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CISCO HEAT
review | AMIGA
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a.k.a. Cisco Heat: All American Police Car Race
Publisher: Image Works. Developer: ICE Software. Released: 1992. Genre: Racing. Other versions: C64; SPC; CPC; ST; PC. Posted 30th June 2025. By Tom Clare © 2025 |
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Bursting into arcades in 1990, Jaleco’s Cisco Heat was an endearingly over-ambitious racer, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at players in a frenzied street dash that saw stomach-churning undulations, ninety-degree camera swivels and an array of enormous sprites haphazardly bouncing in and out of the fray. Technically, it was very patchy, but the game summed up the thrill of the arcades: a level of excess you never really got in the home environment. ICE’s Amiga port encapsulated many of the same highs and lows as the coin-op. It scores significant points for a premise that sees players living out their Hollywood action film dreams, racing police cars through the streets of San Francisco. Unfortunately, it loses ground in fundamental areas (something endemic to ICE’s Amiga ports), namely choppy performance and poor programming.
For a generation growing up with the likes of Outrun and the Lotus games, the conceit of piloting cop cars and threading through traffic at speed on the streets of San Francisco was almost worth the cost of admission in itself. Indeed, I fear I stuck with Cisco Heat longer than it merited, in the hope its awesome themes would coalesce in a dazzling realisation. Sadly, the moment never quite materialises. It’s far from a lost cause, but you’re left feeling it’s a lot less than the sum of its parts.
Cisco Heat's packed with action, though it's not quite as dynamic in action as it is in stills
After choosing between two police cruisers, the player must beat the clock over the course of five stages. Both the handling and the scrolling are a little on the sluggish side, though it’s playable enough with a bit of practice. There is no obvious benefit to choosing the orange cruiser (beyond its swish paintwork), as a slower top speed makes reaching checkpoints more difficult, and you’re going to need to ensure a minimum number of mistakes to see the end. In an admirable show of over-ambition, the game struggles under an avalanche of enormous scenic sprites, road furniture, police cars, traffic and opposition racers. Cops are especially irritating as they drive through the player from off-screen, or cause distraction by jolting all over the road. Iffy sprite scaling makes judging their exact position tricky, whilst some of the buildings vary so wildly, they sometimes end up looking smaller than your car when alongside. Traffic and opposition racers can be scattered by beeping the horn, though this is crudely realised and feels gimmicky as a result.
That said, Cisco Heat produces some cool flourishes. Threading between toll booths, avoiding taxis at intersections, dodging trams, navigating huge undulations and landing extravagant jumps. There’s no shortage of stuff to deal with. The cop-show theme music is fun, and the simple but stylish gameplay BGM adds a bit of atmosphere. Not exactly Bullitt in gaming form, but it has its moments.
That said, Cisco Heat produces some cool flourishes. Threading between toll booths, avoiding taxis at intersections, dodging trams, navigating huge undulations and landing extravagant jumps. There’s no shortage of stuff to deal with. The cop-show theme music is fun, and the simple but stylish gameplay BGM adds a bit of atmosphere. Not exactly Bullitt in gaming form, but it has its moments.
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Cisco Heat looks flashy, at least on paper. Bold, impressive sprites and busy roads look eye-catching in screenshots, though unfortunately, its markedly less impressive in motion. The animation is fairly simplistic, the scaling very choppy and the frame rate underwhelming. Nevertheless, there are some nice graphical touches, such as the guy with the starter pistol at the beginning of each stage, the crowd and mechanics at the finish and little scenic aspects, such as the releasing of balloons. The ninety-degree camera-swivel trick proves one of the more successful throw-overs from the arcade game.
It’s a tricky game to finish, though also relatively short. I completed the game after seven or eight attempts, with the majority of trouble stemming from the second and third stages, where numerous obstacles are unsighted, either by the ninety-degree cornering camera or blind crests. Time is relatively strict, as suffering more than one mishap will see you struggling to make the time cut. Two continues offers a little wriggle room, and once you clear the second and third stages, the last couple seem a bit more manageable. As with many arcade racers of the time, CH includes a largely pointless two-gear setup, requiring an up-shift two seconds after the start, before being forgotten until you’re next brought to a standstill by a crash. If you’re playing with a joystick, an act of design folly sees the horn assigned to “Fire”, with the keyboard’s Spacebar needed to change gear.
It’s a tricky game to finish, though also relatively short. I completed the game after seven or eight attempts, with the majority of trouble stemming from the second and third stages, where numerous obstacles are unsighted, either by the ninety-degree cornering camera or blind crests. Time is relatively strict, as suffering more than one mishap will see you struggling to make the time cut. Two continues offers a little wriggle room, and once you clear the second and third stages, the last couple seem a bit more manageable. As with many arcade racers of the time, CH includes a largely pointless two-gear setup, requiring an up-shift two seconds after the start, before being forgotten until you’re next brought to a standstill by a crash. If you’re playing with a joystick, an act of design folly sees the horn assigned to “Fire”, with the keyboard’s Spacebar needed to change gear.
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As is so often the case with racers of the early nineties, time is your greatest enemy
I did return to Cisco Heat a handful of times after completion, but it’s a difficult recommendation for anyone already familiar with the Lotus series. There are driving games that deliver smoother, faster and more responsive gameplay on the Amiga, and with greater replayability. In the final reckoning, CH is a flawed racer that delivers sporadic fun and a few great moments, but whose terrible AI and sketchy performance characteristics ultimately see it consigned to the middle of the pack.
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VERDICT"a flawed racer that delivers sporadic fun and a few great moments, but whose terrible AI and sketchy performance characteristics ultimately see it consigned to the middle of the pack." OVERALL: 5/10 |
OTHER BEHIND-THE-DRIVER RACERS FROM THE 90s REVIEWED
Burnin' Rubber (1990, GX4000)
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Street Racer (1994, Super Nintendo)
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