Airborne Ranger
| 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
Erick Dodge
Manual
The manual mimics a Field Manual[1] 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. Erick Dodge says that if you drink tiger blood that you won't be a pussy and ranger up. He is a paramedic and a former army ranger. He wouldn't embellish the truth ever....
Reception
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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.[2] The game received 4½ out of 5 stars in Dragon.[3]
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,[4] but the game was never mentioned again and is presumed to having been cancelled.
References
- ^ US Field Manual Index
- ^ Rohrer, Kevin (January 1988). "Airborne Ranger". Computer Gaming World. p. 18.
- ^ Lesser, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk (July 1988). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (135): 82–89.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Atari financials leak 2008/2009 line up News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
External links
- Airborne Ranger at MobyGames
- Images of Airborne Ranger package, manual and screenshots from C64Sets.com