Hostages (1990)

Hostages was released in 1990 for the ZX Spectrum 48K/128K. The game was published by Infogrames, with game design by Philippe Agripnidis and development handled by the Spanish team of Zydro, Fustor, and Joe McAlby.

As a multi-genre action game for a single player, it features 2D side-view graphics and utilizes an on-screen crosshair for targeting. Key technical features include AY sound and speech, multi-loader support, and compatibility with Kempston or Interface 2 joysticks, alongside fully redefinable keys.

The original cassette version retailed for £9.99, while the disk version cost £14.99. The title saw broad multi-platform support, appearing on the Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, MSX, NES, PC/DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, Acorn, and Atari ST.

The game holds an average magazine score of 82%. Crash magazine awarded it a 'Crash Smash' with a 90% rating, while Sinclair User and Your Sinclair provided scores of 83% and 73% respectively.

In Russia, the game gained recognition following a detailed review in Spectrofon magazine. It features a Russian translation by Evgeny Sardak and numerous TR-DOS versions released by groups such as KSA and Andy Chernikov. Cracked cassette versions by Bill Gilbert are also available.