Spy vs. Spy II: The Island Caper



Spy vs. Spy II: The Island Caper is a computer game developed by Michael J. Riedel, and first published by First Star Software in 1985 for the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64 and Apple II computers. It is the sequel to the original Spy vs. Spy game. Like the origina game, it is a two-player, split-screen game, based on MAD Magazine's long running cartoon strip, Spy vs. Spy, about the slapstick antics of two spies trying to kill each other with improbably complex and elaborate traps and weapons.

The object of the exercise is to kill your opponent as many times as possible, while collecting all three pieces of a missile found on an island, and climbing in a submarine to escape the island before the timer expires and the island volcano erupts. Each spy has a personal countdown timer. When a spy is killed they drop all their items, and are forced to sit out of the game for a few moments while their timer is depleted at a faster rate. The second game isn't remembered quite as fondly as the original game.

It was later ported to a much wider range of platforms. It was released on several popular European computer formats, such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC. It received 16-bit conversions on the Atari ST, and Commodore Amiga. It was converted for the home console market to the Famicom. It was announced to be published in the North American market for the NES, but that release was canceled. One more sequel in this series was developed, subtitled Arctic Antics.

Story
This game, based on MAD magazine's agents in Black & White, is a madcap game in split screen Simulvision which allows each Spy to see what the other spy is doing. This also allows both players (or one against a computer opponent) to play simultanously. You travel through a selectable, yet randomly generated maze of palm trees and interconnected pathways on a tropical island. While setting and defusing booby-traps, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat, you must search for and collect three missile pieces (which can only be carried together when they are connected) in order to escape from the island in a submarine before the volcano on the island erupts.