Warhead (computer game)

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Warhead is a 3D space combat simulator for Amiga (A500 and A2000) and Atari ST platforms. Warhead is known for its strong alien atmosphere, reasonably realistic space kinematics and a fish-eye perspective through which the space is viewed. It was created by Glyn Williams in 1989.

The game takes place during a war between the alien forces of Sirius and the humans of Earth. The player fights for the Earth forces. The game is played as sequential missions. Completing a mission successfully lets the player advance to the next mission. It is possible to save the game status after each mission, but not during a mission. Typical mission objectives include intelligence gathering, search and rescue missions, destroying enemies and protecting friendly forces. The player is sent for missions from the SolBase, a military base orbiting the Sun. The player must travel to different solar systems using a device that allows faster than light travel through quad-space, which is a form of hyperspace.

Contents

[edit] Story

The story takes place in a fight between the alien forces of Sirius and the humans of Earth. The player has been enrolled as a fighter pilot for the Fist-of-Earth space force. The player is led to know that the forces of Sirius have attacked humans for an unknown reason. The player knows the following:

The enemy are an insect-like species from the star system Sirius. It is suspected that their present evolutionary form was achieved at the time there were Dinosaurs on Earth. It is also theorised that insects on Earth and Sirius share a same ancestor.

The Sirians operate as a group-minds of groups of tens or maybe hundreds of insects. As individuals the Sirians are not intelligent, but their intelligence comes from being part in large groups. It is argued that their civilization acts as a single entity. The group-mind is based on radio communication that is a natural property of the metallic parts in their bodies. It is speculated that spaceship manufacturing technology is relatively new for the Sirians and that the first Sirian vessel was launched in 1897 from Sirius Five.

The Earth was attacked in the year 2045 by the Sirian fleet. The invasion lead to a planetary winter and 3 thousand million casualties and in following years a third of the Earth population died as a consequence.

The attack lead to political unity and the dissolution of national borders on Earth. The organisation called the Fist of Earth was formed to defend the Earth. The most important military base called SolBase was built in Earth orbit. When the SolBase became operational it was moved to orbit the Sun to a position that was thought to be a best place to defend the whole solar system.

[edit] Missions

The game consists of 39 missions.

  • Mission 1 takes the player to practice ship control near the SolBase.
  • Mission 2 familiarizes the player with Quad-space motors. The ship must be flown to Earth space by using quad-space motors.
  • Mission 3 familiarizes the player with using Stinger missiles in Deimos system.
  • Mission 4 familiarizes the player with using Mass-driver-cannon (MDC) in Venus system.
  • Mission 5 familiarizes the player with using Pilot Recovery Module (PRM), the rescue module of the ship.
  • Mission 6 is a patrolling mission to Mercury-space.
  • Mission 7 is a patrolling mission to Triton-space to investigate unexplained sensor damage. The player encounters a small Sirian drone.
  • Mission 8 is an emergency mission in Triton-space to investigate an unknown number of alien intruders. The player encounters two A-Wings.
  • Mission 9 is a trip to Miranda-space (Uranus) to protect a trading convoy with technical problems. The player encounters two A-Wings.
  • Mission 10 investigates a gravitational effect on Mimas Deep-Space gravity telescope. The CH-010 star has turned into a black-hole.

[edit] Technology

[edit] Ships

  • A-wing, a basic alien attack craft with 256 insects
  • Berzerker, a vast cigar shaped vessel/creature of unknown origin
  • Corsair, a small interplanetary cargo ship used by human contraband traders
  • C-wing, an advanced alien fighter vessel
  • Drone, an alien miniature spacecraft
  • FoE-57, the interstellar fighter vessel commanded by the player. The primary attack ship of the Earth forces.
  • H-wing, an ultra-advanced fighter of the Sirian League with a large crew
  • Krugerbase, an incomplete star base at Kruger 60
  • Pilot recovery module, the escape pod of FoE-57
  • See Drone (entities of the alien drone squadrons)
  • SolBase, the main military base of the Earth forces.
  • Superfreighter, a multi-hull cargo ship.
  • Target drone, a target practice unit.
  • Tech-ship, a general purpose space vehicle often used for technical repairs.

[edit] Weapons

  • Mass-driver cannon.
  • Proximity mine, detonates close to its target.
  • Pseudostellar missile, the most destructive missile weapon. It destroys everything within a 5 km radius.
  • Stinger missile, a classic homing missile.
  • X-ray laser mine, a small fusion device that produces multiple X-ray beams to destroy multiple targets.

[edit] Other

  • Data-gathering probe, the DGP or Probe-Missile performs intense data-gathering on impact with its target.
  • Quad-jump device, a device used to jump from one solar system to another through a quad-space

[edit] List of places

  • Albemuth (Proxima Centauri)
  • Alpha Centauri
  • Black-Veil Nebula
  • CH-010 (blackhole)
  • Deimos (Mars)
  • Goldenman (Proxima Centauri)
  • Kruger 60
  • Mercury
  • Miranda (Uranus)
  • Pluto
  • Scorpion Nebula
  • Sigma Draconis
  • Sirius
  • Triton (Neptune)
  • Tau-Ceti
  • Venus
  • XI

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Cheats

To jump levels using an emulator (such as Unix Amiga Emulator) or Action Replay one can edit memory location 0x48364 to set the initial mission number. The memory location contains a 16-bit initial mission number. The first mission has value 1. With UAE one should halt the execution of the game during the Warhead credit screen with the ship and stars scrolling on the background by going into debug mode. The same procedure works with action replay. With UAE, issue the command: W 48364 x, where x is n*65536+29964, where n is the mission number. This command actually writes a 32-bit because the debugger does not support writing 16-bit values. One must compute the value with an external program because the UAE debug parser can not evaluate expressions. This modifies Warhead initialization code to initialize a requested mission number. The real mission number lies in the address 0x750c which is a 16-bit number.

[edit] External links