Caliber .50 is a 1989 scrolling shooter arcade game developed by SETA Corporation. A port of the game was released for the

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in 1991.

Gameplay

Players control a

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pilot who was taken as a

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

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

s. Various

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s are available that give the player use of various other weapons including a machine gun and flamethrower. Enemy vehicles such as a plane can also be commandeered. The Sega Genesis version is single-player only, as the player now controls

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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 (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. 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's '' Ikari Warriors''. Crash 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'') is a British-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot web ...

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