Armor Alley

Armor Alley
Developer(s) Information Access Technologies
Publisher(s) Three-Sixty Pacific Inc.
Platform(s) MS-DOS, Mac OS
Release date(s) 1990
Genre(s) Horizontal scrolling shooter, Real-time tactics
Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer

Armor Alley is a computer game for MS-DOS and Mac OS, with gameplay patterned after the Apple II game Rescue Raiders. Play is against either the computer or other humans in a LAN environment. The game supports cooperative multiplayer of up to two players per side.

The player controls a helicopter armed with limited munitions, such as missiles, bombs, machine guns, and napalm. As the player requisitions them, computer-controlled tanks, infantry, engineers, mobile missile platforms, and vans round out available firepower.

Objective

The objective is to assist deployed units, with the player's helicopter, in their efforts to destroy an opposing base at the opposite end of the play area. The enemy possesses the same arsenal as the player, so tactics and convoy composition are vital. Only the van, which contains electronic warfare equipment, can achieve victory by coming into contact with the enemy base. Its armor is quite weak, so these units must be protected at all times.

Gameplay

The two-dimensional battlefield is a long strip of ground, with the player's base on the left end and the enemy's base on the right. Every map has these two bases, but each map has a different pattern of fixed terrain features. The game ends when one of these two bases is captured.

The player's view is always focused on the central unit, the helicopter. The helicopter carries 2 guided missiles, 10 bombs and has a machine gun with 64 rounds of ammunition, (in higher levels the machine gun is replaced by 6 unguided missiles.) The helicopter's fuel is limited, so each player has to return to base before there's insufficient fuel left for the trip back. The helicopter is very vulnerable to enemy fire and so relies on its agility and the player's control to survive on the battlefield.

Budget

War funds slowly trickle into a spending account that allows purchase of units. Each unit has an associated cost. A helicopter cost 20, tanks 4, mobile missile launchers 3, vans 2, infantry and engineers cost 5. The player must spend carefully to ensure the purchase of equipment as needed. The farther the helicopter is from its landing pad, the higher the rate of funding. The more assets you have on the ground at the end of a battle means more funds to start the next battle.

All units must be purchased by the player, but once bought, blindly advance to the right towards the enemy base. Extra lives may be purchased by buying more helicopters.

Terrain elements

Mobile Units

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1991 in Dragon #166 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[1] A 1992 Computer Gaming World survey of wargames with modern settings gave the game one and a half stars out of five.[2]

Legacy

References

  1. Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (February 1991). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (166): 31–36.
  2. Brooks, M. Evan (June 1992). "The Modern Games: 1950 - 2000". Computer Gaming World. p. 120. Retrieved 24 November 2013.

External links