Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a video game loosely inspired by the 1982 film Blade Runner, but actually based on the movie soundtrack by Vangelis as the publishers were unable to obtain a licence for a film tie-in. The game was published in 1985 by CRL Group PLC for Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. Reviews of the game were average at best.

The plot of the game is similar to the associated movie. Replidroids (sic for replicants), designed for use in space, have been banned from Earth following a revolt on a colony. The role of eliminating any replidroids found on earth is given to a unit of bounty hunters.

The game features the player character hunting down replidroids for bounty money. On loading the game, the player has to listen to around two minutes of music from the movie soundtrack without any ability to skip the sequence. Author Will Brooker notes that due to the computers' sonic limitations, the "grandiose swoops and fanfares" of the soundtrack were reduced to "a tinny one-channel burble".

The game first presents the player with a map showing the locations of the fugitive replidroids and the player's flying car, which must be steered over a droid on the map. At this point the game switches to a side scrolling game in which the player must avoid crowds and cars whilst in pursuit of the replidroid. As the levels increase, so does the level of the replidroids. The first level droids are slow and stupid, but the sixth level ones are faster than a human.