Mode(s) Up to 2 Players CPU 68010 Genre Platform game | Arcade system Atari System 1 Initial release date 1985 | |
 | ||
Composer(s) Hal Canon & Earl Vickers (Arcade version), Gavan Anderson & Tania Smith (NES version) Display Raster, 336 x 240, horizontal orientation Platforms Arcade game, Nintendo Entertainment System Developers Atari Games, Tengen, Canvas Publishers Atari Games, Atari, Tengen, Mindscape, U.S. Gold Sounds MOS Technology 6502 (main sound), Yamaha YM2151 (FM stereo sound) Similar Tengen games, Platform games | ||
Road Runner is a variant of the platformer genre, based on the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts. It was developed and released by Atari Games in 1985.
Contents
Gameplay
The player controls Road Runner, who is chased by Wile E. Coyote. In order to escape, Road Runner runs endlessly to the left. While avoiding the coyote, the player must pick up bird seeds on the street, avoid obstacles like cars, and get through mazes. Sometimes Wile E. Coyote will just run after the Road Runner, but he occasionally uses tools like rockets, roller skates, and pogo-sticks.
Ports
Road Runner was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Atari 2600, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and NES. Like other NES games released by Tengen, the NES version of Road Runner was unlicensed by Nintendo itself, released as an unlicensed cartridge rounding Nintendo's protections.
Reception
The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #140 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. The game went to number 2 in the UK sales charts, behind Exolon.
