The Untouchables (history and reception)

Ocean's Commodore 64 instructions credit John Meegan with the programming, Stephen Thomson with the graphics, Jonathan Dunn with the music, and Jon Woods as producer. The sheet is copyright 1989 Ocean Software, and the game is made under Paramount Pictures' trademark and copyright of 1989. the-untouchables-history/c64-credits

The credits are the Commodore 64 version's. The sheet names no development company; Zzap!64 names Special FX (see developer-special-fx).

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Two Newsfield magazines name Special FX as a maker of the game. Crash's review header of November 1989 credits the Spectrum version to "Ocean/Special FX". Zzap!64's Commodore 64 review of the same month says Special FX should be finishing the Amiga game soon, and a Zzap!64 news item of March 1990, on Ocean's licence of Data East's coin-op Midnight Resistance, says Special FX had started on the Commodore 64 and Amiga conversions and calls The Untouchables and Red Heat previous Special FX titles, without naming a version. Sinclair User's Fax Box of November 1989 gives the Spectrum version's author as "In House". the-untouchables-history/developer-special-fx

The sources disagree on the Spectrum version: Crash names Special FX and Sinclair User's Fax Box says "In House". The Commodore 64 instructions name only people (c64-credits), and the NES booklet credits its source code to Ocean of America (nes-booklet).

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Zzap!64's Commodore 64 review called the programmer and artist "the John Meegan/Steve Thompson RoboCop team" and praised Jonathan Dunn's music, built from famous period tunes. the-untouchables-history/c64-team

The review spans pp. 76-78; the OCR is garbled throughout, and the readings follow it word for word.

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Ocean's Commodore 64 instructions describe six levels of arcade-style sections in 1920s Chicago, with the player in control of Eliot Ness's squad: the warehouse, the bridge at the U.S./Canadian border, the alleys, the train station, the hostage, and the rooftop. It is a one-player game, played with a joystick in port 2 or the keyboard. The game loads in five sections, and the player stays on a level until it is completed. the-untouchables-history/c64-premise

The scenario text lists "the Railway Station Confrontation" among its scenes; the instructions spell the hero "Elliot".

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In the Commodore 64 instructions, Ness raids the warehouse, where capturing Capone's bookkeepers gathers preliminary evidence and an arrow guides him to the evidence; he can fire only while standing on the ground. At the bridge the player changes Untouchable by going to the far left or right of the playing area. In the alleys the player fires two shots, reloads with the fire button in the back street, and is put back against the wall automatically when both are used. At the station Ness guides a pram down the concourse while avoiding innocent bystanders, and in the hostage scene the henchman threatens to shoot the accountant in five seconds. On the rooftop Ness chases Frank Nitty. the-untouchables-history/c64-sections

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On the Commodore 64 the energy display is a row of caricatures: the more of Capone shows, the weaker the Untouchables. The instructions' hints say that certain Untouchables must stay alive for later sections, and that an Untouchable regains energy while inactive. the-untouchables-history/c64-energy

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The Untouchables came out for the NES in North America in January 1991, with Ocean as licensee. the-untouchables-history/nes-release

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The US NES booklet is Ocean of America's, of San Jose, California. It prints "Source code © 1990 Ocean of America, Inc." and Paramount Pictures' trademark and copyright of 1990, and "Printed in Japan". the-untouchables-history/nes-booklet

The booklet names no programmer or development company. The pinned text has no page images or numbers, so the locator names the page by its content.

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The NES booklet describes seven scenarios, in this order: the street (three alleys), the warehouse, the bridge, the alleys (eight), the train station, the hostage, and the rooftop. A failed mission restarts at the beginning of the section the player was on. the-untouchables-history/nes-premise

The booklet's opening calls the scenes "the Alleyway Shootouts, the Warehouse Bust, the Border Raid, the Train Station Confrontation and the Final Rooftop Duel".

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On the NES, B jumps and A fires in the warehouse; in every other section both buttons fire. In the alley and border raid sections, Select switches among the four Untouchables, Ness, Malone, Stone, and Wallace. On the title screen Select chooses music or sound effects. the-untouchables-history/nes-controls

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The NES booklet warns that certain Untouchables are needed for specific sections, as in the film: if one is eliminated before his section, the game cannot continue. An Untouchable not in use slowly recharges his energy. the-untouchables-history/nes-squad

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In the NES warehouse, Ness has a pistol with ten rounds and must shoot gray-hatted accountants to make them drop ledger pages of evidence. Violin cases left by shot villains hold ammunition (A), energy (E), or a few seconds of unlimited rapid fire (R). the-untouchables-history/nes-warehouse

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On the NES bridge there is no gunsight: the player aims by watching where the bullets hit, and shoots bottles of contraband until the evidence reaches 100%. the-untouchables-history/nes-bridge

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At the NES train station Ness guides a baby carriage to the bottom of the steps and must not hurt the civilians, shown in white. In the hostage scene the player controls Stone and has one shot, which must hit the gangster's hat; failing sends the player back to the start of the train station, so the game offers a practice option. the-untouchables-history/nes-station-hostage

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On the NES rooftop Ness chases Frank Nitty with a six-shot pistol, which, unlike the alley shotgun, the player reloads a bullet at a time behind the wall. the-untouchables-history/nes-rooftop

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Electronic Gaming Monthly described the NES game in August 1990, counting six levels, and called it Ocean's "first Nintendo cartridge". the-untouchables-history/nes-egm-preview

The page number is the folio the OCR reads on the image. The preview's six levels differ from the booklet's seven (nes-premise).

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Richard Lashley reviewed the NES game in Game Player's Strategy Guide to Nintendo Games in August 1991. He called it "less a translation than a shooting-gallery game" with a few elements from the film, noted that it doesn't use the Zapper, and found the warehouse's graphics collapsing for a split second as Ness climbs the crates. His verdict was that it sets no new standards for shoot-'em-ups but "does what arcade games should do — entertain". the-untouchables-history/nes-review-gpsg

The review runs pp. 65-68 (images 67-70) and prints no score in the OCR. The byline is read from the OCR, which places "Richard Lashley" on the review's first page.

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Chris Scullion's NES encyclopedia (2019) lists the NES game in 1991 with Ocean as publisher and developer, in seven stages of side-scrolling platform sections and shooting sections. He notes two NES releases: the first with the film poster's art on the box, and a second, in 1993, with generic artwork, a new title screen, and levels 2 and 3 swapped. the-untouchables-history/nes-scullion

A secondary source; the 1993 re-release has not been checked against a cartridge or a dated listing.

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Crash reviewed the Spectrum version in November 1989 at £9.99 on cassette and £14.99 on disk and made it a Crash Smash with 94% overall (presentation 90%, graphics 83%, sound 91%, playability 91%, addictivity 88%), summing it up as "a winning, large, action-packed shoot-out". Nick, who gave it 92%, called it "graphically and sonically great" and noted its six sections; Mark gave it 95%. The issue's competition page offered five videos of the film and twenty copies of the game. the-untouchables-history/spectrum-crash

{
 "review": "Crash",
 "of": 100,
 "scores": {
  "presentation": 90,
  "graphics": 83,
  "sound": 91,
  "playability": 91,
  "addictivity": 88,
  "overall": 94
 }
}

The review's walkthrough opens "The six level game is a belated tie-in of the movie". The two comments are headed NICK and MARK on the page image.

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Sinclair User reviewed the Spectrum version in November 1989 as a Sinclair User Classic with 95% overall (graphics 95, sound 80, playability 87, lastability 88), calling it "a fine example of how to do the job properly" and "a cracking conversion. Easily one of the most successful and accurate movie licences to date", with six stages that follow the plot of the film closely. Its Fax Box gives the label as Ocean and the price as £8.95. The same issue's cover tape carried a playable demo of the second level, the bridge scene. the-untouchables-history/spectrum-su

{
 "review": "Sinclair User",
 "of": 100,
 "scores": {
  "graphics": 95,
  "sound": 80,
  "playability": 87,
  "lastability": 88,
  "overall": 95
 }
}

The review runs pp. 30-32 with a sidebar on the film; the magazine's own page note puts it on p. 30. The Fax Box's £8.95 differs from the £9.99 cassette price in Crash and Your Sinclair.

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Your Sinclair's November 1989 review, written by Matt and Jackie together, made the Spectrum version a Megagame with 94° (life expectancy 85, graphics 93, instant appeal 95, addictiveness 89). It found it "an absolute corker of a game", a six-level, five-load arcade adventure in monochrome blue, and summed it up as "a brilliant multiload film conversion, as good as anything released this year". It was priced at £9.99 on cassette and £14.99 on disk. the-untouchables-history/spectrum-ys

{
 "review": "Your Sinclair",
 "of": 100,
 "scores": {
  "life expectancy": 85,
  "graphics": 93,
  "instant appeal": 95,
  "addictiveness": 89,
  "overall": 94
 }
}

The reviewers are named only by first name in the OCR; the issue's contents put the review on p. 70, and image 72 carries the folio 71.

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In the same November 1989 issue, Your Sinclair's Ocean competition said the game had been under development at Ocean "for, ooh, ages", and offered 30 copies as runners-up prizes. the-untouchables-history/spectrum-ys-competition

In February 1990 Your Sinclair's "Matt's 1989", one of its looks back at the year's games, listed The Untouchables first among the year's conversions, a "compilation of six different sorts of shoot-'em-up", each based on a scene from the film, all in monochrome but detailed and smoothly moving. the-untouchables-history/spectrum-ys-1989-pick

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Ocean's advertisement of February 1990 billed the game "Live an American legend", named the border raid and the rooftop duel among its scenes, and quoted Sinclair User and Your Sinclair. the-untouchables-history/spectrum-ad

The OCR of the ad is garbled, and the format list at its foot is legible only in part ("SPEC COMM AMS").

Sinclair User, a Spectrum magazine, printed a tip in February 1990 that skips levels: type "Humphrey Bogart" on the high-score table, then press all the keys on the left-hand side during play. the-untouchables-history/spectrum-cheat

Credited to reader Lewis Sinclair. A reader's tip, not checked in the game.

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Zzap!64 reviewed the Commodore 64 version in November 1989 at £9.99 on cassette and £14.99 on disk and gave it 96% overall, with 97% for presentation, 95% for graphics, 97% for sound, 95% for hookability, and 97% for lastability. A reviewer noted that losing every life doesn't send the player back to level one. Zzap!64's Amiga review four months later says the Commodore 64 game won a Gold Medal. the-untouchables-history/c64-zzap

{
 "review": "Zzap!64",
 "of": 100,
 "scores": {
  "presentation": 97,
  "graphics": 95,
  "sound": 97,
  "hookability": 95,
  "lastability": 97,
  "overall": 96
 }
}

The review runs pp. 76-78; the OCR marks image 76 as the review's first page, which the issue's contents put on p. 76.

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Zzap!64 reviewed the Amiga version in March 1990 as Special FX's work, with its contents page calling it "Ocean's Sizzling Amiga conversion of the C64 classic". A reviewer found that Special FX had changed and sped up the structure: the first level has a much smaller map, and the second is faster and needs no telescopic sight, making it more of an Operation Thunderbolt game. It lacked the Commodore 64's atmosphere but was "still an excellent game". The ratings box gives 90% overall (presentation 78%, graphics 89%, sound 86%, hookability 89%, lastability 93%). the-untouchables-history/amiga-zzap

{
 "review": "Zzap!64",
 "of": 100,
 "scores": {
  "presentation": 78,
  "graphics": 89,
  "sound": 86,
  "hookability": 89,
  "lastability": 93,
  "overall": 90
 }
}

The OCR of the review is heavily garbled; each reading above is the plain sense of the garbled line. The review spans pp. 76-77.

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CU Amiga's tips of January 1991 give a cheat for the Amiga version: pause the game and type "SOUTHAMPTON GAZETTE", and Capone faces an infinite army of Eliot Nesses. the-untouchables-history/amiga-cheat

A magazine tip, not checked in the game.

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