& LIGHT-YEARS! - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

H REVIEWS
dents spend requesting catalogs, prepar
ing essays, visiting colleges, and thinking
about the many choices before them, an
investment in College Explorer is mini
mal and can pay handsome dividends.
Deciding which college to attend is up
to you. College Explorer doesn't rob
you of that responsibility, but it does
assist you in the more tedious opera
tions. And that will make your hunt for
the right school a pleasure.
— Kristen Stemberg
College Explorer
For...
Apple II (128K RAM and extended 80column
card needed for lie)—$49.95
IBM PC, PS/2, and compatibles in either
5V4- or 3«nnch disks—$49.95
From...
The College Board
College Board Publications
Box 886. Dept. PO8
New York. NY 10101 -0886
(212)713-8165
Abrams Battle
Tank
There's a firestorm every minute in the
land of rolling thunder, Western Eu
rope, where the Warsaw Pact has bro
ken through NATO defenses to begin
World War III. You're in command of
an M1A1 Abrams tank, history's most
sophisticated armored fighting vehicle.
If Patton had ridden in this tank, Berlin
would have made him mayor.
Abrams Battle Tank gives you a
taste of what it's like inside one of these
60-ton iron maidens. Whether guiding
your crew through a single mission or
holding your own in a World War III
invasion scenario, be prepared for firing
action from every angle—east, west,
north, south, and even from above.
From the main menu, you select
from four options: Scenario, Campaign,
Mi-Info, and Exit. Mi-Info gives you a
rundown of your weapon systems, using
illustrations and appropriate military
jargon. Select Scenario to choose a sin
gle battle from among eight missions;
choose Campaign to move through all
eight missions in an order randomly se
lected by the computer.
Before you head to war with the
Russkies, you'll report to the fuel depot.
That's where you choose your arma
ment mix, balancing Sabot (very effec
tive against tanks and other armored
vehicles), HEAT (very effective against
infantry and constructions like enemy
68 COMPUTE!
headquarters), and AX (an experimen
tal wire-guided weapon that can vapor
ize enemy helicopters) rounds. It's
enough to make weapons procurement
part of your everyday vocabulary.
Out on the battlefield, you play
three roles: commander, gunner, and
driver. Each position offers a unique
view of the outside world and is ac
cessed by a specific function key (Fl to
move to the gunner's position, for
instance).
In the heat of battle, moving from
one station to the other can cost you
time—and your life. Therefore, you'll
almost always stick with the command
er and gunner stations. The driver's sta
tion is more an afterthought than a
necessity: You can get speedometer
readings from the commander's station
and receive warnings if you're working
the motor too hard. I would gladly
trade the driver's perspective for a good
pair of binoculars: Spotting the enemy
at a distance is imperative to survival.
Guiding the tank is your first chal
lenge. You'll have to learn to distin
guish between heading (the direction in
which the body of the tank is pointing)
and bearing (the direction the turret—
and therefore the main gun—is facing).
To turn the tank or the turret, press the
left- or right-arrow key or move your
joystick to the right or left. The A key
aligns the turret and the tank; the C key
switches control between the tank and
the turret.
For example, suppose you're in the
commander's station and your heading
is 270 degrees (there are no compass di
rections in this game—just degrees).
You take a hit bearing 2 degrees. You
can swing the entire tank toward the
right (0 degrees is due north), or you
can switch control to the turret and
change your bearing to point your can
non at the enemy. Getting a moving,
southbound enemy into your sights
when you're rolling west at 40 kilome
ters an hour is a skill that takes hours to
develop.
Your main defenses are speed, nat
ural cover, and smoke canisters that
blind the enemy for about 20 seconds.
To see through the smoke or to see at
night, you can switch on your thermal
imaging system (press the T key). If
your tank is too heavily damaged to
continue the fight, you can return to
base for repairs.
When you contact enemy forces,
use your target acquisition and designa
tion system (press the Enter key while
in the gunner's station) to identify the
target—don't shoot friendly forces, or
headquarters will have your head. Press
the L key to lock onto the target and hit
the space bar to fire. If your hit takes
out the enemy, your commander ap
pears onscreen to acknowledge the kill.
My few objections to Abrams Bat
tle Tank center on its operation. The
game ran well on an AT clone, but the
tank was slow to respond on my Tandy
1000 EX. To compensate, I had to an
ticipate my movements—another level
of confusion to an already-complex
game. Also, the skill levels—Novice,
Moderate, and Expert—function only
in the Scenario mode; if you choose
Campaign, you must play on the Expert
level. Fighting on that level, while
much more realistic than fighting on
the other two (no tank can survive hit
after hit without serving up its crew like
so much fondue), is frustrating for be
ginners eager to fight an entire cam
paign. My tours usually ended with a
snap, crackle, and pop—and I'm not
talking Rice Krispies.
Hit your enemies on the run if you want to
survive in Abrams Battle Tank.
Abrams Battle Tank provides
hours of rapid-fire warfare simulation
without much emphasis on real NATO
defensive strategies. (No one expects a
single tank to rescue a stranded con
voy—that's a job for a helicopter gun-
ship—or to take on single-handedly
several enemy battalions.) But if you
put those questions aside and accept the
game as a graphically excellent, tactical
ly complex simulation, you'll get a lot
of bang for your buck.
Abrams Battle Tank
For...
IBM PC and compatibles—S39.95
From...
Electronic Arts
1820 Gateway Dr.
San Mateo. CA 94404
(415)571-7171
— Peter Scisco
And...
A combination pack for the IBM that in
cludes 514- and 3Y2-inch disks sells for
$44.95; an Amiga version is planned for an
August release, but no price has been set.