Game:

Short Circuit (1987)

Duration: 31:16

9,282 views

228

http://www.longplays.org

Played by: MadMatty

Short Circuit, a licensed game developed and published by Ocean Software in 1987.

"It was a one-in-a-million accident - but Number Five, designed to be a strategic artificially intelligent weapons system, the most sophisticated robot on the planet, has escaped - and has come to the conclusion that he's alive! Now the scientist who put him together wants to take him apart again to find out what went wrong. The president of Nova Robotics wants to capture him before the weapons he's carrying kill millions of civilians. And the security chief wants to blow him up so that he can get home in time for dinner."

Like the Spectrum version, the game takes place during the start of the film when Number 5 becomes self aware. You play the part we didn't get to see where Five has to figure out how to disable the security system and get the parts and knowledge on how to build a robot before escaping Nova robotics. In order to find the parts you need to find items and hide items as needed as you can only hold four at a time. All this while not triggering security systems and jumping over other robots which is a real farce in itself.

Once we escape we need to make it to the van where we can construct a decoy robot and finish the game. Unfortunately there are animals in the way which takes a way some of your soul should you kill them. Dodging them takes some pixel precision jumping and you can't rush it as you may end up with 2 or 3 animals to dodge at once, which doesn't really work. To add to the nonsense, you are being shot at by Nova robots and security guards. You can't really avoid their first shot as they fire as they enter the screen. So much working against you and if any one of the two energy bars depletes, its game over. Also it is instant game over if a security bot rushes on screen and gets you. The difficulty is brutal and in classic Ocean style, you get just one life!

The C64 version is quite different to the Spectrum version. Part 1 is just one long line and you need to know where the security walls are before diving in. The Spectrum version is split up into many rooms, some of which have security droids in which will instantly kill you if they get you. Much more difficult overall but a lot more like an adventure game if you like to map things out. The biggest difference of course is that Part 2 is actually completable in the C64 version. What were they thinking releasing the Spectrum game before it was finished. Oh I know, there was no way anyone was going to be able to figure out and finish part 1 so released as is.

Overall, its not a great game, let down massively by its difficulty level. Buying games back then, we didn't want this level of challenge. We just wanted to play as Johnny Five in a game more like robocop. I'd have been annoyed if I had paid full price for it but I could only really afford the budget Hit Squad releases back then which made it hurt less. The longplay shows a run through both parts and at the end I show a quick run through while getting caught.

00:00:00 Title Music
00:03:55 Part 1
00:24:18 Part 2
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00:30:05 Getting caught in Part 1 -
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