| Gunship | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Microprose |
| Publisher(s) | Microprose |
| Designer(s) | Arnold Hendrick |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, DOS, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Sega Mega Drive |
| Release date(s) | 1986 [1] |
| Genre(s) | Vehicle Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: n/a |
Gunship is an AH-64 Apache helicopter simulation that was released by Microprose in 1986. Its platforms include DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, MSX and ZX Spectrum. The game was later ported onto the Sega Mega Drive by U.S. Gold in 1993. A direct sequel, Gunship 2000, was released in 1991.
Contents |
The game features missions in seven regions, including:
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 chopper, usually selecting:
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 from light cannons, is deflected by armor. Some enemy fire will cause systems damage. After enough damaging hits, the structural integrity will fail, causing a general power failure. This manifests itself in a dual-engine flameout, warranting an emergency landing. 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 where he'll 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.
To earn all medals, the player can follow these steps:
Other medals are earned in combat, such as the Purple Heart, Air Medal, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross, and the Congressional Medal of Honor. 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. [2] 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.
On some platforms Gunship originally used a copy protection scheme that allowed a limited number of hard disk installs from a key disk. If needed, Gunship could later be un-installed from the hard disk, crediting the install back to the key disk. This system had the drawback of not working if the user ran defragmentation software without uninstalling Gunship first. Later versions used a key disk system that allowed unlimited backup copies, but required the key disk to be inserted briefly before the game would run. This had the drawback that, if the key disk were lost or damaged, the user would have to pay for a new copy.
Other copy protection measures include a Vehicle Identification screen at startup that requires the user to match the image on the screen to the appropriate vehicle (e.g. BTR, BMP, ZSU, etc) from the manual.
In addition, upon approaching a friendly base after completion of missions, the base radios a password, and the pilot is expected to respond with the corresponding countersign from the manual. Theoretically, if he enters a blank or incorrect countersign twice, he will be shot down; however, by that time, the pilot is usually so close to base that he can land before friendly air defenses have a chance to respond.
Supposedly, cracked copies of Gunship have been circulating since the 1990s. However, the game aborts as soon as the pilot reaches the rank of 2nd Lieutenant - the bug occurs in at least one original release of the game (PC version 429.05 recognizable by a black box with a photo of AH-64 with a sun behind it) which simply doesn't have the aforementioned disk copy protection, so it's possibly that they are ordinary non-cracked copies of that version.