MiSTer FPGA – Spy Hunter (スパイハンター) / Bally Midway Arcade [PB: 64,615]

Spy Hunter was one of my favorite games to play on an actual arcade cab, back when you could find them everywhere. It had a standard pedal/shifter driving game setup, with a unique steering wheel that included buttons & triggers for both hands, to use a variety of weapons and deterrents for your vehicle.

Originally you would have a panel on the dashboard that would light up to indicate which items you currently have equipped, and this is replaced in emulated versions with a simple text readout at the bottom of the screen. While nothing can really replace the original control scheme for this one, I did find it surprisingly easy to learn with an arcade stick. Takes a bit of practice, but after a short while I was making much more progress than I ever did in the arcade.

Staying alive for longer stretches in this game has the added bonus of allowing you to hear more of the awesome soundtrack, which is an electronic adaptation of the Peter Gunn theme by Henry Mancini. Very cool stuff, though I think the core has issues with triggering the music sometimes. I noticed occasionally when starting the game that the theme fails to play, and this also happens randomly when entering the restock van while playing. This could be accurate to the original PCB for all I know though.

I rotated my 24 inch consumer Sony Trinitron (KV-24FV300) to TATE orientation for this session. This game should be perfectly playable without rotating the display though, as long as you switch your controller bindings to match the different directions. That said, it’s awesome to play this in its original orientation on a nice big display. Give the « Deinterlacer High-Res » option a try if you are playing on a HDMI display. Since it removes all the flicker, this will give you the best visual quality- but is not compatible with analog/CRT so that’s why I don’t use it in this video. Maybe when I return to this in the future for a 100k run, I can show that feature off.

Spy Hunter is also compatible with analog controls/spinners, and Sorg says that a modified PS1 Namco JogCon is an excellent choice for experiencing this. Looking forward to trying that in the future as well.

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Bally/Midway MCR3-Scroll core 01-11-2021 build – Spy Hunter (スパイハンター)

Personal Best: 64,615

Filter: Gaussian Sharp 05 // Gamma: Poly 2.4

Played using a Razer Panthera Evo arcade stick with 1ms USB polling.

Video: Integer scaled to 1080p // HDMI to Datapath e1s capture card

Volume reduced 20%

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|:=-Timestamps-=:|
00:00​​ – Boot
00:15​​ – Title / Instruction
02:47 – Gameplay (PB: 64,615)

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Live gameplay streams on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/WalrusFPGA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WalrusFPGA

=—————CONTRIBUTE—————=

None of this would be possible without the constant hard work of Sorgelig. It cannot be overstated how much he has done and continues to do for this project, since its beginning. You can support him either at his Patreon in the link below, or on Paypal, depending on your preference. MiSTer is a paradigm shift in how we can experience these classic games. This is a long-term preservation project that will continue to grow so that gamers today and in the future can experience these excellent systems as accurately and lag-free as possible. Donating what you can will help keep the updates coming. Thank you.

Patreon: https://patreon.com/FPGAMiSTer

PayPal: https://paypal.me/FPGAMiSTer

NOTE: I am not affiliated with Sorgelig and am only sharing these links as a fan of the project who wishes to see it continue to grow rapidly.

=—————–INFORM—————–=

Github link for this core: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade-MCR3Scroll_MiSTer

MiSTer Forum/Wiki/Github (source, guides and info): http://MiSTerFPGA.org

Official MiSTer Discord for live chat/help: https://discord.gg/4xKVg4XVYn
(Be respectful; this server is moderated. New users must be verified.)

=——————BUILD——————=

Worldwide list of sellers for MiSTer expansion boards: https://misterfpga.org/viewforum.php?f=34&sid=74e1c5e7dae1b99284789d93194cfa0b

I have personally ordered all my parts from https://www.MiSTerAddons.com and have been 100% satisfied with the quality and service there. (North American seller. If in a different region, check list linked above for best local shipping rates.)

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