Spy Hunter (1985)

Spy Hunter was released in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum 48K. The game was published by U.S. Gold Ltd and developed by Denton Designs, with F. David Thorpe responsible for the loading screen.

As a single-player vehicle combat arcade game, it features vertical scrolling mechanics. Players can control the action using a Kempston joystick, Interface 2, cursor keys, or redefined keys.

The cassette was priced at £7.95. The game also saw releases on Amstrad CPC, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, NES, and ColecoVision.

The game holds an average magazine score of 70.91%. In May 1985, Crash magazine awarded it a Crash Smash, giving it a rating of 89%.

The game became very popular in Russia. Numerous TR-DOS versions were released by groups such as Smokers and Perestroika, and Masterstudio produced a Russian translation titled 'Охотник Шпион'. Spectrofon magazine frequently cited the game as a benchmark for the racing genre.