Zed Exploitation!
What games can you think of that get a real tragic event and use it for the story for a crappy action game?
Here are some I've noticed:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0004306
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000716
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000926&loadpics=1
WW2 Strategy games are exempt because they are more...classy. They at least teach you a little about history and treat the subject matter with respect.
Here are some I've noticed:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0004306
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000716
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000926&loadpics=1
WW2 Strategy games are exempt because they are more...classy. They at least teach you a little about history and treat the subject matter with respect.
Post edited by slenkar on
Comments
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Falklands Crisis, cashing in (unsuccessfully) on the 1982 Falklands conflict.
Raid Over Moscow, inspired by the Cold War nuclear stand-off.
Turmoil, influenced by the oil price wars (or "turmoil", even) of the 1980s.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0014474
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVHu3m-4keo
I find these games funny cos they are so shameless and cheesy.
Falklands game is debatable cos it is historical strategy, but poorly made...
El Golpe is good , especially as the graphics are cartoony like Hungry Horace
Raid over Moscow and krakatoa are fairly exploitative, even though they are remembered as good games.
lol yeah
Making a crappy action game and calling it the name of a (then) modern aircraft is pretty cheesy
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0003192
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0009377
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001706
Couple of others:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001706
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0009364&loadpics=1
Operation Gunship is debatable cos it doesn't directly reference any conflict
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0009386&loadpics=1
Although it may be based on vietnam?
That's Falklands '82; Falklands Crisis is a shoot-em-up (although one of the adverts calls it a "strategy war game" this is not borne out by the reviews (or one of the other adverts, which calls it an arcade game) - although the reviewer in HCW (and perhaps the publisher as well) plainly had no idea of what a strategy game entails). No screen-shots available, as it's MIA and the mag reviews & adverts didn't have any pictures.
Impressive brackets-work there, sir! :grin:
Does Jack The Ripper count?
EDIT: No it doesn't. Not an action game. :lol:
Bonus points for being a really bad game, referencing a tragic event that was going on at the time.
I guess Jack the Ripper would be fairly exploitative if it revelled in gore and was a bad game.
If it is really historically accurate and well made that would reduce it somewhat.
That "F16 Fighting Falcon" is exactly the same as "Soviet Fighter Mig 29", even the main sprite is the same. Did Codemasters have a change of heart about playing as the Soviets?
And yet there's nothing on their respective pages about the similarity.
Great Fire of London (Phipps, not Rabbit)
SDI (a tragic game simulating potentially tragic events?), DefCom (ditto)
Nuclear City Bomber, Nuclear Countdown, Nuclear Waste (Enigma)
NATO Assault Course, Platoon, 19 - Boot Camp
The GLC advertised an anti-racist computer game back in 1984 (or, to be more accurate, a competition to write one) which, if it was ever published (which it seems not to have been), would have been pretty much guaranteed to be dire.
The Virgin games mentioned earlier were Trans-Atlantic Balloon Challenge and Virgin Atlantic Challenge, which both game to grief IIRC (the games as well as the exploits), although I don't think that anybody died, just nearly.
Dambusters (excluding the US Gold version, which was a quality simulation) was pretty tragic for the people living below the dams, and there were a couple of arcade-oriented versions of those events.
Some strategy games were pretty awful; eg. Ardennes & Britain Invaded & Fall of the Third Reich (TK Computerware), Battle of Britain (Microgame Simulations), Conquest (Cheetahsoft), Convoy (Budgie), Insurgency (CCS), Reichswald (Scorpio), Sword & Shield (Black Knight), Wulfpack (Blue Ribbon).
Drug Watch (a shoot-em-up published by Nottinghamshire Constabulary, no less, so that can't be good), LA Drugs Bust (aka. LA Police Department; aka. International Drugs Bust; going through three different titles doesn't bode well).
Platoon - based on a 'serious' movie so it can be excused.
19 -Boot Camp - seems to be!
Those nuclear related games seem to fit, they use this heavy subject for a bunch of average shooters.
Somehow they don't seem as bad as LA Drugs Bust or Prison Riot :D
With Dambusters you could argue it shortened the war, it seems appropriate to make that an action game for some reason.:D
Great Fire of London - because it happened so long ago it loses the cheese factor
The screenshots of Drug watch are pretty funny. The title screen and the gameplay one. AVOID ALL DRUGS! in flashing text.
Rampage is clearly based on 9/11.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0004106
A very good game, too ;)
Tried to play it, but it has copy protection
It doesn't exploit the setting like the front page of a tabloid.
The game seems based on the premise too much.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
The code sheet is listed under "Additional material":
ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/games-extras/RescateEnElGolfo_CodeSheet.jpg
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Some more possibilities (although some of them are quite good games):
Operation Hormuz, Operation Hanoi, Operation Thunderbolt, SAS Operation Thunderflash, SAS Combat Assault, SAS Combat Simulator, Strike Force SAS, Sharkey's Moll, Prohibition.