Microprose Gunship

[Alix Stocking]

Thegame features missions in five regions, including the U.S. (training), Southeast Asia (1st Air Cavalry Division), Central America (82nd Airborne Division), Middle East (101st Airborne Division) and Western Europe (3rd Armored Division).[2] After selection of region, style, and enemies, the pilot is assigned a primary mission and a secondary mission. These could include such objectives as "Destroy enemy headquarters" or "Support friendly troops" (i.e. destroy targets near friendly forces). The latter would be an easier mission, because the battle would be fought closer to friendly lines.

The pilot then arms the Apache helicopter gunship, usually selecting AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles (guided missiles that destroy "hard" targets such as bunkers and tanks), FFARs (Folding Fin Aerial Rockets; unguided rockets that destroy "soft" targets such as infantry and installations), and HEDP (High-Explosive, Dual-Purpose) rounds for the 30 mm cannon (an all-purpose weapon with a maximum range of 1.5 km); in Central America, the Middle East, and Western Europe, AIM-9 Sidewinders would also be standard equipment, usually as a backup air-to-air weapon in case of cannon failure.

Patient players might move in short jumps, crouching behind hills to block the enemy's line of sight and suddenly popping up to attack. More aggressive players generally fly fast and erratically to evade enemy fire, flying in low to deliver devastating cannon attacks at close range. Since flight time is a component of the mission evaluation, either method has its advantages. The latter, however, can be rather dangerous against 1st Line enemies whose fast reaction times can cause the chopper to be pummelled with relentless fire.

Most enemy fire, especially small caliber, is deflected by armor, but some will cause systems damage. After enough damaging hits, the structural integrity will fail, causing a general power failure that requires the pilot to use autorotation to land safely. An emergency landing by a seriously injured pilot in enemy territory causes him to become Missing in Action. If the pilot lands without serious injury, he can escape back to base and live to fight another day.

There is no defined time limit in the game. A player can return to any number of Forward Area Resupply Points to be rearmed, refueled and damage repaired. Returning to the Home Base will end the mission. Ideally, the pilot completes both missions, knocks out other targets, and makes it back to base within 20 minutes.

There is no ending to Gunship. Promotions stop once a pilot makes Colonel, although he can continue amassing medals, such as the Purple Heart, Air Medal, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross, and the Medal of Honor and retire with a final promotion to Brig. General. No medals in this game are prerequisites for earning others (the requirement of shooting down two Hinds in one mission for the Medal of Honor led some to believe that it was not possible to earn it before earning lower medals). Repeated medals are harder to earn than the first one.[3] The criteria for winning medals is based on types of targets destroyed, number of targets destroyed, objectives met, time elapsed, and sometimes whether or not the pilot is wounded. As in real life, medals in this game can be awarded posthumously.

MicroProse intended Gunship to simulate an urban helicopter akin to Blue Thunder, but found that city graphics were too difficult. It instead used tools developed for F-15 Strike Eagle to create another military simulation.[4] The game was released in 1986 for the PC DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, FM Towns, MSX, PC-98, Sharp X68000, and ZX Spectrum.

Gunship was also ported to the Sega Genesis by U.S. Gold only in Europe in 1993. However, this version of the game differed from the others by featuring more arcade-style gameplay and horizontal shoot 'em up stages.

Info magazine gave Gunship for the Commodore 64 five stars out of five, describing it as "without qualification, the best combat flight simulator ever released for an 8-bit computer!" Praising its graphics, weapons, sound, controls, physics, and documentation, the magazine concluded that it was "PRIME!"[8] Computer Gaming World stated "this reviewer heartily recommends Gunship ... A five-star rating (my highest) is well-deserved."[9] In a 1994 survey of wargames the magazine gave the title three stars out of five, stating that "When initially released, this was THE helicopter simulation".[10]

Gunship received the Origins Award for "Best Screen Graphics in a Home Computer Game of 1986".[11] It won the award for best simulation game of the year according to the readers of Crash.[12] In 1987, Computer Gaming World named Gunship as its action game of the year,[13] in 1988 the game joined the magazine's Hall of Fame for games highly rated over time by readers,[14] and in 1996, the magazine ranked it as the 102nd best game of all time.[15]

I can't remember how many moons ago it was that Microprose released the original Gunship. But I do remember I was only a slip of a lad. I remember halcyon days of laughter, music and sunshine.

Memories of mother's dumplings came flooding back, and how she'd beat me senseless with her suet stick. Little did I know that training of that nature would prepare me for my vacation of life: War correspondent for Amiga Computing! But enough of this reminiscing, back to Gunship.

The original was immediately heralded a classic, selling over one million copies and scooping up an army of gaming awards. Since then, there have been others to follow in the footsteps of the grandfather of helicopters sims. I think most of us will remember the outstanding Thunderhawk. This, while offering superior graphics, was slightly let down by a tricky control system.

To all intents and purposes, this has always been the problem with this particular genre. Helicopters are damned complicated pieces of equipment for programmers to replicate. Either the visuals suffer form poor, juddery graphics or the control systems vary from simplistic through to requiring the dexterity of an octopus.

Once I had my grubby maulers delving inside the box, the first thing my paws came into contact with was the manual. To say it's extensive is an understatement: the best part of 200 pages of instructions and techno-data, had me gulping hard in my best war-torn correspondent-type gulp.

It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it - or some macho type once said. So, with a casual shrug of the shoulders, I booted up. The first thing to greet me was a stunning intro sequence showing the AH-64A - or Apache to his friends - shooting large projectiles at your monitor!

After the cinematic intro screens, it's off to Fort Rucker to begin active duty within the US Army Aviation Centre. You begin life as a lowly Warrant Officer candidate. But with training and hard work, the sky's the limit.

The first option screen allows you to choose which theatre of war you wish to take part in. These vary between central Europe and the Persian Gulf, although Microsoft are promising add-on disks in the near-future to widen the scope further. You can also take the liberty of training - never a bad idea - before rushing headlong into the fray.

Having pondered these and other options, it's time for mission briefing. Here, one can view orders, plot waypoints for targets and read enemy movements. As this is a true simulator, you are also given atmospherics such as wind speed and weather conditions to puzzle over.

Anyway, before you go for your re-enaction of the first episode of the Whirly Birds, it's always fun to go shopping at the ordinance stores. This screen allows you to look at the hardware at your disposal.

The action takes place in the near future, around the year 2000 to be precise - surprise, surprise! Much of the helicopter technology on offer is still in the development stage. This means that you get to fly these ultra powerful machines of the future before the real aero-jocks do!

You get to choose form eight of the beasts, all having different uses and qualities. From the ultra-modern Longbow Apache Gunship, through to the older 'copters like the Cobra, the choice is yours. Next on the shopping list is a vast arsenal of attack and defence systems. Your choice of destructive toys is vast and plenty enough to keep the craziest of air-wolves happy.

Having selected your craft and weaponry it's time for the crunch. Ascending up into the great blue yonder can be made as real or as shoot-'em-up as you like. This is thanks to a set of toggles that allow you to alter the majority of features likely to affect flight.

Now, I'm not going to bore you with the aeronautics of vertical flight. This is because, quite frankly I haven't got a bloody clue. All I do know is that the first element of chopper control is the collective.

This refers to the angle of attack adopted by the rotors; the steeper the blade angle, the greater the lift. On Gunship, this aspect is dealt with via the keyboard. The second part of the equation is the cyclic which behaves exactly like, and is controlled by the joystick. Finally, there's the anti-torque rotor which again is keyboard operated. It sounds fairly complicated - that's because it is. But, as I said, the manual is in-depth and where I stole all the above info from.

The terrain is both interesting and varied. It's not unlikely for you to screech past billboards or even to harass a resting camel - that's on the Chester Zoo mission by the way!

The whole smoothness and variety of the landscape is thanks to a new system which generates terrain with undulations. All I can say is seeing is believing!

In terms of action, there's more than enough. Everything is controlled in your bird, by state-of-the-art HUD controls. It's a good job because when it's tin-hat time, you've really got a hob on your hands. The enemy craft are plentiful and very well defined. They move about the play area quickly and for once there's no noticeable loss of pace on screen update.

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