Cisco Heat was designed by many former employees of Sega, who had left the company to form BitBox, which developed Jaleco Rally: Big Run. After Jaleco absorbed the company, the team began work on a spiritual successor to Big Run, which became Cisco Heat. The game was ported to the Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and MS-DOS, all of which were published in Europe by Image Works. The arcade version of Cisco Heat was praised for its gameplay, presentation and controls, with one reviewer finding it to be a drastic improvement over Jaleco's previous arcade games. Home computer ports were met with a more negative reception for their poor quality.

Keywords

police

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Cisco Heat, players control a police squad car through San Francisco in an attempt to win the "National Championship Police Car Steeplechase" in first place. Gameplay is similar to Out Run and Chase H.Q., where players must race against computer-controlled vehicles to the end of each section, taking place in a different area of San Francisco. Sections contain famous landmarks from the city, namely the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and tram cars, as well as several features such as steep dives, 90-degree turns and multiple selectable routes, which can allow players to bypass certain portions of the race and shortcut to another area. Players can select from two different police cars, both of which are based on the Cadillac Brougham and Nissan 300ZX Z32 respectively. Up to four Cisco Heat cabinets can be connected, or "linked", together to enable multiplayer play.

Development

Cisco Heat was developed and published by Jaleco, originally released in October 1990 in Japan. It was released in North America and Europe in November 1990. Most of the development staff who worked on the game were former members of Sega, who left the company to form the short-lived developer Bit Box, which created Jaleco Rally: Big Run (1989). After Jaleco absorbed the company in 1990, the development team became part of Jaleco and worked on a successor to Big Run, which later became Cisco Heat.

For this reason, Cisco Heat bears several similarities to Big Run, and was even marketed as a conversion kit for older Big Run arcade units. In January 1991, Cisco Heat was exhibited at the Amusement Trades Exhibition International expo in the United Kingdom.

Reception

In Japan, Cisco Heat was the tenth highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1991. In North America, it was the top-grossing new video game on the RePlay arcade charts in January 1991.

The arcade version of Cisco Heat was met with a positive reception from critics. Q. for their similar gameplay, saying that its impressive atmosphere, fast-paced action and generally well-made presentation made Cisco Heat "one hell of a driving game". CU Amiga felt the same, and claimed that it was one of the better arcade games produced by Jaleco, and showed that they had the resources to produce a well-designed racer after Big Run.