Choplifter!

The Good
The graphics and animation were extremely detailed for 1982. The hostages would run and wave as your helicopter passed by them, the flag at your base fluttered in the breeze, and everything was well drawn and colorful.

The gameplay was even better than the graphics. You controlled a rescue helicopter. One joystick button fired your cannons and the other switched the facing of your helicopter. Unlike other helicopter games, you could actually fly backwards or sideways if needed. Rescuing hostages was no easy feat. It was very easy to accidentally crush the hostages as you landed, shoot them while trying to kill tanks, get hit by the roving tanks before you took off, or get killed by missiles from the planes in the sky at the higher levels. Even more frustrating was filling your helicopter up and accidentally crash-landing at your base, losing the helipcopter and all hostages inside. Scoring in the game was simply done: the game kept count of the number of hostages rescued and number of hostages killed. It was nearly impossible to successfully rescue all 64 hostages. Even once you got good at the game, 48 rescued was a great score. (My best ever was 56 and I played this game to death)

The Bad
There is nothing not to like about this game.

The Bottom Line
In Choplifter, you have to pilot your helicopter across the border into hostile territory to rescue 16 hostages held in prison camps per level. Opposing you are enemy tanks, which shoot at the escaped hostages and your helicopter when it is on the ground, jet fighter patrols which shoot deadly missiles at you, and on the later levels, flying mines that home in on your position for the kill.

The Good
Choplifter! is an addictive action game by Broderbund Software, the same company responsible for a dozen Carmen Sandiego games. Some people argue that Dan Gorlin, the programmer of the game, was influenced by the Iranian Hostage Crisis a year earlier where Iranians took Americans hostage inside an US embassy. The programmer himself denies this, and understandably so. While there are indeed hostages, they are not US diplomats, and they are hidden away in cottages that need to be emptied, all the while dealing with enemies such as tank

I first played Choplifter! on the Apple II at school, and we were awarded a game if we were good little boys and girls. The game was later ported to other systems, with varying degrees of success. The VIC-20 version was published by Creative Software, who were also responsible for publishing other addictive Brøderbund titles such as Apple Panic and Serpentine.

I think Creative did a great job at this conversion, and they have added some nice touches to the game. You don't have to bomb cottages first, then set your chopper down so that they can get on board. You just set it down and they will come out straight away. Having played other versions of the game, I didn't know this so I spent a bit of time figuring this out. I like the warning sound the game makes just seconds before a jet appears on screen. There is actually an enemy unique to this version: what looks like a grenade with a propeller following you wherever you go. This enemy adds challenge to the game, and the only way you can get past it is to destroy it.

I was impressed by the visuals, starting from the title screen where a bubble writes each character on the screen, and when you press the fire button, a 3D object forms the circle and text inside the circle appears. During the game, the enemies are well designed and have good animations, especially the explosions. Unlike other conversions, everything is in one color. The way you can press [Return] to change the color of the sprites/text is pretty neat, and you can hold down the key if you want to enjoy a light show. Personally, I like everything white, since it is easy on your eyes.

The sound effects are quite basic, but this is how games were like back in the day. There is no fancy background music like in future versions of the game. The majority of sound effects come from your own chopper. I also like the high beep it produces when an hostage gets on board the chopper.

Choplifter! is the type of game that can be replayed, to see if you can get more hostages than you did in the last game you played. I managed to rescue 57 hostages. There are actually 64 hostages in total, so there is always room for improvement.

The Bad
The only thing missing from the game is the ending. If you manage to rescue all 64 hostages, the title screen appears again. Some type of “Congratulations” would not have hurt.

The Bottom Line
Choplifter! was a huge hit at the time that it spawned numerous sequels and unofficial clones for systems that never had an official conversion. The VIC-20 version, along with the Commodre 64 and Apple II versions, is what I like to call The First Editions. These versions were developed in the early Eighties and had quite basic gameplay. Strangely unlike most computer games, this one was later converted to arcade, which in turn, was converted to the next-gen systems. These versions had nice background music and fantastic backdrops.

There is no definite version of the game, and whatever system you had back in the Eighties, you can be sure that Choplifter! was available for it.

The Good
It combined classic side scrolling shooting with search and rescue. You could also switch your perspective to drop bombs on enemies coming at you from the bottom of the screen. You felt like a hero when you successfully rescued a group of POW's and they waved to you as they got out of the chopper.

The Bad
The 4th level is just too hard. Navigating the caves is near impossible even without the enemy fire. If you can complete the 4th level you are a master game player :)

The Bottom Line
Your mission is to rescue POW's caught behind enemy lines. You fly your chopper into enemy territory, blast open the enemy camps to release the prisoners. Then carefully land and rescue the POW's. You must be careful when you have a chopper loaded with POW's because one hit and they all go down in flames. You must return the POW's to your home base.