Cobra was the game of the 1986 Sylvester Stallone film, in which Stallone plays a policeman protecting a fashion model from a gang of killers. On the Spectrum, Ocean gave the licence to Jonathan “Joffa” Smith, who had written Green Beret for its Imagine label. The result took 93% and a Smash in CRASH in December 1986, and the magazine’s readers were still voting for it more than a year later. The Commodore 64 game of the same name was a different program, and ZZAP!64 gave it 13%.
Fast facts
- Spectrum programmer: Jonathan Smith (credited by CRASH as “Johnathan Smith”). Publisher: Ocean.
- Price: £7.95 on Spectrum cassette; £8.95 for the Commodore 64.
- CRASH: 93% and a Smash, issue 35, December 1986.
- Structure: three levels of wrap-around scrolling play (city streets, countryside, factory), one skill level.
The game
CRASH’s review set out the plot with some amusement. Cobra has to keep the model Ingrid Knutsen out of the hands of the Night Slasher’s gang, working through a city at night, then the countryside, then a factory for the final fight with the Night Slasher himself. He starts unarmed and head-butts his attackers off the screen. Weapons are hidden inside hamburgers: a knife, a pistol or a laser-sighted machine gun. A weapon lasts only as long as a duck at the bottom of the screen, which is gradually eaten away. Ingrid appears when Cobra is doing well; while she is at his side, a hit from an enemy costs him her company rather than a life. And the sight of a pram hurtling towards him leaves him stunned, which prompted one reviewer to ask “why is Mr Macho scared of babies?”
The reviewers praised how it moved and sounded. One found the scrolling “very smooth and fast”, another called the graphics “truly the best that I’ve seen in a ‘hard guy game’”, and a third thought it “very Green Beret-ish in style”. The verdict panel called the sound “the best on the Spectrum for years” and the game “the best Hard Guy game there is”. The ratings were 93% for use of computer, 91% for graphics, 94% for playability and 93% overall.
Part of that sound was Martin Galway’s. The One later noted that his tune for Ocean’s Arkanoid had first appeared in the Spectrum Cobra.
The other versions
Ocean released Cobra for the Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC as well. ZZAP!64 reviewed the Commodore game in February 1987 and marked it down in every category: 28% for graphics, 7% for value and 13% overall. Two months later a reader wrote in to complain that the review was unfair. Amtix reviewed the Amstrad version in April 1987.
In the charts
CRASH‘s Hotline chart counted readers’ votes for the games they were playing, not sales in the shops (see Reading the charts). Cobra entered it at 13 in February 1987 and climbed slowly:
| CRASH issue | Hotline position |
|---|---|
| 37, February 1987 | 13 (new entry) |
| 38, March 1987 | 7 |
| 39, April 1987 | 2 |
| 40, May 1987 | 2 |
| 41, June 1987 | 2 |
| 42, July 1987 | 3 |
| 43, August 1987 | 3 |
| 44, September 1987 | 4 |
| 45, October 1987 | 10 |
| 51, April 1988 | 17 |
For its three months at number 2 it sat under Gauntlet, which held the top of the chart for eight months that year. When CRASH combined every Hotline chart it had printed into an all-time Top 30 in January 1988, Cobra came 22nd.
Sources
- CRASH, issue 35, December 1986, pp. 140–141: Cobra review (Ocean, £7.95, author “Johnathan Smith”, 93%).
- ZZAP!64, issue 22, February 1987, p. 87: Commodore 64 Cobra review (Ocean, £8.95, 13%). Issue 24, April 1987: reader’s letter about the review.
- Amtix, issue 18, April 1987: Amstrad CPC Cobra review.
- CRASH, Hotline Top 30 and Top 20 charts: issue 37, February 1987, p. 72; issue 38, March 1987, p. 107; issue 39, April 1987, p. 105; issue 40, May 1987, p. 134; issue 41, June 1987, p. 119; issue 42, July 1987, p. 92; issue 43, August 1987, p. 111; issue 44, September 1987, p. 89; issue 45, October 1987, p. 109; issue 51, April 1988, p. 97. Issue 47, December 1987, p. 113, on Gauntlet’s eight months at number 1.
- CRASH, issue 48, January 1988, p. 139: all-time Top 30 compiled from every Hotline chart.
- The One, issue 18, March 1990: A–Z entry on Martin Galway (Arkanoid and Cobra).