EDIT – Developer eventually completed game and it can now be found at csdb.dk/release/?id=166946
I loved the original Rent-a-cop game when it was released in the 2012 RGCD games competition. It was a brilliant tribute to Activision’s Keystone Capers game on the Atari VCS.
So when I heard about a new “reloaded” edition coming out, I was naturally quite excited. This time only some of the Keystone Capers feel was to be kept, with the reloaded edition to feature more shooting/platform action… maybe not too different to Lethal Weapon on the C64?
James Monkman was giving input to the creator Achim Volkers, who suggested having different stages like harbour, storage depot, museum and more. The Harbour level was done, with the AI almost complete. Enemies weren’t quite shooting, but it wasn’t far away.
Work paused whilst Vice Squad was finished off, and then after starting Darkness and other titles – Achim lost interest and decided to sign off the project and release what was started.
It is a huge shame to have to add this very promising preview – but sometimes you have to ditch the things you don’t want to work on. It is part and parcel of doing game development in limited time as a hobby on the C64 – you have to enjoy the game you’re working on :) But here it is for you to check out!
Case closed!
Contributions: Jazzcat, Achim Volkers
Supporting content
Available downloads
Gallery
Creator speaks
Achim Volkers:
“The idea was to make Rent-A-Cop a platform shoot-em up. James (rgcd) suggested different stages like harbour, storage depot, museum etc. I only made graphics for the harbour. The parallax scolling was a bit of a gimmick: the scroll engine ran idle one frame, so I implemented the second layer.
The enemy AI was close to being finished. The only thing missing are enemies shooting
at the player. After finishing The Vice Squad and already working on Darkness and one of my own games I lost interest in this project.”
Meanwhile the game, ofcourse, was finished : csdb.dk/release/?id=166946
Ah thanks Asphodel – completely forgot about the GTW entry. Good to see that the developer decided to come back and finish it :) Updating entry now.