Posted November 29, 2010
...may as well get some practice in. But seriously folks, I was dusting off some more of my Amiga floppies, and came across another gem that just wouldn't fly in today's PC society. I'm talking about Nuclear War from New World Computing.
If you've played it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. When you first load up the game, the intro cine pays homage to/directly rips off the film "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb".
Basically, the game plays like this. There are four players, one human and three CPU. The object is to be the last player standing. This is achieved by nuking the hell out of your opponents' countries, or by luring your opponents' population into your own by use of strategic propaganda. Once a player loses all their population, all of their amassed weapons will deploy (that is, warheads that can be paired to a delivery system, such as a missile or bomber. If there are more warheads than delivery platforms, then obviously some warheads won't launch. Furthermore, the delivery platform must be capable of delivering a given warheads megatonnage. I.e. A 20-MT Missile can't deploy a 50-MT warhead, and that particular warhead won't deploy).
The comic relief comes in the form of the caricatures of world leaders (circa 1989) used by CPU players. We are graced by the presence of such persons as Ronnie Raygun, P.M. Satcher, Colonel Khadaffy, and Ghanji.
You probably won't see many "nuclear war" games taking such a lighthearted approach these days, and I'm surprised that games like "DEFCON: Everybody Dies" made it out of the gate. Fallout doesn't count, since it occurs AFTER the fact, and doesn't entail the player waging intercontinental atomic warfare. And no, firing the death ray on Mothership Zeta doesn't count either, that was an "Ooo, what does THIS button do?" situation.
If you've played it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. When you first load up the game, the intro cine pays homage to/directly rips off the film "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb".
Basically, the game plays like this. There are four players, one human and three CPU. The object is to be the last player standing. This is achieved by nuking the hell out of your opponents' countries, or by luring your opponents' population into your own by use of strategic propaganda. Once a player loses all their population, all of their amassed weapons will deploy (that is, warheads that can be paired to a delivery system, such as a missile or bomber. If there are more warheads than delivery platforms, then obviously some warheads won't launch. Furthermore, the delivery platform must be capable of delivering a given warheads megatonnage. I.e. A 20-MT Missile can't deploy a 50-MT warhead, and that particular warhead won't deploy).
The comic relief comes in the form of the caricatures of world leaders (circa 1989) used by CPU players. We are graced by the presence of such persons as Ronnie Raygun, P.M. Satcher, Colonel Khadaffy, and Ghanji.
You probably won't see many "nuclear war" games taking such a lighthearted approach these days, and I'm surprised that games like "DEFCON: Everybody Dies" made it out of the gate. Fallout doesn't count, since it occurs AFTER the fact, and doesn't entail the player waging intercontinental atomic warfare. And no, firing the death ray on Mothership Zeta doesn't count either, that was an "Ooo, what does THIS button do?" situation.
Post edited November 29, 2010 by predcon
