Please login to submit a screenshot

A rare critical blip for Hewson (it only scored 55% in Crash), Gunrunner - as the name suggests - was a horizontally-scrolling run and gunner from Christian Urquhart. After obtaining it on the cheap, I remember quite enjoying it despite it's average score and getting several hours play. It's not up to the standard of some of Hewson's other titles for sure, and perhaps was harshly judged as a result.

Some of those that passed me by (but that doesn't mean they're not great!)

Millions of years ago, when earth was just a cooling blob of molten custard (or was it Angel Delight? Science was never my strong point) the people of the planet Zero had a spot of local difficulty.
Living below their planet surface (it was a bit nippy upstairs - ice age and all that) they were prone to attack by the less than chummy Destrovians, who wished to blag their plutonium. Teams of saboteurs would disrupt the outer networks of tubes and piping (which carried the plutonium to the heating plants) and the Zeronians faced a chilly future.
Heroes had tried in the past, of course, to rid the pipeworks of their alien invaders - what else are heroes for? - but they hadn't lasted long. The Zero High Council was desperate. So desperate, in fact, that they chose you to have a go. You made your will, kissed your wife and 43 small children goodbye, and off you went, facing almost certain doom...
But what a doom! Ten scrolling networks of pipes, tubes and hi-tech knick-knacks! Lethal formations of flying aliens stinging you in the heretofores and wherewithals! Yup, we're in Shoot 'Em Up Land, that curious country where bullets never run out, bombs can be dodged and the aliens' idea of strategy is flying at you in a straight line. Gun Runner is a fine example of the species, combining elements of Cobra and Uridium to excellent effect.
The course runs from left to right, although the Destrovians come in both directions. Your target on each level is a tower to the far right - if you regain control of that the level is yours. On the way you can pick up several pieces of equipment. The Multifire gun blasts faster and in three directions, while Poison is Gun Runner's smart bomb equivalent. A Jet Pack lets you fly around the screen for a brief period, and a Shield protects you from everything for an even shorter time. If you're not shielded, you'll lose any equipment you've picked up if you hit a Destrovian - if you have no equipment, of course, you're deaded.
The Destrovians themselves attack usually in fours (if you knock some off, the survivors have another go) and in any of several formations. Some are slow enough to be picked off almost at your leisure, but others, randomly it would seem, are viciously fast, and if you're facing the wrong way you have no chance. Certainly it's these megaswift attacks that always cause my downfall.
Other bits and bobs for you to blast are the Destrovians' scanning orbs, which are otherwise harmless, and domes which contain the aliens' supplies. Be careful what you do with these 'cos they're often booby-trapped. Watch out also for bombs, which just have to be dodged, and bits of broken pipework.
It's all been neatly put together by Christian Urquhart and Mike Smith. In these post-Uridium days Gun Runner is scarcely original, but it's a fast, efficient and by no means easy shooter which Cobra fans particularly should take a look at. And at least there aren't any hamburgers!

Verdict: 8/10
Review by Marcus Berkmann

Everyone has an off day, a dud, a momentary lapse. Well, this arcade game from Hewson was certainly by their standards, well below par.

For a company associated with high quality arcade games such as Technician Ted, Avalon, Exolon and Uridium, Gunrunner came as a bit of a disappointment.


ZX Spectrum Games Gunrunner
In Gunrunner you had to save a distant ice planet from a bunch of not very nice aliens called the 'Destrovians'. This planet contained an elaborate set of pipes (plutonium pipes) which the Destrovians were going to sabotage. Enter you (as the Gunrunner) so save the day!

The game was a right to left scrolling arcade game played over a total of ten levels. Our main character was quite a nifty soldier, he could run left and right, kneel down and jump. At certain points you would acquire at Jet Pack which allowed you to take to the air and zip along the level rapidly.

As you moved along waves of Destrovians would attack you from both directions - and coming into contact with any of these took away one of your three lives. Losing a life also sent you back to the beginning of the current level. Bummer.

The Destrovians were devious though - you would come across booby trapped sections of pipework; bombs would blow you away and mines would decorate the surroundings using our hero's innards as paint.

Gunrunner begins his run ZX SpectrumYou started this not quite classic game with a standard blaster as a weapon but this could be upgraded by picking up varying weapons left lying around by previous (and unsucessfull) freedom fighters.

These powerups (in classic arcade game fashion) included a tri-directional blaster, a temporary shield, the aforementioned jet-pack and a poison bomb which would take out all destrovians in the immediate vicinity (think smart bomb).

It was possible to have more than one powerup at one time though - so you could cause a lot of destruction with the jet-pack and tri-blaster.

At the end of each level there was a computer station - and once this had been reached then it was onto the next stage. Completing all ten meant the end of the game - and you were a gun-runing hero. Hooray!

On Release:
It has to be said thsi arcade game was a bit of a let-down when it was released. It's not that it was bad game, far from it in fact. It was the fact that it was an average arcade game (in a shoot em up style), and was not of the high quality everyone had come to expect from Hewson. The look and feel was very much like Uridium (the character set, the monochromatic scrolling backdrops, even the enemy aliens moved in the same pattern as the enemy fighters) - without the overall polish and playability. Gunrunner was a moderate hit but never hit the heights of previous releases by Hewson.

The test of time:
Well Gunnrunner was merely 'pretty good' back then, and today it doesn't really offer anything special. The action is lacklustre and the gameplay is pretty flat. Of course most classic games seems simple by todays standards, but some of them (Uridium included) still have a certain amount of playability inside. Gunrunner does not really 'suck you in'. Worth a luck purely for interest.

Stick to your guns - and play any of the other Hewson classic games.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: June of 1987
RELEASED BY: Hewson Consultants
DEVELOPER(S): Christian Urquhart and Mike Smith
PRICE: £7.95 - UK