Helikopter Jagd

Helikopter Jagd
Game No.	302
Voting	6.73 points, 15 votes
Company	Ocean
Publisher	Ocean, Quellesoft
Musician	Martin Galway
HVSC-File	MUSICIANS/G/Galway_Martin/Helikopter_Jagd.sid
Release	1986
Platform	C64
Genre	Shoot'em Up, Defender, H-Scrolling
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language
Information	Neueste Version "Jewel" V1.2

Description

You are the pilot of a rescue helicopter. While you try to take castaways or fuel on board, enemy craft try to stop you. Initially, the enemy seems to be a foreign military power, but in level 2 it is revealed that this power either has superior technologly or gets help from outer space. A level is completed if all the shipwrecked are rescued.

The jeopardized people are either on objects named "islands" in the manual, swim in the sea or - if two enemy craft collide - hover in the air as parachutists. In the top of the screen you are informed with the dialogue "Inhabited" if anybody needs help on an island. If you approach carefully, a small ladder is dropped. You may not come too close to the water surface, enemies or explosions. After boarding you have to go to a basis station (an "island" with white installations) to unload the rescued.

Design

After a nice title screen and the Ocean Loader tune, the game entertains with state of the art graphics and music of 1986, parallax scrolling and sea animation are positive aspects worth mentioning. However, the charset is not very well readable, which would have been desirable, especially for deciphering the score digits. Moreover, collision control should have been more accurate in a shoot'em up game.

Tape Loading Screen

... Jetzt gehts gleich los.

Hints

Objects in the Game

	Your Helicopter	equipped with a "semi-automatic rescue gear" also known as ladder
	Swimmer to be rescued	Let's hope he can swim rather well. Just approach until the ladder is dropped automatically. If you leave the screen, he is drowned if you come back.
	Parachutist	If too enemy aircraft collide, one drops a parachutist. You can collect him directly by contact in the air which brings you more score than waiting until he becomes as swimmer. Attention: You can easily shoot him by accident, moreover he often appears on right or left border of the screen and is gone if you scroll out of the screen.It is a little bizarre that not only the U.F.O.s but even the heatseeker missiles seem to be manned with Kamikaze pilots, paradoxically equipped with parachutes...
	Basis Station	By short contact you unload and refuel.
	Island Type A	If there is anybody to rescue (flashing "inhabited" message), approach till ladder is dropped and rescue him.
	Island Type B	as above.
	Island Type C	as above.
	Floating Tank	A fuel tank floating in the ocean. Treat it like a person you want to rescue and your "Fuel" display will change for the better. In the original game you even get 50 points for that.
	Patrol Boat	Patrol Boats move rather slowly in left or right direction and are mostly harmless. Only if you move close to the surface for rescue, they can become a problem, especially in combination with low-altitude air enemies. That's why you should bomb and destroy them with magnesium balls, though this does not bring any score in the original (a bug fixed in the Jewel Versions by Mayday!).
	Enemy Helicopter	Though it looks like a toy, it is rather fast and can change its direction, which makes it a pain in the ass when you urgently want to load, unload or refuel.
	Jet	These enemies enter the screen from left or right border of the screen. On the one hand they are easy targets due to low speed and large size. On the other hand they can change their altitude and make life troublesome. However, they are far less dangerous than they look, since collision control is very generous in favor of the player. Rumors according to which they can fire at the player in higher levels, could not be confirmed yet and are very likely wrong.
	Heatseeker Missile	The Heatseeker Missile locks its target automatically and hovers a little on its way which makes it hard to shoot. It is very useful to drop magnesium balls which normally distracts the missile and makes it explode. If the missile does not hit the burning bomb, it can unexpectedly become dangerous again.
	UFO	Danger from outer space! These objects are the most dangerous objects. They have similar features as the heatseeker missiles. In addition they can change their direction on both axes and thus, make the whole screen a dangerous place. They can be shot with pulse lasers or distracted (but not destroyed) by magnesium bombs. But if the latter do not burn long enough, the UFO might lock the player as a target once again.

Helicopter equipment:

The Helicopter on its Mission

• Pulse Laser: Standard weapon, overheats after too intense use or auto fire which is displayed in the top right corner of the screen.
• Magnesium Bomb: Useful weapon to distract missiles or UFOs or sink patrol boats, activated by joy down plus fire button.
• Semi-automatic Rescue Gear: If the right distance to people or objects is reached, the ladder is dropped automatically.

Displays

• Score: Shows current score.
• Fuel: Shows current tank status, if you do not refuel in due time, you crash.
• Altitude: Shows current alitude; flying too low will lead to crash.
• Stability: Indicates the capacity, i.e. how many rescued persons are on board. If the needle is almos left and the display starts flashing, any further rescued person makes you crash.
• Lives: Each round shield symbolizes one life.

Controls

= Helicopter moves in direction of the joystick
= Fire pulse laser
= Drop magnesium bomb

Tips and Tricks

• Collisions, flying too low or with empty tank leads to loss of life.
• Rescuing parachutists directly in the air brings more score that sea rescue.
• Never overload your helicopter.
• If your craft is fully loaded and you pass "inhabited" islands, fly back after unloading.
• If a magnesium bomb burned out, always(!) immediately(!) drop the next to irritate potential UFOs or heat seeker missiles or just destroy as many patrol boats as possible.
• Though the UFOs are only irritated by the magnesium ball and not destroyed, you can often kill them while they leave the screen with your laser gun.
• Don't forget to use your laser gun, but don't exaggerate due to prevent overheating.
• Look closely: Sometimes fuel tanks or even people float behind "islands" and are barely recognizable.
• "Inhabited" islands stay inhabited until you rescue the person, even if you leave the screen.
• Swimmers are normally gone after scrolling out of screen.
• The total number of people to be rescued can vary due to parachutists and swimmers; for finishing a level you apparently only need to save all the people from the islands, though.
• Not only when unloading, also after losing a life, the game counts how many people are saved, so don't be surprised if you are killed and receive a level-up before the game continues.
• There is not much change after level 2.

Solution

There is no real end of the game, so there is no solution either. Only objective is to score as high as possible.

Cheats

Various versions provide trainers.

Voting

Voting of the C64-wiki users (10=highest):
6.73 points at 15 votes (rank 544). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	7	06. Januar 2013 - "Good" - 3160 downs
Lemon64	6,7	06. Januar 2013 - 24 votes

Reviews

Erwin33: "An easy game with no big story or elaborate graphics but a memorable sound. I liked to play it, anyway, and tried to improve my score again and again."

TheRyk: "Hmh, this Choplifter or Defender above the Ocean (<- harr!) ain't bad at all, visually and musically it is more than appealing. For a true hit some minor flaws should have been fixed, e.g. being reborn right in front of an enemy in the original game was really frustrating, a problem fixed in the Jewel Versions which fans should give a try. All in all, a nice game, solid performance, good / 6 Punkte."

Superwolf: "I used to have the tape version and digged the loader. First the title screen was slowly built up while music was playing. I also like the game and rate it 7 Points."

Miscellaneous

Trivia

• The game over jingle is an outtake of the well-known loader Ocean Loader tune by C64 music legend Martin Galway.
• Coder humour: The first entry in the original highscore list reads: "T.TERFMOP" which is "T.POMFRET", the Programmer's name read backwards.

Versions (Selection)

+ Hi Version by Jabba Crackings

Title Screen and Highscore Saver, in HtW's version including a Highscore Resetter, available on c64games.de, see "links" section below. (Load "RESET SCORES" and start like this: LOAD "RESET SCORES",8 (Return), RUN (Return).
crashes if Restore-Key is pressed.

+6HD Version by Wanderer

Title Screen, Highscore Saver, various trainers, extra file with englisch Docs.
Missing Stability Trainer makes some other Trainer Options useless, because it can happen that you are stuck at the bottom of the screen, once you overloaded your helicopter in Invincibility Mode, for it will be impossible to unload.
crashes if Restore-Key is pressed.

102% Jewel +7HD Version 1.2 by Mayday! and CSixx

Title Screen and Highscore Saver (to reset Highscore, just delete file "HIGHSCORES", a new file with original highscore list will automatically be generated by the game), Englisch Docs, seven Trainers including Stability Trainer.
Some modifications of flaws in original game: Fuel only brings fuel, no score anymore. In turn you get 50 points for bombing the patrol boats (in original game it brought you no score at all which is very likely a bug). After loss of life or level-up you are invincible for a few seconds to prevent unfair situation of being (re)born hopelessly close to an enemy sprite.

Cover

Highscore

The modified Jewel Versions (without any trainer, of course) are allowed, because the 0 score for patrol boats/50 score for fuel is regarded as bug.

1. TheRyk - 54.140 (13.01.2014)
2. Robotron2084 - 32.620 (08.12.2012)
3. H.T.W - 26.170 (30.10.2009)
4. Helmutx - 23.460 (15.08.2010)
5. Keule - 6.440 (02.09.2012)

	#2 Robotron2084		#3 H.T.W

• 

  #4 Helmutx

• 

  #5 Keule

Links

• C64Games.de - Game No. 939 ← contains Jabba, Wanderer & Mayday! versions
• Lemon64 - Game No. 1172
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 3481
• C64.com - Game No. 786
• CSDb - Release No. 127153 ← Mayday! & CSixx 102% Jewel +7HD Version 1.2 at CSDb
• CSDb - Release No. 62376 ← Jabba +Hi Version at CSDB
• CSDb - Release No. 116129 ← Wanderer +6HD Version at CSDB