hired gun

Hired Guns
Developer(s)	DMA Design
Publisher(s)	Psygnosis
Designer(s)	Scott Johnston and Steve Hammond [1]
Platform(s)	Amiga, PC
Release date(s)	1993
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single player, Multi player
Rating(s)	N/A
Media	5 3.5" Floppy discs, Hard drive installable
System requirements	1 MB of RAM.
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick

Screenshot from Hired Guns

The Satellite Map of the Graveyard Moon.

Hired Guns is a computer role-playing game produced by DMA Design (distributed by Psygnosis) for the Amiga in 1993.^[1] The game is set in the year 2712, in which the player controls four mercenaries selected from a pool of twelve. One of the advancements of the game was that the four characters were on screen simultaneously in their own window. The game was also ported to the PC.

Plot

The plot is that a hostage rescue mission on the planet Graveyard proves to be illusory and that they have actually been lured into a weapons proving ground, in order to pit genetically engineered creatures against them to see how they fare.

Gameplay

The game used a system of four simultaneous Dungeon Master-style first-person perspective viewpoints in the world. Each character was individually controllable and occupied their own square, unlike Dungeon Master where the entire party occupied the same square. Each character could be made to follow another character, simplifying large group movements when only one player was controlling the party. The gameplay was advanced for its time, allowing up to four players to play simultaneously, using mouse, keyboard or (modified) Sega Mega Drive joypad, with a parallel port adaptor allowing 4 joypads/joysticks to be used at once.

The game area was in real 3D, and monster/enemy AI had free movement around each level environment. Unlike in other games of that time, running from monster/enemy AI up some stairs meant they couldn't chase. An array of heavy weapons (including a robot sentry, similar to that seen in Aliens Special Edition), incendiary devices and mines could be used to take out the enemy (or friends!) either on the same level as the player or below. Players had to manage their inventory, too, as the amount of items to carry was limited. Also included were devices called "Psionic Amps" that could be used to create strange effects on the player or on the world around them — i.e. a Psionic Amp could be used underwater to create an area of air so the player could breathe.

Amiga Power

The British Amiga games magazine Amiga Power (AP) had a long running gag about Hired Guns. Nearly all games magazines, AP included, have a Next Month page, which offers a brief insight into the contents of next month's issue. However, for AP's first 30 issues or so, they had a thin strip on the back cover upon which they wrote a few lines on next month's issue, and included a very small screenshot of an upcoming game.

This enabled them to have a running joke for several months regarding Hired Guns. For several months, the game failed to arrive for review, as the publishers kept moving the release date back. In response, Amiga Power put the same screenshot of the game on their Next Month Strip every month for about six months, with repeated humble reassurances to the reader that they might, possibly, have it by next month.

When the game did finally arrive, they used the screenshot again on that issue, to illustrate their relief at having finally been able to review the game.

References

1. ^ Barton, Matt (2007-02-23). "Part 2: The Golden Age (1985-1993)". The History of Computer Role-Playing Games. Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20070223b/barton_06.shtml. Retrieved 2009-03-26. 

External links

• Hired Guns Operations Centre, a polish Hired Guns fan site
• MobyGames entry for Hired Guns