Slipgate Studios · Racing · Shooter

Techno Cop

A fast-paced first-person shooter in a parkour obstacle course style level.

Released: —
Platforms: Apple II Atari ST NES Sega Genesis Windows ZX Spectrum
Genres: Racing Shooter
Developers: Slipgate Studios
Publishers: 3D Realms
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action Science fiction

About

Techno Cop is a 1988 video game for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, and ZX Spectrum. It was subsequently ported to the Genesis in 1990. The gameplay combines pseudo-3D driving in the graphical style of Out Run with side-scrolling action as the player controls a police officer driving to and then moving through various seedy locations in a one-man war against crime. The game was the first game on the Genesis to have a warning label due to its violent content.

The game was panned by critics for its simplistic graphics, sound, and the fact that many of the levels looked too similar. A Sega Genesis sequel, Techno Cop: The Final Mission, was planned but never released.

Keywords

parkour
fast paced
time limit
pax east 2017
pax south 2017

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

In the single-player side-scrolling game the player is a cop in a seedy futuristic urban city. Armed with a pistol, the player has to kill various thugs, before the timer runs out. While the game has several levels, the background in the game does not change often. The other half of the game is a driving sequence, similar to other computer games such as RoadBlasters.

Development

Techno Cop was one of the first games made for the Mega Drive/Genesis from a third party developer and was part of an attempt by RazorSoft to test what sort of content would Sega allow on a game made for one of its systems.

Both Nintendo of America and Sega of America insisted upon previewing games made for their system, prior to release, to check for bugs and potentially controversial or offensive content. Sega allowed Techno Cop to be released without requiring RazorSoft to remove or tone down the game's violent content. Along with the blood, when the playable character shot at another character, they would be blown apart.