Conrad Hart

(First Appearance: Flashback, 1992)
How forgetful are you? I've been finding lately that my memory, once my proudest and strongest tool, is slowly becoming worse at recalling the simplest things. I found myself staring at a phone number on a piece of paper this morning, I know I wrote it, but I don't remember when, why or whose it is. I don't want to call it either and enter into an awkward "Who is this?" conversation.

Conrad B. Hart is suffering a similar problem, except his hasn't forgotten why he wrote down a mysterious number. Conrad has forgotten who is his, not in a "Lion King" sort of self-belief way, he's actually forgotten his name, identity and purpose. All he has is a gun, some of the whitest trainers ever and a holocube containing a message he recorded for himself.

So begins Flashback, a classic adventure game from Delphine and one of my favourite games of all time. Conrad, following the holocube's message, makes his way through Planet Titan to New Washington where he encounters his friend Ian, who helps him to recover his memory. Conrad has learnt that shape-shifting aliens are among us and plan to slowly spread across Earth by infiltrating high society, using their powers to pose as government officials.

Upon restoring his memory, Conrad immediately sets about returning to Earth to expose the conspiracy and stop the gooey bastards from ruining our planet. Sadly, Conrad is unequipped with a hyperdrive spaceship so instead he does what any of us would do in this situation, he gets a job.
This is where Conrad becomes a true hero, for two levels, our boy Hart has to hang around subway stations, repeatedly visit the job centre, get shuffled from window to window and, once all the paperwork and red-tape is dealt with, perform a series of tasks for a meagre wage. Upon earning 1500 credits, Conrad gambles it all on entry into a Running Man style gameshow, Death Tower (or Cyber Tower in the horrible SNES port) winning the show will get him his ticket to Earth.
"Our first contestant is Conrad! Bobby, tell us all about him!"
"Conrad is a wanted spy whose killed a lotta people recently and is hoping to get to Earth to stop an alien conspiracy to destroy his home planet and entire race. He also likes motor sports and walking through the park on clear Autumn days.""

If it were me, I probably would have given up at the "Work permit" mission, there is a nice bar in New Washington and a regular transportation system, Earth could hang for all I care.
But Conrad Hart is a better man than I am and having reached Earth, fought against corrupt cops, escaped from re-capture and battled the aliens on their home turf, he saves the day and blasts into space where his lack of trajectory means he will drift endlessly unless he randomly bumps into a lift home.

Conrad Hart is one of videogames very best heroes. A death-defying, gunslinging, high jumping, super cool customer, Conrad battles against an army of corrupt officials and deadly alien forces, pausing only to help those in need. Our hero gets shot down, loses his memory, gets a series of mundane jobs, wins a game-show, gets captured, travels through the galaxy, blows up the aliens and saves the human race only to be rewarded by being stranded in deep space until he is picked up by the bad-guys and thrown in jail again at the start of wonky pseudo-sequel Fade To Black.

Boy, Saving the known universe can really be a thankless task.
Here's to Conrad B. Hart and hopes that one day he may return to our screens in his rotoscoping, forward rolling, pistol-whipping ways.