Crack Down

The game's action is fast. An innovative split screen lets two players work individually or as a team. Twin "overview" screens scroll in response to players' moves. Countdown timers and a pulsating sound track raise the game's excitement and tension.

D. Oscar K. is after human hide. This white-coat gone turncoat was in charge of experimental research at an underground factory that produced half-human, half-robot cyborgs. Former employees -- the ones who survived -- say he was a decent guy until he went crazy and wired his 'borgs for evil. Now they want to destroy human beings instead of putting hubcaps on new cars. Needless to say, it is up to you to destroy these haywire hybrids.

Do not be fooled by the flesh-tone. If it is pasty-faced, it is after anything that is pure biology. Take another freedom fighter down the manhole with you or go solo. Just see to it that all the bombs are set in all the right places. Then scram before they go off. Move onto more hostile sectors, where corners get darker and more dangerous.

You have machine guns and full brain capacity on your side. The cyborgs only have half-a-mind, but a sinister set of software to eliminate you.

Two players work together, fighting their way through 16 levels of an underground laboratory. Time bombs must be set by running over areas marked with an 'X'. Machine guns and cannons must be reloaded by finding ammo on each level. If ammo runs out, the players must result to punching and kicking to defeat opponents. Each level is unique and full of surprises. The layouts, opponents, and obstacles very creative.

Players can move and shoot in all eight directions. The split-screen view panes scroll the maze individually, keeping each player centered. The left button fires the cannon and machine gun. The right button sets off the super bomb.

This game features a unique dual marquee. The "CRACKDOWN" title overlays the marquee with the "SEGA" title.

To convert Scramble Spirits to Crack Down, simply swap the floppy and the custom 68000 processor.

This game runs on a System 24 board. The game itself resides on a floppy disk that requires a matching custom 68000, which is manufactured by Hitachi. The custom CPU decrypts program code only, not data. The reset vector and initial stack values are encrypted, but the remainder of the vector table is not.

Presumably the CPU either holds a decryption key in battery backed RAM, or the decryption key is hard-coded into the CPU itself. I have never heard of a custom 68000 dying before, but it's known that the custom Z80 modules (made by NEC) can stop working sometimes.