Chase H.Q. (World) - Gioco MAME

Videogioco arcade pubblicato 36 anni fa:

Chase H.Q. © 1988 Taito Corporation.

Chase H.Q. is a checkpoint-based racing game in which the player takes on the role on an undercover cop called Tony Gibson in this 'Miami Vice' inspired game from Taito corporation. Gibson drives a powerful unmarked police car (resembling an anthracite Porsche 928) along with his partner, Raymond Broady, and must chase down and apprehend various criminals.

The player has between 55 and 70 seconds (depending on the game's Dip switch; factory setting = 60 seconds) to catch up with the fleeing criminal(s), then the same time period again to repeatedly ram into the criminal's car until it is too damaged to drive. The criminal's car is constantly moving away, so if the player repeatedly crashes or drives too slowly, the criminal will escape and the game ends.

As with Sega's seminal "Out Run", "Chase H.Q." features forked junctions offering players a choice of routes. In this game, however, the route selected is only a temporary diversion and dictates how quickly the criminal is caught up with. The player's Porsche is equipped with a limited number of turbo boosts (3 by factory), when used a turbo boost pushes the car to incredible speeds, at the expense of control. The turbos must be used wisely if the player is to have a chance of capturing the criminal before the time limit expires.

The game consists of 5 levels, each with its own villain to capture.

The game's villains and the cars they drive are:

• Ralph, the Idaho slasher (white Lotus Esprit type 82)
• Carlos, the New York armed robber (yellow Lamborghini Countach)
• Chicago pushers (silver Porsche 911 [930])
• L.A. kidnapper (blue Ferrari 288 GTO)
• Eastern Bloc spy (red Porsche 928, initially unknown)

DATI TECNICI
Hardware Taito Z System
Adesivi prom: B52

CPU principale: (2x) Motorola 68000
CPU sonora: Zilog Z80
Chip sonori: Yamaha YM2610

Giocatori: 1
Controllo: Steering wheel + 2 pedals (gas and brake) + high/low gear shift
Pulsanti: 1
[button on the shift knob] = use a turbo

CURIOSITÀ
Chase H.Q. è stato rilasciato in Giappone nell'Ottobre 1988. It was arguably the first sprite-scaled racer since Sega's legendary "Out Run" - released 2 years' earlier - to truly capture the gaming public's imagination.

The names main characters of chase H.Q. are as follows:
The Caucasian cop: Tony Gibson
The African-American cop (A.K.A. Mr. Driver): Raymond Broady
Chase H.Q.'s Dispatcher: Nancy (she doesn't have a last name).

The 1st stage always shows right arrow. The arrow on the 3rd stage, on the other hand, directs left. The 2nd, 4th and 5th stages feature a helicopter and the arrow direction is always random.

Full Throttle (or Top Speed as released for the rest of the world) can be converted into Chase H.Q. When converted, the pedals will be analog (instead of digital in dedicated machines). Both Chase H.Q. and Full Throttle machines were produced with both types of steering wheel: with blockade (and centering after release) and without lock. Not every machine has a brake pedal, and not all machines have been produced with analog pedals either.

The main player's car (the black Porsche 928) makes an appearance in 2 spin-offs to the Chase H.Q. series: "Crime City" and "Quiz H.Q.".

Instructions shown after attract mode show you have to 'bumb' into 'climinals'. The game doesn't indicate how to 'bumb' (must have been 'bump') or who 'climinals' are; they must have been 'criminals'.

Brian Kuh detiene il record ufficiale di questo gioco con 3,596,680 points on June 1, 2006.

Pony Canyon / Scitron hanno pubblicato un album della colonna sonora in edizione limitata di questo gioco il 21 Marzo 1989 (Syvalion: G.S.M. Taito 3 - D28B0014).

AGGIORNAMENTI
The Japanese version has different voices (non-English) and a territorial notice not allowing to play outside Japan.

The US release shows speed in a mile per hour.

PUNTEGGIO
1 yard driven: 10 pts.
Every car overtaken: 200 pts, then 400 pts up to 8000 pts (when not crashed); overtake bonus resets to 200 when crashed into any car.
Bump into criminal's car: stage number × 10000 pts. You may even randomly score (stage number × 10000) + 40000 after a more powerful bump. Note this is a score when you don't continue (when you continue, you'll get 1000 and randomly 4000 points).

BONUS SCORE
Stage completion: stage number × 100000 pts (1 coin only; continue reduces to 10000).
Time bonus: remaining seconds left × 5000 pts (1 coin only; continue reduces to 500).
Entire game (5 stages) complete: 5000000 pts (1 coin only; continue reduces to 500000).

CONSIGLI E TRUCCHI

• Maximum overtake bonus: overtake 40 cars without crashing to get 8000 points per overtake (starting with 200 and raising by 200). Crash into any traffic car and you'll have to start racking points up from 200 per overtake.
• Always take a turn indicated by an arrow: taking a wrong turn will cause the distance meter to grow significantly, eventually resulting in a game over.
• You may shift the gear from high to low very often to take sharp or long turns, given the brake (if available) isn't very strong.
• Chase H.Q. doesn't have a final boss penalty (no continue on the final stage, seen in "Arkanoid"), so you can continue at every stage, but you'll get 1/10th of the initial score when you do so.

SERIE

• Chase H.Q. (1988)
• S.C.I. - Special Criminal Investigation (1989)
• Super Chase - Criminal Termination (1993)
• Ray Tracers (1997, Sony PlayStation)
• Chase H.Q. 2 (2007)

STAFF
Progettazione gioco: Hiroyuki Sakou
Programmatori gioco: Takeshi Ishizashi, Takeshi Murata, Kyouji Shimamoto
P.C.B Designer: Masahiro Yamaguchi
Creazione personaggi: Yoshihiko Wakita, Sachiko Yamana, Izumi Ishikawa, Takeshi Ishizashi
Sound Designers: Yoshio Imamura, Naoto Yagishita, Eikichi Takahashi, Fumiaki Imaoka
Compositore musica: Takami Asano
Cabinet Designer: Nobuyuki Iwasaki
Proposer: Yoshiharu Suzuki

Ringraziamenti speciali: Junji Yarita, Kazuya Mikata, Atsushi Iwata (A. Iwata)

CONVERSIONI

• CONSOLE:

[JP] Nintendo FamiCom (Dec.8, 1989) "Taito Chase H.Q. [Modello DTF-H9]"
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (Jan.26, 1990) "Taito Chase H.Q. [Modello TP02006]"
[EU] Sega Master System (1990) "Chase H.Q. [Modello 7038]"
[JP] Sega Saturn (Aug.9, 1996) "Chase H.Q. + S.C.I. [Modello T-1105G]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (29 mar. 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Modello SLPM-66713]"

• PALMARI:

[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1991) "Chase H.Q. [Modello DMG-HQ-NOE]"
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (Jan.11, 1991) "Taito Chase H.Q. [Modello DMG-HQJ]"
[JP] Sega Game Gear (Mar.8, 1991) "Taito Chase H.Q. [Modello T-11017]"
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy Color (Aug.1999) "Chase H.Q. - Secret Police [Modello DMG-AH9P-EUR]"
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy Color (May.26, 2000) "Taito Memorial - Chase HQ - Secret Police [Modello DMG-AH9J-JPN]"

• COMPUTER:

[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989)
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989)
[EU] Atari ST (1989)
[EU] Commodore C64 (1990)
[JP] Sharp X68000 (oct.1992)
[JP] FM Towns PC (1993)

CONTRIBUISCI
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