Atomic Runner Chelnov

About Atomic Runner Chelnov

Atomic Runner Chelnov (1988) is Data East's controversial auto-scrolling arcade shooter in which a coal miner gains superhuman powers from a nuclear plant explosion, widely read as a Chernobyl parody.

Atomic Runner Chelnov in Depth

Chelnov, a coal miner, miraculously survives the malfunction and explosion of a nuclear power plant, and the massive radiation gives his body superhuman abilities. A secret organisation wants to exploit them for its own evil ends, and Chelnov must defeat it with his new powers across seven levels. The player uses an eight-way joystick and three buttons to attack, jump and turn around, collecting six weapons, a laser, fire rings, boomerangs, spiked bolas, a spiked ball whip and missiles, plus power-ups that raise attack power, rapid fire, range or jump height.

The screen scrolls left at a constant speed except during boss fights, and Chelnov keeps running even if the joystick is released; he can move left or right within the screen but cannot stop or go back except against bosses, though he can turn while jumping. His animation is highly detailed and smooth for its time, comparable to Karateka and the early Prince of Persia. The coal-miner setting, a hammer and sickle on the opening screen and the title, close to the Japanese spelling of Chernobyl, led many to see it as a parody of the disaster; Data East said on television that Chelnov was merely a relative of its character Karnov.

Making Atomic Runner Chelnov

Data East developed and published it for arcades in 1988, and Game Machine listed it as Japan's thirteenth most successful table arcade unit of February 1988. It was controversial on release because of its apparent Chernobyl references, and its Genesis conversion by Data East in 1992 used a different theme.