The heat is on

There's no denying that Beverly Hills Cop (1984) immensely influenced the propulsion of Eddie Murphy's acting career to international stardom status, owing to its endearing fusion of comedy, high-impact action and police detective work. Most decisively, audiences took a shine to Axel Foley's droll, wise-cracking persona, yet also his competence as an ass-kicking cop who never hesitates in veering off-piste to nail the crooks. Beverly Hills Cop was a massive blockbuster hit, raking in $316.40m at the box office. So well-received, confidence in the concept expedited two sequels and much later in 2013, a TV series.

Tynesoft Computer Software certainly recognised the IP's potential as a means to exponentially shift video game copies. In 1990 they were responsible for developing and publishing a multi-system, multi-genre homage to the first entry in the movie trilogy. It's alternately a platform game, a 1st person racer, an FPS and a top-down shooter. What it's not, is very good. Tynesoft's playable interpretation of the revered franchise totally wasted the license's vast potential, possibly sullying its reputation amongst gamers? If so, this might explain why no other games developer attempted to correct matters until the advent of the 2007 PlayStation 2 title.

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The perfect mole

What should have been a fun virtual vacation for industrious construction worker, Arnie Schwarzenegger, posing as a secret agent sent on a covert mission stationed on Mars, turns into the epitome of bad trips. Quaid's routine procedure at Rekall triggers dormant, suppressed memories of his former life as a genuine undercover operative, leading him to question the veracity of every aspect of his fragile, ostensible existence. Disentwining fact from fiction draws Quaid into conflict with his former employer, governor Vilos Cohaagen, exposing an espionage plot that can only be elucidated via a recording of himself pre-memory wipe. No wonder he's been suffering from recurring nightmares!

Ocean Software's accompanying action-platform game endured a rocky road to release having been worked on by a third party who spent many months maintaining a facade of developmental progress without actually achieving anything tangible. Eventually rumbled, at the 11th-hour Total Recall was re-designed by a rapidly assembled in-house Ocean rescue team and ultimately published while the source material remained a relevant, viable bandwagon. What emerged is an amalgam of scrolling platform stages traversed on foot and combative driving missions, complemented by some of the Amiga's most atmospheric, captivating music.

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