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Who remembers the arcade game NARC?
- Thread starter Deleted member 12323
- Start date
It's message hasn't aged well lol
but I loved it then and have nostalgia for it now.
I like how it starts off with you just fighting homeless people and by the end you're fighting a gigantic head on a hovercraft that shoots tongues at you
but I loved it then and have nostalgia for it now.
I like how it starts off with you just fighting homeless people and by the end you're fighting a gigantic head on a hovercraft that shoots tongues at you
The graphics were crazy realistic at the time. It was fun to play even though its theme comes off as propaganda. The NES version also played pretty well despite the massive visual downgrade.
One of my favorite Game Informer Replay moments
Dan Ryckert going crazy through the entire playthrough.
Dan Ryckert going crazy through the entire playthrough.
Definitely a product of its time that you wouldn't see today (The "war against drugs" with militarized cops shooting first and asking qustions never, with bloody carnage results, junkie enemies tossing literally syringes at you.
As a late 80s arcade game, it was decently fun co-op quarter muncher.
As a late 80s arcade game, it was decently fun co-op quarter muncher.
I remember coming back from summer vacation in '89, and all of my friends were going on and on about this insane game at our local arcade called Narc. I had no idea what to expect, and man, was I blown away. At the time, it was probably one of the most impressive games ever made. There was FMV, tons of speech samples, and it played really well. Being a 12 year old kid that loved violent action and horror movies, it was a dream game.
I was kind of infatuated with Narc for awhile there.
I was kind of infatuated with Narc for awhile there.
A straight up propaganda machine that starts to go off the rails the further you get in with crazy bosses etc.
I was never a huge fan, but played more than my share in the arcades and especially on the NES.
Now if we are talking about weird looking digitized games that I loved, PIT FIGHTER was something I was hugely into.
I was never a huge fan, but played more than my share in the arcades and especially on the NES.
Now if we are talking about weird looking digitized games that I loved, PIT FIGHTER was something I was hugely into.
This game gets a lot of flak but I loved it at the time (the arcade version, not the home ports). It was still the pre-Street Fighter II era.
Definitely not one of Huge Euge's best games (I mean, compare this to Defender or Smash TV!) but memorable for sure.
I don't understand the "Narc was just propaganda for the war on drugs and hasn't aged well" thing that the YouTube generation seem to have latched on to recently. Narc was always a ridiculous over-the-top satire. It's as utterly stupid as a video game gets by design. It was the counter culture of the 1980s. Like how Robocop isn't actually about a super hero policeman.
I don't understand the "Narc was just propaganda for the war on drugs and hasn't aged well" thing that the YouTube generation seem to have latched on to recently. Narc was always a ridiculous over-the-top satire. It's as utterly stupid as a video game gets by design. It was the counter culture of the 1980s. Like how Robocop isn't actually about a super hero policeman.
Loved it, even though I sucked at it. I think I got to the area past the first subway section and that was about it. There was an early-'90s PC game from Access that was pretty much a NARC rip-off called Crime Wave. LGR did a great retrospective review of it back in 2015:
I played this on my PC before I got a decent sound card, so the digitized audio coming from my PC speaker was pretty excellent... even if that music was a rip-off too. LOL
I played this on my PC before I got a decent sound card, so the digitized audio coming from my PC speaker was pretty excellent... even if that music was a rip-off too. LOL
I remember it because it was one of the couple dozen games that were in rotation at the strip mall near me which had a convenience store, pizza place, and burger place for a total of like 8 arcade cabs across all the three places.
Think I still have my NES copy somewhere.
That's definitely a way to put it.
That's like the first thing I think of when someone brings up this game.
It's not just the youtube kids. It came across that way at the time for me as a teenager in the late '80s and didn't really feel it was doing the same thing as Robocop. I also didn't take it too seriously and still enjoyed playing it, though.
Absolutely!
I loved pit fighter and was already a fan of fighting games before SF2 before the "scene" was a thing.
Same with california games and skate or die... I was just waiting for a great skating game.
OMG thank you for saving me work! People are so quick to condemn anything for attention smh...it was an typical over-the-top satire that was reminiscent of movies at the time like National Lampoons or the detective movies with that old guy...it was a intentional comedic style that should be obvious even now...unless you are looking hard for a reason to ignore it.
That's what made the game cool...only movies were being made in that style...similar to how Conker's Bad Fur Day is like the animated cartoon humor of the 90s with Beavis and Butthead/Ren and Stimpy...
If you played NARC you likely were okay with using drugs lol...like what kind of reasoning is that even...
I mean Eugene's next game was Smash TV and that's basically The Running Man with Robocop sound bytes so it's pretty obvious where he was at. I have no doubt that everyone at Williams was coked up to their eyeballs at the time either, so there's that!
Pretty cool game! Played it in the arcade back in the day and later on Midway Arcade Treasures 2. Loved how over the top it was.
I despise the final boss, though. If you die while fighting him (trust me, you WILL die), you have to restart the whole battle instead of continuing where you left off. It's a really nasty way of coaxing people to insert more coins.
I despise the final boss, though. If you die while fighting him (trust me, you WILL die), you have to restart the whole battle instead of continuing where you left off. It's a really nasty way of coaxing people to insert more coins.
this game is fun for a bit and then you realize you're lucky if you can beat it without spending $20 in quarters, seriously the end game is literally a nightmare
OP
OP
ooo LGR seems like my cup of tea since I grew up in the 80s/90s playing pc games on the tandy
Not as bad as those games that were happy to let you continue - except on the last stage where the game would just end completely if you used your last life, rendering all the extra coins you might have spent moot. Ugh! Rastan and Shinobi spring to mind.
Heh, I would believe it.
It was the era of arcade game makers voluntarily putting this message on arcade machines:
and it was hard to tell if companies really gave a shit about that or just wanted anything to deflect from all the hatred the older generations had against video games. It was probably the latter. If younger gamers think this medium is stigmatized now, it's nothing compared to back then.
It's one of my favorite channels! His "LGR Thrifts" series is terrific.
This magazine ad was shared here recently
that's some pretty nice artwork for a shitty looking game
It wouldn't surprise me if it was done with a great deal of irony! From what I understand it was done willfully at the time to stay on the good side of the US government (for reasons that would become clear soon after). The interesting thing is we got the same message on cabinets in the UK, where the FBI are irrelevant and there was no US-style "war on drugs". It pops up in some European-made home ports, too.
The most hilarious thing about the Narc reboot is that the game went from literally fighting a war on drug dealers to using drugs as a power up. Maybe one of the most baffling changes I've ever seen in a reboot.
The Youtube generation doesnt understand satire. So many people in this thread believe the game was playing it straight.
Who doesn't remember this game?
As a kid in the 80s it had guns and excessive violence. Thats still a great recipe for success in vdieogames.
I have to admit I had no idea WTF a NARC actually was when I played this game. In terms of media this has to be the all time best portrayal and moment for NARCs in any form of media. They were the heroes of the game.
As a kid in the 80s it had guns and excessive violence. Thats still a great recipe for success in vdieogames.
I have to admit I had no idea WTF a NARC actually was when I played this game. In terms of media this has to be the all time best portrayal and moment for NARCs in any form of media. They were the heroes of the game.
Yeah I'm sure that's exactly why they brought in drug dealers, I believe you Euge. ;)
Yeah, those are even worse. In fact, I even made a thread about that very thing a while ago!
The scummy tactics classic arcade games made use of to steal your cash
I adore classic arcade games, but even I have to admit some of those were designed to make you part with your money as quickly as possible. Here's an example: Denying you the ability to continue from a certain point So, you've just emptied the contents of your wallet into the cabinet, but...
www.resetera.com
Mr. Big is a blatant quarter sucker even by Jarvis's standards. The icing on the cake are the giant wasp things that show up at the very end if you dawdle too long. Nothing like a game where you can die after beating the final boss.
A historical footnote is that this was one of the first (if not the first) arcade games with a full 32-bit processor (the TMS34010, which became very popular in PC accelerator cards used for AutoCAD and the like). Also the unreleased Judge Dredd game by Midway was kind of a spiritual successor, albeit much more reliant on traditional beat-'em-up mechanics instead of gunplay.
A historical footnote is that this was one of the first (if not the first) arcade games with a full 32-bit processor (the TMS34010, which became very popular in PC accelerator cards used for AutoCAD and the like). Also the unreleased Judge Dredd game by Midway was kind of a spiritual successor, albeit much more reliant on traditional beat-'em-up mechanics instead of gunplay.