Paratrooper (video game)

Paratrooper
Developer(s)	Greg Kuperberg
Publisher(s)	Orion Software
Platform(s)	DOS, iPod
Release	1982
Genre(s)	Shooter
Mode(s)	Single player

Paratrooper is a 1982 computer game, written by Greg Kuperberg and published by Orion Software.

Paratrooper is one of the three games written by Greg Kuperberg when the IBM-PC was still very new, but unlike the other two, J-Bird and PC-Man, which were recreations of well-known coin-op games, this one was based on a 1981 Apple II game called Sabotage which was developed by Mark Allen.. A clone of this game is also shipped as a standard piece software on all iPods with displays.

Description

The player controls a gun turret at the bottom of the screen. The turret can swivel to cover a large area of the screen, but cannot move from its base. Helicopters fly across the screen at varying heights, dropping paratroopers. The gun may fire multiple shots at once, and the shots may destroy helicopters or shoot paratroopers. Paratroopers may be disintegrated by a direct hit, or their parachutes may be shot, in which case they will plummet to earth (splattering and dying if they were sufficiently high when the shot hit). Furthermore, destroyed helicopters turn into shrapnel, which may destroy other helicopters or paratroopers. Periodically, jets may fly by and drop bombs; the jets and bombs may be shot as well.

The player earns points by shooting helicopters, paratroopers, jets, and bombs. Firing a shell costs the player one point, so if one is playing for score, there is an incentive to conserve ammo.

The game ends when the player's turret is hit by a bomb, when a single paratrooper lands directly on the turret, or when four paratroopers safely land on either the left or right of the turret (that is four on one side, not four total). Once this happens, they are able to build a human pyramid and climb up to the turret and blow it up.