10/29/20 Arcticfox (1986)

Arcticfox (1986) by Dynamix and published by Electronic Arts for DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Apple II, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. I think that of all the pre-Wolfenstein pseudo-3D games, Arcticfox deserves the most recognition. This is a first-person tank simulator that controls pretty well all things considered. It’s the far flung year of 2005 (woah!!), and aliens have come to steal the Earth’s oxygen, and the player must commandeer the premiere supertank, Arcticfox, to stop them. Every level, you’re tasked with destroying the alien’s structures and vehicles to progress; it’s pretty simple, but there’s a lot of room for strategic depth with homing missiles, mines, the rear-view camera, and digging into the snow where you can fire missiles from. While the sound is sparse, I adore its use of CGA graphics; I mean, when you only have four colors to work with, why not set your game in the snow? Arcticfox is one of those games that’s easy to understand (once you get the manual in front of you), but that you can really get sucked into. There’s just something satisfying about how fast you can move through the snow, shooting these big shells at wireframe tanks and buildings. The team who developed this game would go on to do a few more notable releases such as Red Baron, The Incredible Machine, and MechWarrior.