10/8/20 Spy vs. Spy (1984)

Spy vs. Spy (1984) by First Star Software, published by Beyond Software, Tynesoft, and Wicked Software for Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy, NES, and more. As a longtime fan of Antonio Prohias’ MAD Magazine strip of the same name, I was curious as to how the Black and White Spies’ antics would be translated to video games. This is a two-player competitive game of espionage and item hunting, where each player takes control of a spy and runs around a series of rooms collecting four different objects in a briefcase and escaping through the exit to the airport. Every drawer, painting, and TV in a room can be searched, and each player can plant one of six traps in any of these spots. They range from bombs to buckets of water over doors, and serve to slow your opponent down. You respawn after dying, but taking any damage, whether it be from the club-wielding combat or the traps, detracts from your time limit. Once one player’s clock runs out, they lose, but the remaining player still needs to to complete the objective. There’s a nice amount of depth for the time, with special items you can find to disable specific traps, and the looming threat that the next shelf you check has an explosive waiting for you. If you don’t have a friend to play against, it also offers an impressive AI opponent with multiple levels of difficulty. While the graphics are pretty simple, the strip itself had a minimalist artstyle, and this game was even praised at the time for its visuals. If I had to give a warning about anything, it would be that, for some reason, player 1 controls with the second joystick port, which really confused me for a minute. This subgenre is really cool and I’d like to see more of it; it’s sometimes called “trap-em-up,” which… eh… might have some… different connotations in today’s age.