M1 Tank Platoon
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| M1 Tank Platoon | |
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| Developer(s) | Microprose |
| Publisher(s) | Microprose |
| Designer(s) | Arnold Hendrick, Scott Spanburg |
| Release date(s) | 1989 |
| Genre(s) | Simulation, tactical wargame |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS |
| Media | Floppy disk |
| Input | Keyboard, Mouse, joystick |
M1 Tank Platoon is a computer game, released by developer Microprose in 1989. It was one of the first titles released by the company and an early example of a serious tactical wargame for the computer though the emphasis was on the first person perspective and was considered more of a tank simulator than a wargame.
The title was released for the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS (on a PC). It sold 500,000 copies, a high amount by the standards of the time.
[edit] Gameplay
The player is put in the position of a tank platoon commander in charge of four American M1 Abrams tanks in a fictional campaign of battles against the Soviet army in Central Europe. The player can give orders to friendly units via a tactical map of the battle area as well as taking control of a single tank - assuming the role of either the tank commander, driver or gunner.
Depending on the player's tastes, the whole game could be played more like an action/simulation game or like a strategy game. As platoon commander, direct control is limited to the four M1 tanks, however depending on the mission, support units like recon / battle helicopters, IFVs, artillery or other older M60 tanks were available and could be given orders via the tactical map.
One feature of the game was the ability to change the viewpoint to a supporting unit to get a "recon" from that unit's perspective. According to the manual, doing this from the M1 tanks was supposedly approximate to a tank commander standing on his tank hull to get a better perspective. This external view feature was also very good (for the time) for cinematic experiences like the "director's chair" where the viewpoint is set to a helicoptor doing reconnaissance. The external view was also able to track other objects in the centre of the view. This was not limited to vehicles but could actually track missiles from the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles or even tank rounds!
Between the battles, surviving crew members increase in military rank and skill—giving the player an incentive to keep his team alive.
The Campaign typically depicted the rush across the Rhine by the numerically superior Russian forces. The Campaign would therefore start as defensive with the challenge being to use technologically superior NATO vehicles to stem the "wave" of Warsaw Pact vehicles. Success would mean the scenarios gradually put NATO on the offensive side with objective waypoints to reach/hold. Terrain was a very important factor as going hull down was a critical strategy to surviving. Full use of the supporting forces made success easier with even the infantry disembarking from their IFVs to use Dragon anti-tank launchers. However, leaving them in one position too long invited an artillery barrage from the opposing force.
[edit] Trivia
While the box and manual indicate that Soviet "Hind" helicopters would also be present in the game, they never appear. Years later, developers admitted they forgot to include the Hind in the final game.
[edit] Technical details
The DOS version of the game supported a wide range of graphics cards VGA / MCGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy 1000 and CGA, as well as adlib and Tandy 1000 soundcards.
