| Transarctica | |
|---|---|
 Cover art by Rodney Matthews [1] | |
| Developer(s) | Silmarils |
| Publisher(s) | Silmarils |
| Designer(s) | André Rocques |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Atari ST, Falcon, MS-DOS, Macintosh |
| Release | 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure, strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Transarctica (or Arctic Baron) is a 1993 video game made by the French company Silmarils for the Amiga and ported to IBM PC compatibles, Atari ST, Macintosh and Atari Falcon.
The story is based on the post-apocalyptic science fiction novel series La Compagnie des glaces by the French writer Georges-Jean Arnaud.
In the 21st century, mankind is being ravaged by the greenhouse effect. A last-ditch effort to counteract it is designed and executed. It works far too well.
Centuries if not millennia later, the planet is entirely covered in a thick, opaque cloud layer. Giant wolf packs roam the frozen wastes, and the mammoth has re-emerged from the elephant stock. Mankind ekes out a living in a few handfuls of settlements, connected by a network of massive armored trains. The network in turn is in the hands of the gargantuan Viking Union, which is merciless towards threats to its power. A few radicals, though, are willing to attempt a change, and managing to hijack a train of the Union, the Transarctica, they set out in search of the "sun".
The game is divided into two modes; exploration and combat.
The train roams Eurasia using its various facilities and tools, gathering coal for currency and fuel, visiting towns to trade and to enhance the train, and searching for clues for its quest. The dystopic setting is rather well integrated, and for instance the use of slave labor is necessary to complete the game.
The interface is quite original but rather cumbersome. This part has been criticized for the under-efficiency of trading in comparison to mining.
The Viking Union is out for blood, and meeting with another train triggers a simple battle mode. Battles are real-time plus slow-paced and may be dull at first, but the amount of things to handle will multiply with time - though this hardly helps the common mop-up period at the end.
The two sides are positioned on parallel tracks some distance away from each other. Maneuvering is limited to horizontal movement. Combat assets include cannons (to attack enemy wagons), machine guns (to mow down ground troops, on both sides if timed poorly), infantry (jacks of all trades to operate on and in between trains, attack ground troops, set charges on hostile wagons and clear them from friendly ones) and mammoth cavalry (to attack ground troops and to shield and transport infantry). All other wagons, save the locomotives, are dead weight.
Combat is won when the enemy is disarmed, the train is then looted for intact wagons and materials and the contents of destroyed wagons are written off. The game is lost if the Transarctica loses a vital wagon. All engagements can be expected to take several minutes.
Computer Gaming World in May 1994 criticized the train controls as both too simple and "intentionally annoying" and train combat as "painfully slow", and mentioned other "annoying, rough edges". The magazine concluded that the game's "blemishes derail an otherwise original and delightful premise". [2]
Star Raiders is a first-person space combat simulator for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. It was written by Doug Neubauer, an Atari employee, and released as a cartridge by Atari in March 1980. The game is considered the platform's killer app. It was later ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari ST.
Musashi: Samurai Legend, known in Japan as Musashiden II: Blade Master, is a third-person action game developed by Square Enix in 2005 for PlayStation 2. Square Enix published the game in Japan and North America, while the game was released in PAL regions by Atari Europe.
Axis & Allies is a real-time strategy World War II video game developed by TimeGate Studios and published by Atari for Microsoft Windows. The game was released on November 2, 2004. It is based on the board game series Axis & Allies from Milton Bradley and also on TimeGate's Kohan series. Set in the years after Japan and the United States entered into the war, the game allows the player to act as a World War II commander to build military forces to fight against other generals, using military units and technologies from the war. The player is able to rewrite and recreate the history of World War II.
North & South is a strategy action game released in 1989 for the Amiga, and Atari ST and ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Amstrad CPC, MSX, MS-DOS, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. It was developed and published by Infogrames.
Eastern Front (1941) is a computer wargame for the Atari 8-bit family created by Chris Crawford and published through the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981. A scenario editor and assembly language source code for the game were also sold by APX.
Ring of Red is an alternate history turn-based strategy video game released by Konami for the PlayStation 2 console. It was one of the first PlayStation 2 games made with CD-ROM-based technology. Ring of Red was released in 2000 for Japan followed by North America and Europe in 2001. An emulated version for the PlayStation 3 was released as a PS2 Classic on October 4, 2011 in North America.
Lords of Conquest is a strategy video game published in 1986 by Electronic Arts. It is based on the 1982 board game Borderlands by Eon Productions and developed by Eon's software division. It was marketed with the slogan "Better than Risk!"
Red Baron is an arcade video game developed by Atari, Inc. and released in 1980. A first-person flight simulator game, the player takes the role of a World War I ace in a biplane fighting on the side of the Allies. The game is named after the nickname of Manfred von Richthofen, German flying ace. The game uses the same monochrome vector graphics and similar hardware as Atari's own Battlezone; both were developed at the same time. Like Battlezone, the player is presented with a first-person view of the action. Both Battlezone and Red Baron use additional hardware, an "Auxiliary" board, to perform the mathematical computations required for simulating a 3D environment.
Gunship 2000 is a helicopter combat flight simulation video game developed and published by MicroProse as a follow-up to their earlier game Gunship. It was originally released in 1991 for DOS; this version received an expansion in 1992. The Amiga, PC-98, Amiga CD32 and PlayStation versions were released in 1993, 1994 and 1996 respectively. A sequel, Gunship!, was released in 2000.
NATO Commander is a strategy video game designed by Sid Meier for the Atari 8-bit family and published in 1983 by MicroProse. Ports to the Apple II, and Commodore 64 were released the following year.
B-17 Flying Fortress: World War II Bombers in Action is a combat flight simulation video game developed by Vektor Grafix and published by MicroProse for the PC MS-DOS in 1992 and for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1993. The game simulates training, combat missions and sorties in a tour of duty in the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces in the European Theater of Operations aboard a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber during World War II. It was followed by B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th in 2000.
Castles is a video game developed by Quicksilver and published by Interplay Entertainment in 1991 and 1992. The game involves the construction of a series of castles in Wales and the Welsh Marches during the 13th century. Castles was quickly followed by an expansion, Castles: The Northern Campaign, and a sequel, Castles II: Siege and Conquest.
Legionnaire is a computer wargame for the Atari 8-bit series created by Chris Crawford in 1982, and released through Avalon Hill. Recreating Julius Caesar's campaigns in a semi-historical setting, the player takes command of the Roman legions in real-time battles against the barbarians.
MiG-29 Fulcrum is a combat flight simulator video game released by Domark in 1990 for the Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS PC platforms.
Falcon is a combat flight simulator video game and the first official entry in the Falcon series of the F-16 jet fighter's simulators by Spectrum HoloByte. Originally developed by Sphere for Macintosh and MS-DOS in 1987 and ported to several platforms between 1988 and 1992, the game earned commercial success and critical acclaim.
Skyhammer is a shooter video game developed by Rebellion Developments and published by Songbird Productions for the Atari Jaguar on May 22, 2000. Its gameplay style is reminiscent of Psygnosis' G-Police for the PlayStation, which was released three years prior to the game.
Top Gun is a 1986 combat flight simulation game based on the film of the same name. It was developed and published by British company Ocean Software, and was released for several computer platforms. In the United Kingdom, it was released for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum in December 1986. The following year, it was released for Atari ST. In the United States, it was published by Thunder Mountain. In 1989, it was published by The Hit Squad as a budget re-release for ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.
Top Gun: Hornet's Nest is a 1998 combat flight simulation game developed by Zipper Interactive and published by MicroProse for Microsoft Windows. It is loosely based on the 1986 film Top Gun, and is a sequel to the 1996 game Top Gun: Fire at Will. The game was criticized for its lack of realism and its flight physics.
T.A.C. is a top-down tactical combat videogame published by Avalon Hill in 1983 for Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 and IBM PC. The game takes place during the Second World War and simulates clashes involving the United States, the USSR, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Final Legacy is a shoot 'em up video game released on cartridge by Atari Corporation for the Atari 8-bit family in November 1985. The game takes place in 2051 with the player in control of a highly advanced ship, attempting to fend off an attack by a nuclear-armed doomsday computer. The game was developed by Atari, Inc. and completed in 1984 but was not released until late 1985 due to the ongoing turmoil within the company. A 3rd party Atari ST port was published in 1988.