Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Get Great Retro Scene News @ http://www.vintageisthenewold.com Developed and published by Sega in 1990 Released to coincide with the Disney blockbuster of everybody's custard-yellow trenchcoat-wearing detective, Dick Tracy is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up that blends traditional platforming action with Operation Wolf/Cabal. Tracy is on a case to track down the notorious gang leader, Big Boy Caprice, and he must slug his way through legions of gun-toting thugs to find a suitable lead. Every so often, Tracy will encounter a high ranking lieutenant or henchman, who he must subdue for vital information. The game's action is viewed from a side-on perspective and there are two distinct play-fields; foreground and background. Tracy occupies the foreground and enemies can appear on either side of him and must be taken out before they can shoot him. Pressing the A button on the joypad will cause Tracy to fire his side-arm in the direction he's facing and must be used to take out enemies occupying the foreground. The second, background play-field sees gangsters popping out of doors, windows and other locations in the scenery and who proceed to fire their guns at Tracy in the foreground. Bullet holes appear to show a visual indication of where the shot landed and can gives you a chance to duck or jump out of the way. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but these hit markers look like bullet holes in glass, which would would be the TV screen as the player is looking in on the action; if this is the case then it's a nice little touch. Press the C button and Tracy will whip out his trusty Tommy gun and fire a stream of hot lead at the gangsters on the rear play-field; there's no targeting reticule, but you can use the ricochet effect of the bullets to work out where your shots are landing and to adjust your aim accordingly. A neat feature is the inclusion of destructible scenery so that shooting windows, cars and phone booths with you machine gun usually results in something getting smashed; it's possible to earn a points bonus by not breaking anything The game tries to mix things up by introduction levels where Tracy runs out of bullets or is informed that he isn't allowed to use his guns and can use melee attacks only. Of course, the gangsters are free to use hand-guns, machine guns and even dynamite, putting you at an obvious disadvantage. The only option is to avoid enemy fire and to time your attacks in between their reload animations. The first couple of melee stages are tolerable, but the sewer stage is a major pain as there are so many enemies that you're reduced to luring them back one at a time so you can take them out safely. There are also a number of car chases where Tracy must e ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6e5qK7sGPQ

Developed and published by FTL in 1987. As far as I'm concerned, this a fantastic SID music track created by Rob Hubbard that someone has added a game to, not the other way around. To be fair, it's not a bad shmup, but there are only 5 levels before it starts looping, a limited range of enemies and no power-ups!! Anyway, who cares!?! Let's pay tribute to Mr Rob Hubbard! Bootnote: If you love the original, you really should check out the version Mind.In.A.Box created as part of their R.E.T.R.O album; it's really great stuff. #retrogaming ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvsbaT6mLZY