Spy Hunter

Spy Hunter is a top down driving game where your mission is to destroy enemies, avoid hazards, and protect innocent bystanders. The arcade game was developed by Bally Midway in 1983 and ported to the NES by SunSoft in 1987.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.2.2
  • Complete all available areas
  • Maximize score when possible

Game Mechanics

Controls

  • up - speed up
  • down - slow down
  • left - move left
  • right - move right
  • B - machine gun
  • A - use weapon
  • select - change weapon
  • start - call weapons van

Upgrades

  • Smoke screen
  • Missiles
  • Oil Slick

Enemies

  • Tire Slashers - 50 points
  • Bullet Proof Bullies - 150 points
  • Limousines - 500 points
  • Helecopters - 700 points
  • Speed Boats - 150 points
  • Cruise Boats - 500 points

Map

Notes

This game looks very linear, and if you play for a while it seems to loop after you've gone through 4 or 5 areas. Studying the game, and in particular the pointers to the map data in the ROM you'll see that the map is actually more of a tree shape. I would note that the game does feature a snow palette and snow physics which are not featured in this TAS. The snow is not a unique area, only a modifier that can be applied to existing areas (e.g. Area 3 after finishing desert). There are multiple criteria required to trigger the snow, but one of those is the least significant bit of a frame counter (e.g. 50/50 chance of snow).

Map Table

Area Num(ptr)Left path(ptr)Right path(ptr)length(in segments)description
Area 1 (D854)Area 2 (D889)Area 3 (D8D2)73 green
Area 2 (D889)Area 4 (D908)Area 5 (D960)100green. pink trees
Area 3 (D8D2)Area 6 (D9BE)Area 5 (D960)100green. blue trees
Area 4 (D908)Area 8 (DAB4)Area 5 (D960)100brown and green palms
Area 5 (D960)Area 8 (DAB4)Area 7 (DA1A)100dark green and palms
Area 6 (D9BE)Area 2 (D889)Area 7 (DA1A)102light green and palms
Area 7 (DA1A)Area 2 (D889)Area 3 (D8D2)132desert
Area 8 (DAB4)Area 6 (D9BE)Area 3 (D8D2)132desert
Area 9 (DB41)N/A Area 10(DBC1)???water
Area 10(DBC1)Area 6 (D9BE)Area 3 (D8D2)???desert after water

Hastily drawn ascii map

The areas in parenthesis go back to areas that were already listed. The path to area 9 is a side exit to a boat shed.
(3)  (6) (3) (2)
  \ /   \ / \ /
  10<-9<-8   7->(9)
        / \ / \
       4-->5   6->(2)
        \ / \ /
         2   3
          \ /
           1

My route

1 Left
2 Left
4 Right
5 Left
8 Right
3 Left
6 Right
7 boat shed
9 boat shed
10

Alternate routes

These are the routes I found that touch all areas with no repeats. Each column is a route ('A' represents 10).
11111111111
22222223333
44444446555
88855557877
69388882929
7A569934A4A
9677AA65686
A7996378792
33AA76992A4
556337AA468

Improvements

  • Unfortunately due to the top scrolling speed the actual time of the run is pretty fixed, but there may be a few ways to improve the score.
  • I tried to manipulate the enemy spawns as much as possible, but I did not reverse engineer how they work, doing so could yield improvements to the score.
  • At the end of the run I noticed that you end up with an upgrade when you leave the water. I got the oil slick since it does a glitchy screen wrap if you use it as you exit the truck. I wonder if you could improve the score by using a route that heads for the water earlier and takes missiles instead. You'd give up opportunities to bomb the armored cars, but you could get some points destroying helicopters instead.

Thanks to:

  • The TASMania team
  • The BestOfNES for including this game in Big 20 #8
  • my Twitch chat for the ideas and encouragement

Screenshots:

6, 13298, 19472, 20799

Memory: Judging
Memory: To me this movie feels incredibly simplistic and repetitive but the feedback for it was quite strong so I'm accepting to Moons.
Memory: I just found a potential improvement and need to investigate it. Additionally the ending does not seem clear and might need further examination.
Memory: This submission actually brought up an interesting edge case in the rules which was clarified here. It was established that this game does not have any incrementing difficulty so as long as this movie completes each area, it is acceptable. As far as I can tell the author's map is correct so all areas are indeed visited.
Potential improvements were addressed and turned out empty.
The audience reception has not changed and is still very positive so I am accepting this to Moons.
fsvgm777: Processing.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15543
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5973: link_7777's NES Spy Hunter in 05:56.86
Active player (378)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Nicely done! I was expecting to be voting for vault, but it was interesting enough that I think it warrants moons. The speed was remarkably fast, and I found it funny how frustrated that semi-truck driver seemed that you wouldn't take any upgrades.
Editor, Player (69)
Joined: 6/22/2005
Posts: 1050
Nice and fast, but the ending seems out of place with the rest of the run. Is there a way to end it without getting blown up?
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
DrD2k9
He/Him
Editor, Judge, Expert player (2211)
Joined: 8/21/2016
Posts: 1086
Location: US
Even considering the short duration, I didn't expect this to hold my interest as well as it did. I also found the 'frustrated semi driver' to be somewhat amusing. This should qualify another game for the TASmania project!
Experienced player (875)
Joined: 11/15/2010
Posts: 267
Dacicus wrote:
Nice and fast, but the ending seems out of place with the rest of the run. Is there a way to end it without getting blown up?
Unfortunately no. You could probably prolong it with some manipulation, but you maintain your speed even if you don't hold up. You actually need to hit down to slow down. Without stopping you'll definitely crash eventually
Editor, Player (69)
Joined: 6/22/2005
Posts: 1050
OK. Yes vote.
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
Active player (302)
Joined: 3/15/2018
Posts: 235
Location: United States
I find the helicopter sound to be oddly comforting... If that's not worth a Yes vote, I don't know what is!
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15543
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3718] NES Spy Hunter by link_7777 in 05:56.86
MarbleousDave
He/Him
Player (13)
Joined: 9/12/2009
Posts: 1559
I would like to see a TAS of the arcade original as well.