Thunder Blade is a single-player helicopter combat game that debuted in arcades in 1987, courtesy of Sega. It combines overhead shooting sections with third-person, ‘over-the-shoulder’ shooting sections and it features lots of impressive graphical scaling effects on the buildings and enemies.
Tag Archives: air combat
Steel Alcimus, PC
Another excellent Hijong Park retro tribute game – this one possibly his best so far – Steel Alcimus is an overhead helicopter shooter with either twin-stick joypad, or keyboard and mouse controls. I played it with mouse and keys and found the control system to be really quite ingenious.
B-17 Bomber, Intellivision
B-17 Bomber is a very early – but really rather excellent – WWII bomber simulation, released for the Intellivision in 1982.
Wings, Amiga
One of Cinemaware‘s last games, Wings was released in 1990 to critical acclaim.
It’s a First World War-based scenario, with you piloting a biplane over German lines, dogfighting enemy fighters and bombing positions on the ground.
Rocket Ranger, Amiga
Cinemaware‘s Rocket Ranger was first released in 1988 to much critical acclaim.
The game follows the format of most Cinemaware games, with cut scenes interspersed between planning screens and action screens.
Combat Lynx, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Combat Lynx looks a bit like the BBC version (ie. chunky), but is thankfully more colourful – and more playable.
Combat Lynx, BBC Micro
Combat Lynx on the BBC Micro is a bit gaudy, compared to other versions, and that’s probably down to the fact that – in this screen mode – the BBC can only display four colours.
Combat Lynx, Commodore 64
Ron Jeff‘s Commodore 64 conversion of Mike Richardson‘s ZX Spectrum helicopter sim is actually pretty good.
Combat Lynx, ZX Spectrum
Mike Richardson‘s Combat Lynx is a very effective helicopter combat sim, first released for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Durell Software in 1984.
Combat, Atari 2600
Combat was designed by Atari, Inc. and first released for the Atari 2600 in 1977 and was the pack-in game for the system until 1982 (meaning: you got a Combat cartridge with the console, upon purchase).
It was one of the first home video games I ever played (probably the same for millions of others) and it enthralled me. Yes, Combat is very simple by today’s standards, but in 1977 it was a revelation.
