In an interview with the blog Like Totally 80s, game designer George Gomez revealed that the idea for Spy Hunter was inspired by a cassette tape of James Bond music he was listening to on a Walkman during a trip to Japan. The game was originally supposed to be directly based on the James Bond franchise and would have featured the theme song from the Bond movies, but he was unable to secure a license for the series. Instead, the theme song to the TV series "Peter Gunn" was used in the final game.