First Strike

First Strike
Game No.	284
Voting	7.07 points, 15 votes
Developer	Dave Thomas
Publisher	Elite Systems
Musician	Mark Cooksey
HVSC-File	MUSICIANS/C/Cooksey_Mark/First_Strike.sid
Release	1989
Platform	C64
Genre	Shoot'em Up, 3D
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language

Description

First Strike by Elite Systems is a very good conversion of the Afterburner idea for the C64 from 1989. You control a fight jet, which is armed to the teeth, in 8 missions, which take place at different operation areas scattered all over the world: training missions in the Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean mission, Gulf mission, Arctic mission, Black Sea mission, Far East mission, East Russia mission, Central Europe mission. You can choose your weapons before a mission and at a stopover during the mission. Corresponding to the operation area the design of the landscape changes and you can even see cloud cover and fly over or under it..

You start the game with the rank "Rookie". For a promotion a mission must be solved completely, i.e. destroying the mission target and landing safely. (Landing and starting are done automatically, so you just have to reach the destination). To reach the highest rank all missions must be accomplished successfully. The order of the ranks: Rookie, Sergeant, 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, Captain, Major, L. Colonel, Colonel

The game has a highscore list which is unfortunately not persistent. Also the score cannot be saved, so you either have to play through all missions in one go or save the memory contents with an adequate cartridge.

Design

... the start of the game - choose mission, briefing, loading and go ...

... during the flight - no enemies in sight yet ...

Hints

Weapons

Your jet has a maximum loading capacity of 10.000 lbs. The following weapons can be chosen: M61 Cannon (main gun ammunition), Maverick Missile, Sidewinder Missile, Mk 84 2000 lbs Bomb, ECM-Pod, Flare Cartridge, external 300 gal fuel tank

Hostile targets

Airplanes
There are two different types of hostile airplanes. Grey jets approach from the front and do not attack but you need to avoid a collision. They can only be eliminated by a single shot from the main gun. Red jets appear above your jet and are always in twos. If you destroy one, the other will fire missiles at you. These jets can only be shot with a series of hits from the main gun or with a Sidewinder Missile.

Helicopters
They appear in groups and are not really dangerous. They can be destroyed by hits from the main gun or with a Maverick Missile.

Tanks
Tank battalions appear at different places. They are not dangerous, but they fire with flak at you. They can also be destroyed with the main gun or a Maverick Missile.

Battleships
These are utterly dangerous and hard to destroy. As soon as they are in reach they will fire at you with cannons and different missile types. Battleships can be destroyed with the Maverick Missiles or the 2000lb Bombs.

U-boats
They always appear at the same point and do not fire at you. They can also be destroyed with the Maverick Missiles or the 2000lb Bombs.

Elint Spy Travelers
Elint (Electronic Intelligence) "spys" always appear at the height of the coastline and if it is not destroyed it can make your life very hard, because the following hostile attacks will then be more dangerous. They can be destroyed with the Maverick Missiles or the 2000lb Bombs.

Radar postures
Find postures in groups of four at the top of cliffs. The effect and the destructive abilities are the same as the ones of Elint Spy Travelers. At least 2 postures must be destroyed.

Flak
They can appear everywhere, especially when radar postures or Elint Spy Travelers were not destroyed. They also appear in front of missin targets. Hits by flak cause damages to your jet.

SAMS
"Surface to Air Missiles" they are scattered everywhere in the hostile territorium and can be fire from all buildings or in the open terrain, so that no launching position is visible. A hit can cause damagtes to your jet.

Main target
This is the most important target of each mission as your rank is raised by the destruction of this and you are awarded many points. This target is always in the second or third section of a mission, never in the first. The main targets of the missions are different types of targets and so you also need different weapons for its destruction. Therefore you should read the briefing for each mission to choose the correct type of weapon.

The instruments display

It is divided into three sections. At the left there is the display for the type of threat. In the middle there are the displays for the weapon supply, the fuel supply, the thrust and the flying height. At the left there is the radar screen and below that the warning signals.

Threat indicator
This screen is very important as it tells you what kind of enemies will appear before you see them. Together wird the radar, this instrument allows you to choose the correct weapon. This instrument still works when the radar is damaged.

Radar screen
It shows all enemy types as dots. Together with the threat indicator all dots can be identified directly after appearing. The reach of the radar is bigger then your visual range, so that everything appears on the screen a short time before it gets into your visual range, so that it is possible for you to react.

ECM display
Directly below the threat indicator there is the ECM display. If a ECM pod was activated this display will light up and go out again after some time.

Damage display
These are below the radar screen and are marked with the letters R, E, G and F. If they light up they indicate the following damage:
R shows a defect radar
E lights when the gearbox was damaged (effects in loss of thrust)
G shows that the main gun is working faultily (effects in disruptions in firing)
F indicates a defect tank (effects in higher fuel consumption than normally)

All damages result from flak shots. A damage is repaired after you have lost a life.

Weapon supply display
This shows how many weapons of each type are still in the jet. From top to bottom: Sidewinder, Maverick, main gun magazines, bombs and flares.

Lives and points

• At the start of the game you have five lives. You get an extra life for destroying the main target and completing a mission.
• Points are awarded depending on the hazardousness of the enemy.
• 2.000 points are given for a successful landing.
• You get 50.000 points after destroying the mission target.

Controls

/ = sink/rise
/ = left/right
= fire current weapon
Space  = change weapon (or key "F1")
F7   = activate ECM (if available) and fend off missiles guided by radar
CRSR ⇑ ⇓  = decrease thrust
CRSR ⇔  = increase thrust

F5   = pause on/off
C= + Return  = Reset

Cheats

• The version by "Remember" offers next to a highscore list that is saved on disk, some fixes and the manual also the following cheat options: unlimited lives, unlimited fuel, unlimited ammunition, no weight limit, indestructible.
• Poke for unlimited lives: 38316,173

Voting

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.07 points at 15 votes (rank 429). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	8	14th July 2008 - "super" 2014 downs
Lemon64	7,4	04th January 2011 - 33 votes
ZZap64	80%	Issue 10/89

Reviews

Rockford: "Beats the pants off the model Afterburner in terms of graphics and playability. It is also nice that you can choose the ammunition yourself, this gives the game a tiny pinch of tactics. But even though it is better than Afterburner, it cannot fascinate for long. 6 points from my side."

Miscellaneous

Cover

Highscore

1. Robotron2084 - 79.700 (22.11.2012)
2. Rockford - 74.100 (30.05.2008)
3. H.T.W - 54.500 (11.08.2009)
4. TheRyk - 9.100 (20.03.2011)

	#2 Rockford		#3 H.T.W

• 

  #4 TheRyk

Links

• C64Games.de - Game No. 3049
• Lemon64 - Game No. 928
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 2776
• ZZap64 test report