I loved this game! At the time I was playing this, "Punisher" comics were really popular so the name of my veteran ranger was obviously... Frank Castle. The game even provided me with a little story during the campaign where Frank failed a mission and was captured... I ran a 2nd campaign and there was a POW rescue mission. Wouldn't you know it, Frank was rescued and I could then continue using him again. It was great, he even got a purple heart for his effort. I played to the point of earning the Congressional Medal of Honor. Man this was a gem of a game.
I got this for Christmas the year it came out. It had a large box and contained six cassette tapes. Back when crouching, and going prone in a shooter were considered features.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Yeah, the lading times dere atrocious. You had to switch tapes as well, to save. Thankfully I had a friend who owned a Final Cartridge, who made turboload versions of each mission for me. It's a hard life being a C64 tape deck user. 😸
Microprose did keyboard overlays for a lot of games. The one I had was Gunship, the apache helicopter sim. My first office job was immediately next to Spectrum Holobyte in an office park in Alameda California. When they bought Microprose and merged brands, the little sign in the parking lot became Microprose. This was in 1995 well after i cared about either brand sadly.
Unless you're supposed to go Rambo per mission requirements, if you have to (oops!) shoot someone, you're supposed to run away from the scene "of the crime" and hide, and that'll usually get the enemies off your back so you can stealth again. Generally, you're supposed to stealth as much as possible, either using the knife to remove "obstacles" or completely avoiding the enemies while you plod toward your objectives.
I haven't played this game in over 30 years and it looks just like I remember. I spent hours on the C64 version and loved it, the Amiga version made me sad, it just didn't feel the same.
Totally agreed. I'm convinced at this point (and after playing them all at the time they were released originally) - Microprose *built* for the c64, and everything else was a port. I still play Microprose games on my c64, and love every minute of it. When I boot up the ports for other systems - every single one of them are just missing 'something', even the 16-bit up-conversions. Microprose games just had that intangible warm "magic" when it was on a c64.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit or perhaps a secret military background? We use the word "chevrons" quite often... as it refers to the shape of most enlisted rank uniform insignia.
Played this as a kid that could not read or speak English, but eventually we figured it out. lol We played it on pc though on a nice monochrome 8086 around 1988 or 1989 I guess.......
Outstanding "non-review" of an outstanding game. When I played this at the time it was released - my opinion was quite like Matt's; I felt the game had real problems, was designed poorly, and was the least-"microprosey" of the 80s Microprose games. Nowadays, however, my opinion is quite like Chris', and I find myself coming back to it more and more. Should also be mentioned perhaps that this is not the first from Microprose to have a sort of "career mode" in which your character carried medals / ranks for a 'lifetime' of missions - and could actually perma-die - perhaps their Gunship was the first with this (a logical next-step from their earlier Silent Service's "patrol" mode). But it added an abstract level of fun on top of it all, plus the seriousness (and xtra sweat on the brow when things went FUBAR in-mission) that your character could actually become POW/KIA. I loved the fact that you couldn't just go COMMANDO-style, you needed to have a plan (and a plan B, as you mentioned - for when things "go sh2thouse"). To me, this game has distinct parallels with the (relatively) much-later "Delta Force" series (particularly I and II) from Novalogic; if you went into DF I or II Call-of-Duty or Serious Sam style, you were guaranteed to lose. However, if you took things slowly, carefully, *stealthily*, with a plan A and a plan B - it paid off in spades - highly rewarding gameplay. This game makes me want to play Delta Force II; Delta Force II makes me want to play this. And then boot up Project Stealth Fighter to round off the evening.
We don't care if you're just quoting Wikipedia as 1) we're too lazy to do even that level of research ourselves & 2) you present the information in a much more entertaining style than otherwise...
You have to crawl a lot, or at least walk. Also, going prone makes it harder for the enemy to hit you (and I think it makes it harder for you to hit them). Listening for footsteps is also supposed to be a thing, and there is upwind and downwind, where the enemy can hear you better if they're downwind form you.
Precursor to Solid Snake / stealth military shooters. Excellent game, lots of mood, open-ended. Lived and tied with my veterans, very respectfully done. Loved this game and I'm a MicroProse fanboi.
Fun episode! I'm looking forward to the year in review ....wait a minute! 54:19 You're doing a review of games that you didn't review throughout the year? :-) I bet this is starting to feel like the Life of Brian when that guy said jehova :-)
You guys are fun to watch even when I'm not at all interested in the game being talked about. Have you guys done Battle Tech: Crescent Hawks inception or however it's called? Long time back I was talking to one or both of you about it, way back when I had more hair but I digress... The game though, was that one ever done? For its age, this game looks interesting, however, it stops at interesting and interesting ain't always fun. Me and the game are about the same age so I did not grow up with it and besides the pull and flash of the... Paper back Romance box art, I have never had a reason to think about it. I don't think I missed too much with this one, boys! Remember when Fabio was on the cover of Wizards and Warriors? My child brain was excited and confused by the muscles but I'm an adult by many moons now and the art for Air Born Rangers is giving me the same Harlequin vibes as the famous Fabio cover. Why is or was that ever a thing with video games? Was it game curious lustful mothers from the mid to late 80s? Gotta feed the coin slot?
We haven't talked about it, but I have played it. It was an interesting take on that universe! Honestly, I think it was cheaper to hire some guy to stand there and look at a camera than it was to hire someone to paint something? No idea why they did so many though. Check out "Knights of Legend" and "Space Rogue" for the best-bad picture covers.
Gonna have to do that. I know it's old guard now being that it has made its way around the internet for decades but what about the box art for "Tongue of the fatman"? Even as a kid I never thought to jam googly eyes into my nose... But that may be because I never had googly eyes to put up my nose. Okay, and have you or anyone seen the box to the computer game "War Wind" because it is one of my favorites.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Ah, but I can't get the right image up. The box for War Wind is actually clear with a cardboard battle set up behind the plastic that you can seen when you open the front up. I really miss Big Boxes! Gold Box SSI games are my favorite retro games by far but I somehow have no real positive opinion on their boxes. Forgotten realms AD&D games always get some of the best art but the gold box run was... Minimalist? Bard's Tale vinyl record boxes, awesome, great and than we have the gold (And silver ones, the only copy of Wasteland that I actually bought came in a silver version of the same boxes, and the other ones that where not exactly the same as the Flagship games) but now that my digression in parenthesis is over... The Gold Box games had bad boxes, sturdy boxes because 30+ years on and the boxes still exist but somehow books on lined back to back on a bookshelf look more appealing than do the same with a full set of Gold Box games. I had all of them accept for Hillsfar, even Wasteland but it was silver, moving on because before I sold them I kept them in a Rubber Maid bin, and it's why I let them all go. There really was no place for them, maybe if I had a retro game room but that's a lot of work to make the games look okay on a shelf. I don't need that box tat to play the games now that I have .txt files and the interwebs. It may be a peeve but Buck Rodgers, Champions, and PoR are some of my favorite computer games, games that I have went front to back on more than twice each and I kind of wished such great games had fun boxes to match. Rant over...
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I loved this game! At the time I was playing this, "Punisher" comics were really popular so the name of my veteran ranger was obviously... Frank Castle. The game even provided me with a little story during the campaign where Frank failed a mission and was captured... I ran a 2nd campaign and there was a POW rescue mission. Wouldn't you know it, Frank was rescued and I could then continue using him again. It was great, he even got a purple heart for his effort. I played to the point of earning the Congressional Medal of Honor. Man this was a gem of a game.
I played this so much, and Gunship.
I can't wait for us to play gunship. I remember it so fondly.
Road War 2000: Grab your Latte and Blanket
I got this for Christmas the year it came out. It had a large box and contained six cassette tapes. Back when crouching, and going prone in a shooter were considered features.
That's crazy it came on so many cassette tapes!
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Yeah, the lading times dere atrocious. You had to switch tapes as well, to save. Thankfully I had a friend who owned a Final Cartridge, who made turboload versions of each mission for me. It's a hard life being a C64 tape deck user. 😸
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit The loading* times were*
Microprose did keyboard overlays for a lot of games. The one I had was Gunship, the apache helicopter sim.
My first office job was immediately next to Spectrum Holobyte in an office park in Alameda California. When they bought Microprose and merged brands, the little sign in the parking lot became Microprose. This was in 1995 well after i cared about either brand sadly.
I remember Gunships as well, this game definitely has a lot of cross over with pilot disks and such from that game.
“What if I told you it was a strategy game?”
...
“Now it does 3 things poorly.”
Unless you're supposed to go Rambo per mission requirements, if you have to (oops!) shoot someone, you're supposed to run away from the scene "of the crime" and hide, and that'll usually get the enemies off your back so you can stealth again. Generally, you're supposed to stealth as much as possible, either using the knife to remove "obstacles" or completely avoiding the enemies while you plod toward your objectives.
Watching this carefully before getting it on sale at GOG.
Keep an eye for a sale. I’m not sure I’d throw $10 at it.
With my 1987 eyes this game was perfect.
My 1987 heart agrees with you... just not my 2022 one.
I haven't played this game in over 30 years and it looks just like I remember. I spent hours on the C64 version and loved it, the Amiga version made me sad, it just didn't feel the same.
Totally agreed. I'm convinced at this point (and after playing them all at the time they were released originally) - Microprose *built* for the c64, and everything else was a port. I still play Microprose games on my c64, and love every minute of it. When I boot up the ports for other systems - every single one of them are just missing 'something', even the 16-bit up-conversions. Microprose games just had that intangible warm "magic" when it was on a c64.
LOL!! This was the possibly the best episode intro ever
You have to read the (excellent) manual, which explains that you can make bad drops that will destroy your supply bags.
The manual really was next level good. Right after SSI manuals has to be Microprose. They're more technical handbook than game manual.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit The manual for Airborne Ranger was my first exposure to Army Rangers and the idea of special forces in general.
13:15 - Matt decides to flex his vocabulary with "Chevrons". I'm assuming it's from his vast "Stargate" knowledge? 😆
I don’t think he watched it. I have. I have a lot.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit or perhaps a secret military background? We use the word "chevrons" quite often... as it refers to the shape of most enlisted rank uniform insignia.
Sadly, media analysis has embedded this word in my mind permanently.
New record for making me laugh out loud. Less than 30 seconds in. Well done.
Played this as a kid that could not read or speak English, but eventually we figured it out. lol
We played it on pc though on a nice monochrome 8086 around 1988 or 1989 I guess.......
man i feel the deathlord talk felt very close to a review....but i guess i am wrong ;)
Close, but never actually a review. Can't be. We don't' do reviews here. :P
Another great review guys!
Thank you!
Outstanding "non-review" of an outstanding game. When I played this at the time it was released - my opinion was quite like Matt's; I felt the game had real problems, was designed poorly, and was the least-"microprosey" of the 80s Microprose games. Nowadays, however, my opinion is quite like Chris', and I find myself coming back to it more and more.
Should also be mentioned perhaps that this is not the first from Microprose to have a sort of "career mode" in which your character carried medals / ranks for a 'lifetime' of missions - and could actually perma-die - perhaps their Gunship was the first with this (a logical next-step from their earlier Silent Service's "patrol" mode). But it added an abstract level of fun on top of it all, plus the seriousness (and xtra sweat on the brow when things went FUBAR in-mission) that your character could actually become POW/KIA. I loved the fact that you couldn't just go COMMANDO-style, you needed to have a plan (and a plan B, as you mentioned - for when things "go sh2thouse").
To me, this game has distinct parallels with the (relatively) much-later "Delta Force" series (particularly I and II) from Novalogic; if you went into DF I or II Call-of-Duty or Serious Sam style, you were guaranteed to lose. However, if you took things slowly, carefully, *stealthily*, with a plan A and a plan B - it paid off in spades - highly rewarding gameplay. This game makes me want to play Delta Force II; Delta Force II makes me want to play this. And then boot up Project Stealth Fighter to round off the evening.
The game certainly reflects Matt's and my different approaches to conflict in games.
We don't care if you're just quoting Wikipedia as 1) we're too lazy to do even that level of research ourselves & 2) you present the information in a much more entertaining style than otherwise...
You have to crawl a lot, or at least walk. Also, going prone makes it harder for the enemy to hit you (and I think it makes it harder for you to hit them). Listening for footsteps is also supposed to be a thing, and there is upwind and downwind, where the enemy can hear you better if they're downwind form you.
Watch for the landmines too.
Precursor to Solid Snake / stealth military shooters. Excellent game, lots of mood, open-ended. Lived and tied with my veterans, very respectfully done. Loved this game and I'm a MicroProse fanboi.
It was the first stealth game and infantry simulator I encountered in my life.
In real life you tend to not know if you've been seen till the bullets come your way or someone surprises you from behind.
And i’m sure Rangers do *not* work alone too.
Fun episode! I'm looking forward to the year in review ....wait a minute! 54:19 You're doing a review of games that you didn't review throughout the year? :-) I bet this is starting to feel like the Life of Brian when that guy said jehova :-)
Review as in look back, not to inform an opinion style review!
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Good save! :-)
Maybe they are reviewing the year itself.
"Pop shooter" -- A claymore mine?
Wait, we are supposed to agree with either of you?
At your option.
Well one of us anyway...
You guys are fun to watch even when I'm not at all interested in the game being talked about. Have you guys done Battle Tech: Crescent Hawks inception or however it's called? Long time back I was talking to one or both of you about it, way back when I had more hair but I digress... The game though, was that one ever done?
For its age, this game looks interesting, however, it stops at interesting and interesting ain't always fun. Me and the game are about the same age so I did not grow up with it and besides the pull and flash of the... Paper back Romance box art, I have never had a reason to think about it.
I don't think I missed too much with this one, boys!
Remember when Fabio was on the cover of Wizards and Warriors? My child brain was excited and confused by the muscles but I'm an adult by many moons now and the art for Air Born Rangers is giving me the same Harlequin vibes as the famous Fabio cover.
Why is or was that ever a thing with video games? Was it game curious lustful mothers from the mid to late 80s? Gotta feed the coin slot?
We haven't talked about it, but I have played it. It was an interesting take on that universe!
Honestly, I think it was cheaper to hire some guy to stand there and look at a camera than it was to hire someone to paint something? No idea why they did so many though. Check out "Knights of Legend" and "Space Rogue" for the best-bad picture covers.
Gonna have to do that. I know it's old guard now being that it has made its way around the internet for decades but what about the box art for "Tongue of the fatman"?
Even as a kid I never thought to jam googly eyes into my nose... But that may be because I never had googly eyes to put up my nose.
Okay, and have you or anyone seen the box to the computer game "War Wind" because it is one of my favorites.
@@galloe8933 I loved the audacity of that box. It was so weird.
Just looked up War Wind. Looks epic.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Ah, but I can't get the right image up. The box for War Wind is actually clear with a cardboard battle set up behind the plastic that you can seen when you open the front up. I really miss Big Boxes! Gold Box SSI games are my favorite retro games by far but I somehow have no real positive opinion on their boxes.
Forgotten realms AD&D games always get some of the best art but the gold box run was... Minimalist? Bard's Tale vinyl record boxes, awesome, great and than we have the gold (And silver ones, the only copy of Wasteland that I actually bought came in a silver version of the same boxes, and the other ones that where not exactly the same as the Flagship games) but now that my digression in parenthesis is over...
The Gold Box games had bad boxes, sturdy boxes because 30+ years on and the boxes still exist but somehow books on lined back to back on a bookshelf look more appealing than do the same with a full set of Gold Box games.
I had all of them accept for Hillsfar, even Wasteland but it was silver, moving on because before I sold them I kept them in a Rubber Maid bin, and it's why I let them all go. There really was no place for them, maybe if I had a retro game room but that's a lot of work to make the games look okay on a shelf. I don't need that box tat to play the games now that I have .txt files and the interwebs.
It may be a peeve but Buck Rodgers, Champions, and PoR are some of my favorite computer games, games that I have went front to back on more than twice each and I kind of wished such great games had fun boxes to match.
Rant over...
30:40 that's a funny definition of fun 🤪
If you want something more in-depth on it, the talk I heard that cued me in on it is here: ruclips.net/video/78rPt0RsosQ/видео.html
No, I do not require your misconceptions elaborated 🤣