Airborne Ranger

For U.S. military use of this term, see United States Army Rangers.

Airborne Ranger
Developer(s)	MicroProse
Publisher(s)	MicroProse
Designer(s)	Lawrence Schick
Platform(s)	Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum
Release	1987-1989
Genre(s)	Stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player

Airborne Ranger is a video game developed and released by MicroProse in 1987. The game is a relatively (for its era) realistic action game in which a sole U.S. Army Ranger is sent to infiltrate the enemy territory to complete various objectives.

Gameplay

The game consists of several missions, in which the player controls a sole Ranger whose objectives include killing an enemy officer, destroying an enemy bunker, taking out a SAM site, and rescuing a captured POW, which would possibly free a roster member that was labeled P.O.W. The game creates the maps and objective locations randomly, so the player is required to plan each mission carefully, because no mission is the same.

At the start of each mission, the player is presented with a short overview of the mission, and can select a Ranger from a roster of available soldiers. The player is then in control of an aircraft, described as a V-22 Osprey and is allowed to drop three ammo crates over the enemy territory. Once the three containers are dropped, the Ranger is parachuted into the area. Upon touch-down, the player has to overcome several obstacles, including enemy soldiers and officers, mine fields, foxholes and bunkers. Due to limited ammunition, the player needs to plan his path through the territory. The dropped ammo crates provide the soldier with fresh hand grenades and ammo. A player is even able actually change the color of his uniform to match the enemy and thereby not be attacked by them. After completing the mission, the Ranger has to navigate to a pick-up point within a time limit. If the Ranger is captured (but not killed), the player can start an optional rescue mission using another soldier from the roster. Each successful mission increases the rank of the individual Ranger, up to colonel.

Manual

The manual mimics a Field Manual of the U.S. Army, and brings the number of code FM75-041, non-existent outside the fiction of the game. The manual includes 40 pages in black and white, plus the color cover of thin cardboard. It is divided into two parts with 11 chapters in all. In the second part talks about the true story of U.S. Rangers from 1759 to the American Revolution to World War II, the Korean War, until today, with the Vietnam War, the invasion of Grenada in 1983, their training and equipment, operations mountains, desert and jungle, consisting of a paraglider, a Colt CAR-15 rifle, on the hand fragmentation M26 grenade, a grenade launcher M72 LAW, the M18 Claymore anti-personnel mine and the ranger knife F7. Aside from informational purposes, the manual was used as a form of copyright protection - each time you loaded the game it would give the player a multiple choice question on the identification of military ribbons, which were listed at the top of each page throughout the booklet. If the player guessed correctly, the game loaded. If guessed incorrectly, the game wouldn't load.

Reception

A review in Computer Gaming World felt Airborne Ranger was reminiscent of the earlier arcade game Commando, but much deeper and more versatile. The graphics and sound were praised, noting gunfire sounds different when shot from inside fortifications than it does outside fortifications. The game received 4½ out of 5 stars in Dragon.

Legacy

The game was followed by Special Forces in 1991.

In 2008, Atari informally announced a game called Airborne Rangers for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC to be released in April 2009, but the game was never mentioned again and is presumed to having been cancelled.

External links

• Airborne Ranger at MobyGames
• Images of Airborne Ranger package, manual and screenshots from C64Sets.com