Stryker's Run

Stryker's Run is a video game designed by Chris Roberts and Philip Meller for the BBC Micro and BBC Master which was published by Superior Software in 1986. It was also later converted to the Acorn Electron. It is a 2D side-scrolling action game. It was well received, particularly for its graphics.

This is the final game which was done by Chris Roberts before moving to the USA.

Gameplay
Stryker's Run is a 2D side-scrolling action game taking place entirely on one level and set during a futuristic war. The player takes the role of Commander John Stryker of the Allied Nations who has obtained plans of an attack by the enemy Volgans.

The objective of the game is to escape with the plans and reach the Allied headquarters to deliver them. Stryker is armed with a laser pistol and grenades, with infinite ammo.

One of the novelties in the game is the ability to drive vehicles found along the way. These include helicopters, planes and tanks and they can speed the player through the world if you can avoid being blown up by all the opposition. The fuel in these runs out in next to no time, so it’s only a short term help

The Volgans have a wide variety of weapons including rifles, pistols, grenades, machine guns, mortars, mines, helicopter gunships, rocket launchers and SAM missiles.

The hero can survive 9 hits but there are no lives making the game fairly tricky.

As well as enemies, the game features allied soldiers who will fire at the enemies but can get caught in crossfire.

Development and release
The game was originally developed and coded by Chris Roberts and Philip Meller on the BBC Micro with additional graphics by Nick Elms. As the game pushed the limits of the hardware, certain elements had to be left out of the standard version and Stryker's Run became the first game released to include an enhanced version for the newly released BBC Master. As well as extra in-game graphics, this version adds a title screen with music, a high score table, on-screen instructions and user-defined controls. The music, a version of the Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Rydeen", was created by Martin Galway. The standard version could only fit in a plain screen with minimal text. The BBC Micro version of the game (also containing the Master enhanced version) was released by Superior Software in 1986 on cassette and floppy disk.

It took 10 months to write.

It claims to be the first game to come in cassette with the 128K version on one side and the regular 32K on the other.

It offered a prize to anyone completing it.

Legacy
It is an early example of the Metroidvania genre.

There was a sequel called Codename: Droid which came out in 1987 but Chris Roberts didn’t work on it.