Caliber .50 is a 1989 scrolling shooter arcade game developed by

SETA Corporation was a Japanese computer gaming company, founded on October 1, 1985 and dissolved on February 9, 2009. SETA was headquartered in Kōtō, Tokyo, with a branch in Las Vegas, Nevada. SETA developed and published games for consoles such as the Ninte ...

. A port of the game was released for the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

in 1991.

Gameplay

Players control a

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pilot who was taken as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

in 1972. The pilot must escape the prison compound by battling enemy soldiers with guns and

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s. Various

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...

s are available that give the player use of various other weapons including a

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

and

flamethrower A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World ...

. Enemy vehicles such as a plane can also be commandeered. The Sega Genesis version is single-player only, as the player now controls

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Addis of the

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, who must rescue his fellow soldiers twenty years after he failed to retrieve his men during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. He must now re-navigate through the Ho Chi Minh trail in order to liberate his captured comrades-in-arms. Surviving soldiers are displayed by the dog tags that appear on the screen at the end of each level. An option menu allows players to choose from either an easy, normal, or hard difficulty level in addition to the number of initial lives.''Caliber .50''
at

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This version expands on the arcade version with extra stages and bosses, and was advertised as being "2.5 times longer" than the arcade game.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Caliber .50'' on their December 15, 1989 issue as being the second most-successful table arcade unit of the month. The game has been compared to

SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...

's '' Ikari Warriors''.

Crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

pointed out that like ''Ikari Warriors'', a vehicle can be commandeered in ''Caliber .50.''

Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

compared the two games as well, calling ''Caliber .50'' "miles better" than SNK's game. Crash called the game "difficult" but said "there's enough blasting action to stop you from kicking the cabinet in frustration" and that the game was "Well worth a look." Meanwhile, Computer and Video Games wrote "Anyone who enjoys a good shoot'em up should love this..." and gave the game an 87% overall rating.Caswell, Mark.
Caliber.50
. February 1990.
Computer and Video Games. January 1990. p. 105.

References

{{reflist 1989 video games Arcade video games Romstar games Scrolling shooters Sega Genesis games SETA Corporation games Video games set in Vietnam Vietnam War video games Video games scored by Kenji Yamazaki Multiplayer and single-player video games Taito arcade games Video games developed in Japan