Many players
still insist on calling it 3D Deathchase. It’s just Deathchase, people! The 3D
logo stamped on the cover was just to make it more appealing to buyers!
Back in
1983, three dimensional environments were something that was out of this world
and Deathchase was a true pioneer to bring 3D action into the Zed X Spectrum.
It was
developed by Mervyn Estcourt and published by MicroMega in the UK, and
Ventamatic in Spain, and was an exclusive title for the Sinclair Zed X 81 and
the Zed X Spectrum 48k.
As you
might know, videogames in the eighties were greatly inspired by the movie
industry. I’m not talking about direct film conversions to home consoles and
computers. Back in those days, even original games were based in what we saw in
the big screen. In this particular case, Deathchase was certainly influenced by
the futuristic bike chases from Return of The Jedi and Tron, two blockbuster
movies that were really hot in 1983.
In
Deathchase you’re a mercenary patrolling, night and day, the vast landscape
with your motorcycle avoiding collisions with trees and eliminating other
hostile bikers that survived the Great War. For bonus points, you must take
down helicopters and tanks that appear on the horizon and, gladly, they’re not
armed! You’re the only survivor that had access to infinite ammunition! YEAHHH
BABY!!! Just like a friend of mine would say: COME GET SOME!!
To advance
to the next level, you only need to take down the other two riders, one blue
and the other yellow. When you fire your guns, you can control the bullets just
by steering the bike. It’s kind of handy, most of the time! When you take both
riders down, you advance to a night version of the same level and, when you
capture the other two - as I call them - riders of the night, you get a new
daytime level with more trees to avoid! And so forth.
The game is
amazingly fast and it only needs 16k of RAM to run! As incredible as it may
sound, Deathchase is more addictive than most similar games made for today’s
hardware. You’re only required to apply full throttle, turn left and right and
use the auto-fire button option on the joystick to play this game. There’s no
complicated and stressful combination of keys to master. You only need to
concentrate and, in an instant, you’re transported to this huge forest being
almost hypnotized by this amazing landscape. We can practically smell the
burned fuel and the morning dew.
The only
thing that is somewhat annoying is the sound of your motorbike. After a while
it becomes a bit unbearable! But, there’s always a solution for that! Turn the
volume a notch down, grab your smartphone and tune in to one retrogaming
internet radio and you’re good to go blasting your way through the thick
forests!
Deathchase
was well received by the press and got a 92% rating from Crash magazine. Nine
years later, in 1992, was even considered by Your Sinclair magazine as The Best
Spectrum Game Ever!
As you can
see, I was introduced to this wonderful world of video gaming by a title that,
in the last days of the Zed X Spectrum, was considered to be the number one
game for that particular gaming platform. It was such an honor, believe me!
I don’t
understand why the author of this awesome game, Mr. Mervyn Estcourt, refuses to
grant interviews to the retrogaming community. It kind of reminds me of the
infamous and most famous Portuguese Zed X Spectrum exclusive title called
“Paradise Café” that, even to this day, no one knows who made it. Perhaps,
because of its sexual and controversial contents, we’ll never discover who was
“behind” this gem. Probably someone that is, nowadays, well known from the
public and doesn’t want to be linked to Reinaldo…
31 years
have passed and Deathchase is still capable of giving a sense of accomplishment
for every concluded level. You’ll be wanting to play it one more time, again,
and again, and again. Thanks to its extremely accurate controls and collision
system, it is a truly addictive game, even for today’s standards.
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Its seems very interesting.
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