Armor Alley is a

computer wargame A computer wargame is a wargame played on a digital device. Descended from board wargaming, it simulates military conflict at the tactical, operational or strategic level. Computer wargames are both sold commercially for recreational use and ...

for

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

and

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded " ...

published by

Three-Sixty Pacific Three-Sixty Pacific is an American video game publisher and developer. Founded in the late 1980s by avid wargamers and military history enthusiasts, they were acquired by IntraCorp Entertainment Inc. in 1994. Games They have developed the most ...

in 1991. It is modelled on the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mold ...

game ''

Rescue Raiders ''Rescue Raiders'' is an Apple II scrolling shooter published by Sir-Tech in 1984. It was designed by Arthur Britto and Greg Hale. Gameplay The game is played on a two-dimensional side-scrolling playfield, where two players start at main bases ...

''. Player can compete against the computer or other humans via

LAN Lan or LAN may also refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in sp ...

. The game supports cooperative multiplayer of up to two players per side. The player controls a helicopter armed with a limited number of munitions, such as

missile In military terminology, a missile is a missile guidance, guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously ...

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

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 rifl ...

s, and

napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated alu ...

. As the player requisitions computer-controlled

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful e ...

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and m ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

s. Mobile missile platforms, and

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round out available firepower.

Gameplay

The objective is to destroy an opposing base at the opposite end of the play area. Various units are deployed for this purpose, which can be assisted by the player's helicopter. The enemy has 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. 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 (at 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 is 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 costs 20, tanks 4, mobile missile launchers 3, vans 2, infantry and engineers 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 the player has on the ground at the end of a battle the more funds the player has to start the next battle. All units must be purchased by the player, but once bought, they blindly advance to the right towards the enemy base. Extra lives may be purchased by buying more helicopters.

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. 1992 and 1994 ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through t ...

'' surveys of wargames with modern settings gave the game one and a half stars out of five, describing it as "a short entertaining diversion, but little of serious import".

Remake

The game has been remade as a browser based game by Scott Schiller: http://www.schillmania.com/armor-alley/

Reviews

*''

Games-X ''Games-X'' was a multi-format weekly computer and video game magazine published in the United Kingdom. It was launched in May 1991. The publisher was Europress. Editor Hugh Gollner later described it "a big mistake" in terms of finances. See al ...

'' (Aug, 1991) *''PC Joker'' (Nov, 1991) *''

ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) ''Aktueller Software Markt'' (literally ''Current Software Market''), commonly known by its acronym, ''ASM'', was a German multi-platform video game magazine that was published by Tronic-Verlag from 1986 until 1995. It was one of the first magazine ...

'' (Nov, 1991)http://www.kultboy.com/index.php?site=t&id=228

References

External links

* {{MobyGames , id= /armor-alley 1991 video games DOS games Computer wargames Helicopter video games Horizontally scrolling shooters Classic Mac OS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States