131 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
131 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
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ABRAMS BATTLE TANK
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In the computer gaming world, the late 1980s will probably be
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remembered as the age of simulators. Ever since the groundbreaking
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release of Microsoft's FLIGHT SIMULATOR, we've been deluged with
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products that simulate everything from WWII aircraft to submarines.
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Until 1989, the tank was ignored, but now there are a number of
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major tank simulators led by Dynamix's ABRAMS BATTLE TANK. (This
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review is based on the IBM-PC version.)
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ABRAMS BATTLE TANK is a simulation of the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle
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tank that currently serves as the front-line tank in the U.S.
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arsenal. The most expensive tank ever built, the Abrams includes
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thermal sighting, laser rangefinding, a turbine engine that runs on
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virtually anything flammable, and a 120mm smoothbore cannon
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connected to an advanced stabilization system that gives the Abrams
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a fire-on-the-move capability exceeding the accuracy of many older
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tanks at a full stop. The tank has a four-man crew and three machine
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guns, in addition to the cannon.
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To simplify life, the Dynamix design team made several
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compromises: First, they eliminated two of the machine guns, leaving
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the coaxial gun. Since they wanted to include the Soviet Hind-D
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helicopter (perhaps the most deadly opponent the Abrams might
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face), they invented an experimental "AX" anti-air round to give the
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tank a means of engaging air targets. Lastly, the loader's position
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was eliminated, leaving the player responsible only for driving the
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tank and firing the guns.
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The player runs the tank from four different screens: gunner's
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station, tank commander's station, cupola, and driver's station. The
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best view is available from the cupola, but you can't do much up
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there besides look and steer. You must be at the gunner's station to
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fire the weapons, but your vision is restricted to the turret's
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facing. The driver's position displays fuel-remaining and engine
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temperature status, but since the commander's station also has a
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fuel guage, you need spend time here only if you're keeping a close
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eye on the temperature. The commander's station offers 360-degree
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vision, a damage report screen, and a map of the area.
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Commands are single keystrokes. There is a joystick interface that
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provides movement control and allows you to fire the cannon once
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you've locked it on target. The gunner's display includes the
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weapons targeting system, which must be activated with the Enter
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key: Repeated keypresses cycle through all available targets, as the
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systems display lists the target ID and range. The range display is
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color-coded to indicate the probability of achieving a hit (based on
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range and the type of shell you've loaded). Once you've decided on a
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target, "L" locks the system on, and the turret automatically trains
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to follow your selected victim. After the system has locked on and a
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shell has been loaded, the space bar fires the cannon. After
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firing, the cannon is automatically reloaded with whichever type of
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ammunition you last fired.
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There are three types of ammunition available: HEAT rounds, sabot
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rounds, and the above-mentioned AX round (which takes somewhat
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longer to load than the other types). The sabot is the round of
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choice against armored targets, while HEAT rounds are more useful
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for infantry-wielding ATGM's and structures. You can specify the
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shell mix at the beginning of the scenario, with any combination up
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to (a total of) 40 shells of all types. In addition to the main gun
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rounds, you have 80 rounds for the coaxial machine gun (which is
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useful against infantry and command vehicles), and four smoke
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cannisters that dramatically reduce the effectiveness of enemy tanks
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lacking thermal sights. The M1A1 actually has both cannisters and a
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smoke generator attached to the engine, but the latter has been
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removed for simplicity.
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During play, the game is very busy. You must switch frequently
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between the gunner's position and the commander's position to keep
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track of enemy targets and your current position. Enemy ATGMs
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present little threat to the Chobham armor of an M1 -- that is,
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unless you let them get too close or move onto your more vulnerable
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flanks. Each time your tank is hit by an enemy round, the screen
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flashes red, and you receive a report regarding the bearing of the
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impact. This can save you a lot of guesswork in the middle of a
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firefight, but it also momentarily obscures the gunner's viewport.
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When you run low on fuel or shells, or become heavily damaged, you
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can return to base to reload and repair. This is one of the
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abstractions I dislike about the game, because any and all damage is
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magically repaired in zero time at the base -- assuming, of course,
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you can coax your damaged tank back there. (Turning tail on a live
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enemy can be hazardous to your health.)
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The graphics are of the simple polygonal-fill variety. My primary
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system is a Turbo XT-clone with CGA, so I find these quite
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tolerable, since highly detailed graphics slow my poor machine down
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to winter molasses speed. However, if you play on a 386 computer
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with super-VGA, don't expect a high degree of detail. The program
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runs on IBM PCs and clones (incuding the PS/2s, and Tandy 1000,
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3000, and 4000 systems), and requires CGA or EGA, 512K RAM, and DOS
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2.0 or higher.
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ABRAMS BATTLE TANK comes with eight scenarios that can be played
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singly or in random order as part of a campaign. You may set the
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level of play to novice (practically like an arcade game),
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moderate, or expert (downright nasty at times). You can also adjust
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the speed of play during the scenario. The missions range from
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simple search-and-destroy to escort. Each scenario begins with a
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briefing from your CO (Colonel Wilson), and ends with his review of
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your performance, along with a list of all of the targets you
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destroyed and a numeric rating. Be careful about what you shoot at
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in the field, however: The Colonel gets pretty peeved if you destroy
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any allied vehicles....
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Unfortunately, I have problems with a few of the game's design
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decisions. It'd be hard to call a simulator complete that didn't
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provide helicopters, but the idea of trying to track and fire on a
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helicopter with a tank's main gun is somewhat hard to swallow. I'd
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have preferred it if they'd either added the Commander's machine gun
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(which is the primary defense against helicopters), or omitted the
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Hind altogether. Also, the instant repair-and-reload feature is
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troubling. What are the enemy AFVs doing while you refuel and
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reload? If you're allowed to take time out of the middle of a
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firefight to reload, they should be permitted to redeploy forward,
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set up ambushes, and possibly be reinforced. Not pleasant, but war
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is hell. Finally, every time you change positions there's a disk
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access. It'd be nice if the product used extended memory for
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stashing the graphic overlays when possible. Apart from these
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criticisms, I enjoyed playing ABRAMS BATTLE TANK.
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ABRAMS BATTLE TANK is published by Dynamix and distributed by
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Electronic Arts.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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