Traffic Department 2192

A multidirectional shooting game by P-Squared Productions / Safari Software, released in 1994 for MS-DOS, as Shareware. It was re-released as freeware under Creative Commons in 2007 and can be downloaded from here.

The planet Seche is besieged by the Vulture cult-army, bent on conquest. The only line of defense is the local Traffic Departments, patrolling through the city streets in "hoverskids" -- hovering craft armed with pulse cannons and missiles.

The story begins in 2178, with Ric Velasquez, a Lieutenant in the Vulthaven Traffic Department, returning home from garrison duty to see his 11-year old daughter. Before he can reach the hangar, however, he's shot down by Vulture hoverskids and reduced to a flaming wreck. Fourteen years later, the daughter, Marta Louise Velasquez, has joined the Vulthaven TD to avenge her father's death.

The game is highly linear, consisting of a fixed series of missions, and also very story-oriented in the Story to Gameplay Ratio.


 * Alas, Poor Scrappy:
 * Anticlimax Boss:
 * Apocalypse How:
 * Brainwashed:
 * Bald of Evil: Almost any male Vulture high officer.
 * Cloning Blues: Oh my, Dr. Ramses. A couple other character are subjected to this trope, but he is the absolute master.
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: The Vultures use it a lot, and it tends to lead to the death of the subject. The Traffic Department prefers Truth Serum.
 * Complete Monster: Almost any Vulture character.
 * Cowboy Cop: Velasquez, taken to the absolute limit. Her one and only motivation is to kill as many Vultures as possible, and she doesn't care who or what gets in her way. She has no sense of professionalism, little obedience to orders, and insults everyone she meets, including her superiors. The only thing keeping her from being a Jerk Sue is that everyone hates her right back.
 * Plus she has a Freudian Excuse for her attitude, of which her commander is well aware.
 * Cutscene: Of the most primitive sort: text under Character Portraits, with occasional still images.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Justified. The technology to replace damaged brain areas is new and untested,
 * Da Chief: A friend of Velasquez's father, which is one of the reasons he's willing to put up with her. (The other is that most of his other pilots are dead.)
 * Desert Punk
 * Enemy Civil War: The Vultures are a bit unstable, to say the least.
 * Escort Mission
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Even after they reveal that his name is Carl, the cutscenes only refer to him as Dispatcher.
 * Evil Versus Evil: All five factions in parts 1 and 2 have at least a few skeletons in their closet..
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Heroic Willpower:
 * Hopeless War: Becomes very apparent as the game progresses.
 * Ineffectual Death Threats: The main way in which Velasquez interacts with people. Occasionally, they become effectual death threats.
 * It Got Worse: The game's plot is made of this trope up until almost the end.
 * Lizard Folk: Lieutenant Junior Grade Koth and the Selarian race.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Because they tend to get killed.
 * One-Man Army: Velasquez, and she has the personality to match. The other characters treat her somewhat like an attack dog.
 * Mission Briefing
 * Morality Chain: Velasquez has several, most of them stripped away over the course of the game. The most important is.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: A few of them for failed missions.
 * Not So Different: Velasquez and the Vultures, less and less subtly.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning:
 * Revenge Before Reason: Velasquez. Her crowning moment is
 * Shifting Sand Land: The planet Seche.
 * Spicy Latina: With a name like 'Velasquez'...
 * Story Overwrite:
 * Stupidity Is the Only Option: Fail in the mission listed under Revenge Before Reason, and it restarts after a message that failure puts everyone's lives at risk. Succeed, and the plot will continue, but Velasquez will be chewed out for putting everyone's lives at risk.
 * Unholy Matrimony: Generals Talon and Marilith close to the end of Episode 3.
 * Villain Protagonist: Velasquez would dispute this, but by part 3 most of those around her wouldn't.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting:
 * You Have Failed Me...:
 * This seems to be standard Vulture policy.
 * You Have Failed Me...:
 * This seems to be standard Vulture policy.
 * You Have Failed Me...:
 * This seems to be standard Vulture policy.