Cisco Heat

Players can take different routes to bypass certain portions of the course. Three cabinet types were created, a standard upright, a sit-down, and a motion-based "deluxe" machine; both of these could be connected, or "linked", together to enable multiplayer. Designed by many former employees of Sega, who had left the company to form BitBox, which developed Jaleco Rally: Big Run. After Jaleco absorbed the company, the team began work on a spiritual successor to Big Run, which became Cisco Heat. The game was ported to the Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and MS-DOS, all of which were published in Europe by Image Works. The arcade version of Cisco Heat was praised for its gameplay, presentation and controls, with one reviewer finding it to be a drastic improvement over Jaleco's previous arcade games. Home computer ports were met with a more negative reception for their poor quality.

• Title — Cisco Heat • Border — yes • Developer — Jaleco Home computers ICE Software • Publisher — Jaleco Home computers Image Works • Platforms — Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum • Genre — Racing • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

• Illustration — Arcade version screenshot In Cisco Heat, players control a police squad car through San Francisco in an attempt to win the "National Championship Police Car Steeplechase" in first place. Gameplay is similar to Out Run and Chase H.Q., where players must race against computer-controlled vehicles to the end of each section, taking place in a different area of San Francisco. Sections contain famous landmarks from the city, namely the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and tram cars, as well as several features such as steep dives, 90-degree turns and multiple selectable routes, which can allow players to bypass certain portions of the race and shortcut to another area. Players can select from two different police cars, both of which are based on the Cadillac Brougham and Nissan 300ZX Z32 respectively. Up to four Cisco Heat cabinets can be connected, or "linked", together to enable multiplayer play.

Cisco Heat was developed and published by Jaleco, originally released in October 1990 in Japan. It was released in North America and Europe in November 1990. Most of the development staff who worked on the game were former members of Sega, who left the company to form the short-lived developer Bit Box, which created Jaleco Rally: Big Run (1989). After Jaleco absorbed the company in 1990, the development team became part of Jaleco and worked on a successor to Big Run, which later became Cisco Heat. For this reason, Cisco Heat bears several similarities to Big Run, and was even marketed as a conversion kit for older Big Run arcade units. In January 1991, Cisco Heat was exhibited at the Amusement Trades Exhibition International expo in the United Kingdom. Three different cabinet types were produced for the game: standard upright, sit-down, and a "deluxe" unit with minor motion capabilities. The soundtrack was composed by Yasuhiko Takashiba.

Home computer ports of Cisco Heat were done by UK-based developers ICE Software and Moonstone Computing. Versions for the Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum were published by Image Works. An Atari Jaguar version of Cisco Heat was announced in 1994, but never released.