Perhaps stung by that earlier blast of controversy, however, the company opted to remove all traces of the original game’s Russian theme, with the hammer and sickle removed from the title screen and the backstory altered almost beyond recognition. For the console version, Chelnov’s job description was shifted from a coal miner to a scientist; the explosion occurs at his house rather than a nuclear power plant, and there’s no mention of nuclear fallout giving Chelnov special powers. Instead, his father (who’s mortally wounded in the explosion) furnishes Chelnov with a high-tech suit that allows him to run at superhuman speeds and so on.

While the game was still called Chelnov in Japan, Data East changed the title to Atomic Runner in the US and Europe. What’s more noteworthy than the changes to the title and story, though, is how much effort the studio lavished on the game itself. Rather than simply port across the arcade version, they completely overhauled the graphics and sound; the fast-moving action remains broadly the same, but the Genesis version is a far more slick, handsome-looking game than its predecessor. We’d go even further, and argue that it’s the best arcade conversion Sega’s console ever saw.

At first glance, Atomic Runner might look like a cut-down version of a run-and-gunner like Konami’s Contra. The vital difference here is that the game’s tiny protagonist can’t stop running; like a typical 2D space ship shooter of the period, Atomic Runner auto-scrolls, meaning the player has no choice but to keep up with the rolling action as enemies and platforms hurtle in from the right-hand side of the screen. It’s only when Chelnov reaches an area boss that the screen stops moving for a moment – and that’s only to give the gigantic bosses the time to throw salvos of bullets around the screen.

Atomic Runner is, therefore, your typical silver-age arcade game in a number of ways: it’s simple and fast-paced, and its action is designed to relieve your pockets of their coins within a few cosy minutes. What lifts Atomic Runner from the run-of-the-mill is its range of movement; Chelnov may be a fidgety hero, but he’s also athletic. He can perform huge jumps that can reach the top of the screen with a power-up or two; he can in almost any direction, bounce on enemies and use them as platforms, while his firepower can also be upgraded with a range of alternate projectile weapons.

Atomic Runner on the Genesis takes all this and polishes it to a mirrored shine. Where the arcade version’s graphics were flat and somewhat austere, the home edition gives every element more detail and personality. The game starts in a typical industrial setting, but the level designs soon diverge from the arcade version completely; there are backgrounds full of Egyptian pyramids and Maoi heads from Easter Island. Enemies range from the mechanical to the biological to the downright weird: level two takes place in a kind of fantasy monster’s nest that’s full of robotic rabbits, spiders and owls. A later stage takes place in a parched desert, before moving into an ancient tomb where the player’s attacked by a living demon statue. It’s all deliriously, wonderfully bonkers.