FORT APOCALYPSE ATARI 400/800 KASSETT
FORT APOCALYPSE ATARI 400/800 KASSETT NYTT
Fort Apocalypse is a 1982 game for the Atari 8-bit series created by Steve Hales and published by Synapse Software. Joe Vierra ported it to the Commodore 64 the same year.
Fort Apocalypse is a 2D multi-directional scroller where the player navigates an underground prison in a helicopter, destroying or avoiding enemies while rescuing the prisoners. A contemporary of Choplifter, it has similarities to that game as well as the arcade games Scramble and Super Cobra.
Synapse Softare's first success was 1981's Protector, and quickly followed by a number of games written by a small number of programmers. Most of the basic concepts were developed by Synapse's president, Ihor Wolosenko. Fort Apocalypse was one of the few that was not, and traces its origin to a dream Steve Hales had about the movie Blue Thunder. With Wolosenko's blessing, he began working on the project in 1982.[1]
While the programming was getting started, another programmer decided to leave the company in the midst of completing one of Wolosenko's projects, Slime. Hales was pulled off the development of Fort Apocalypse to finish Slime, but found the code too difficult to continue and had to start over from scratch.[1] The resulting delay meant Brøderbund's Choplifter reached the market first, and Fort Apocalypse was often considered a me-too effort.[2] When Hales saw Choplifter, "my reaction was: why did I stop working on Fort?"[1]
The game was publicly demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show[a] and the players complained that it was too hard. This led to changes in the map and a few other tweaks. The game was a relative success, ultimately selling about 75,000 copies on the Atari, and more than that on the Commodore
Fort Apocalypse is played within a multi-directional scrolling "cave", viewed from the side. Similar to Choplifter, and as opposed to Scramble, the map does not automatically scroll, and the player is free to move in any direction.
The map is divided into four vertical sections, with the uppermost being at ground level, and the lowest containing the titular fortress. The two middle layers, Draconis and the Crystalline Caves, both contain a landing pad that saves the game's progress and allows the player to re-animate at that point if they are destroyed. Eight hostages can be picked up on both of these middle layers. The map is further divided into sections by special walls that can be broken open by firing or dropping bombs on them.
The player's chopper is destroyed if it runs into the cavern walls, is shot down by the numerous enemies, or caught in one of the many laser or moving wall traps. The player has two weapons, a gun and bombs, but only one button on the joystick. Most of the time the button fires the gun, but when the helicopter has turned so it's facing out of the screen, then the button drops bombs. Enemy missiles track the player's movements for a short time before running out of fuel and dropping back to earth, and the map is populated by a number of enemy helicopters similar to the player's own.
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