Choplifter

From C64-Wiki

Choplifter / Helimission

Game No.	13
Developer	Dane Bigham, Dan Gorlin
Company
Publisher	Brøderbund, Load 'n' Run
Musician
HVSC-File
Release	1982
Plattform	{{{Plattform}}}
Genre	Shoot'em Up, H-Scrolling
Gamemode	1P only
Operation
Media
Language
Information

1 Voting
2 Description
3 Design
4 Hints
5 Solution
6 Cheats
7 Critics
8 Miscellaneous
9 Highscore
10 Links
- 10.1 Websites
- 10.2 Videos

[edit] Voting

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.29 points at 28 votes (rank 179). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	7	11. Oktober 2006 - "very good" 8287 downs
Lemon64	7,65	11. Oktober 2006 - 75 votes

[edit] Description

The player has to rescue prisoners of war by picking them up with a helicopter and dropping them off at the nearby base. A maximum of 16 people can be transported at a time. The enemies are tanks, airplanes, and drones, all of which can be shot by the player. The helicopter can fly horizontally and vertically facing left or right, and can also fly while facing straight ahead (towards the screen).

[edit] Design

Although this is one of the first commercial C64 games, Choplifter integrates the normally single-colored screen border artfully into the background graphics, and also includes details like the animated flag and the waving people (which were of course primitive compared to later games).

[edit] Hints

The helicopter is controlled by the joystick in port 1. Briefly pressing the fire button causes the helicopter to shoot. Holding down the fire button and pushing the joystick left or right changes the direction that the helicopter faces, allowing you to either enter the forward-facing "tank attacking position", or turning the helicopter completely to the right or left.

Tanks and jets attack behind the borderline (to left of the base); the drones will follow you to the base.

The people only leave their houses when the houses are on fire. The tanks are usually responsible for this, but the player can also shoot the houses to set them on fire.

The display at the top of screen shows (from left to right) the number of POWs killed (spade), the current number passengers in the helicopter (diamond), and the total number of persons evacuated so far (heart).

Keys:

RUN/STOP -key: Pause on/off

Q -key: End game (Quit)

[edit] Solution

At the beginning you only have to deal with tanks. After the first flight back to the base, you will also be threatened by a jet. On the third level, the drone appears. The total number of enemies is also raised after every flight.

The tanks mainly aim for your helicopter, but they are also the biggest enemy threat to the persons to be rescued. That is why it is recommended that you fly sidewards at all times, to be able to destroy the tanks as quickly as possible when needed.

The blue jet can be shot. However, it is easier to dodge its missiles... especially when it is flying low.

The red drone moves slowly, but always directly towards the helicopter. Therefore, it has to be destroyed quickly if you want to stay in one place for a more than a few seconds. Otherwise you just can avoid it.

[edit] Cheats

In the cracked version released by REMEMBER (Release 369), the ugly upper border was removed through a coding correction. This cracked version provides you with the following cheats:

Unlimited number of helicopters
Invulnerability
Hostages cannot be killed
Rescue of all hostages possible

[edit] Critics

TheKills: "Interesting game, albeit a bit difficult at some points. For me it belongs in a good collection."

Borna: "With this it all began - one of the first games on the C64, which has presumably also been played by everyone. Tanks are evil, we had to admit to ourselves with a heavy heart."