This was a request from a long-time subscriber. Zero Tolerance was – quite possibly – the very first FPS available on SEGA’s 16-bit ass-kicker. It was visually impressive for the time, considering the machine’s technical limitations. One problem….
It’s an Accolade game. Yeah, we’re kinda’ fucked.
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I LOVED this game on the Genesis. Of course, this was only my third ever fps, but I was impressed that the Genesis could pull it off in the first place. It was one of my final Genesis games before the 32X/Saturn era, but I remember it fondly.
LOL! I’m sorry, bro; tech-pushing graphics do not a good game make. Like I said in the video, I do give Accolade huge props for even being able to pull it off. Still, the narrow-perspective and dodgy frame-rate are unacceptable for me.
I will say this; it’s the only game I’ve played from Accolade that’s worth a toss.
This has got to be the epitome of what turned me off about western-developed games in the 90s. It seemed like every one that came out was an escalation of the battle to fill the screen with a HUD and reduce the amount of space where the game is actually displayed.
On a side note, I wanted to share this little story since you brought up Accolade. I remember them mainly as the originators of the Test Drive series way back when, and they had a decent reputation in their early years. But anyway, this past September I got a chance to see David Crane speak at a retro game convention. He started out at Atari, and later was one of the four ex-Atari programmers who left to form the very first third party company in history, Activision. He said that one of the reasons they chose the name Activision was to be listed before Atari in the alphabetical program guide to the Consumer Electronics Show, which was the main annual gaming show (among other consumer electronics) prior to the advent of E3. This was really a slap in the face to Atari and Nolan Bushnell, who had been notoriously flippant about how he believed that the programmers were no more important to Atari than the assembly line workers stuffing the cartridges into the boxes. Activision came along and made superior software and obviously became a major force in the game industry, and to top it all off they usurped Atari’s place in the CES program guide since their name came first in the alphabet. Well, as the years went on, other Atari and Activision programmers moved on to form their own company as well, which was — Accolade, which now came before Activision in the CES guide. Finally, David Crane himself left Activision eventually to form a new company — Absolute Entertainment. It was a funny story, and he said that whenever those guys get together on occasion, they can point at each other and list all the “A companies” they had worked for at one point or another.
I didn’t realize filling the screen with an atrocious HUD was a Western issue. What other titles would fall under that classification for you?
I knew a bit about the boys from Atari creating Activision, though I didn’t know that they went on to create Accolade. I need to beef up my gaming knowledge.
I think the super large hub and tiny gaming window was due to the fact that the game was pushing the Genesis tech pretty hard. It’s not normally capable of making polygon hallways and what not. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much. It was a technical marvel.
Also, Activision was found on programmers who defected from Atari because they got no recognition.
Did WLWS put themselves in the profile of the game?
That looked cool if they did.
MLWS, you ever play Combat Cars?
Not an amazing game by any stretch, but its a delightful romp indeed.
Sadly, I own it. Not a favorite. I wanna’ make an Accolade special at some point, but it’s hard working up the urge to talk about awful games.
“the narrow-perspective and dodgy frame-rate are unacceptable for me.”
It was acceptable in 1994 when my 12 year old self didn’t have a computer that could play Doom or even Wolfenstien. To me this game was a blast and it was my first experience playing a FPS from start to finish. If you didn’t play it back in the day then I can see how you’d have little tolerance for it but at the time and on the hardware it was on it did a good job. The reason they have the narrow view is because the sega genesis couldn’t handle any larger.
Play the game again and put yourself back in 1994. Then put yourself in the shoes of someone who really wanted to play an FPS but only had a sega genesis. You might enjoy the game a bit more. Things that stick out in my memory about this game is that the walls would bleed when you shot them (yeah a funny bug) and I liked the kick back when you got shot it really made shoot outs more intense. Last but not least… it had a flamethrower!!!!
This game will always be one of my most memorable. I’m sure I’d have fonder memories of Doom if I had it then.
Oh, I’m well aware it was pushing the hardware. I do commend them for that in the video. At least, I thought I did. If not, I do apologize.
It’s true that I didn’t play this in ’94. However, I did play Technocop. Though it was hardly a test of the console’s might, it too had a narrow perspective. Regardless, I enjoyed it immensely….nostalgia didn’t save it. I’m incapable of such empathy when I am faced with a 20″ screen, from which I sit a 5′ away. It strains my eyes and it simply isn’t enjoyable enough to put myself through that sort of grief.
Impressive for the time? Most certainly. Now? Not so much.