East vs. West: Berlin 1948
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| East vs. West: Berlin 1948 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Time Warp |
| Publisher(s) | Rainbow Arts |
| Designer(s) | Stephan Graf |
| Platform(s) | DOS Amiga Atari ST |
| Release date | 1989 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media | Floppy Disk Audio cassette |
| System requirements | 80286 CPU, 512 KB RAM |
| Input methods | Keyboard |
East vs. West: Berlin 1948 is an adventure game developed by Time Warp Productions in 1989. The game is noted for its use of an Audio cassette to supplement the soundtrack. It was also unique in its "top-down" perspective that gives you a bird's eye view of the action.
[edit] Gameplay
Berlin 1948 is set in the city of Berlin during the Cold War. The city is split into West and East Berlin, and the USSR has all supply routes into the city cut off. In order to prevent West Berlin from being overrun by the Red Army, the US Army has smuggled an atomic bomb into the city. The bomb disappears, and it is up to you to find it before it falls into Stalin's hands.
You play a US spy in the CIA, Sam Porter, and have to travel all over the city looking for the bomb. You can walk around, or you can go to various destinations by taxi. You talk to many characters along the way, and interact with a number of objects in order to unravel the mystery. Most of the Berliners have nothing to offer you, so you are challenged with finding the ones who do. Some will tell the truth, some will lie, and some don't even know they possess information that would be of value.
Berlin 1948 imposes a time limit for solving the mystery and finding the atomic bomb. This was seen as a severe drawback that rendered the game almost unplayable [1]. Running out of time causes you to be run over by a car, ending the game.
[edit] History
Berlin 1948 was the first video game to incorporate an audio cassette in the actual gameplay. Since the speech synthesizers of the time were not very sophisticated, and recorded sound took up too much disk space, the game designers took an inventive approach. At different times during the game (such as the Intro and other cinematic sequences) you are asked to play the appropriate audio clip on a home cassette deck.
