Choplifter  (1982 - Br_derbund)
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Choplifter is a arcade game that scrolls horizontally into both directions, where you steer a battle helicopter. Your mission: break the hostile line and rescue the hostages. These are captured in sheds, that need to be opened first. Then you need to land and wait until the hostiles get to your helicopter and then set them down at a close base. A maximum of 16 persons can be transported at once. But be careful, hostile tanks, airplanes and drones will try to stop you - and they definitely won't stop shooting, while you rescue hostages! The game is over when all 64 people have been picked up or when you have lost 3 choplifters . 

Originally, the game was developed for the Apple II computer and later ported to arcade and video game consoles. Many imitations and clones followed. 

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). For the sprites a kind of anti aliasing is used (blue/red pixel at edges). A smiliar thing can be seen in Karateka. 


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 : Pause on/off 
Q : End game (Quit) 

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. 

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

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Description from the packaging:

An action game by Dan Gorlin.

Most of us would like to be heroes. Trouble is, we're often not properly prepared when the chance to do something heroic comes along. This is your chance.

In the area which lies just a few miles east of Patagonia and to the south of Kurdistan lies the Bungeling Empire. This nation of militaristic ideologues has kidnapped the 64 delegates to the United Nations Conference on Peace and Child Rearing.

An ancient treaty between the United States and the Bungelings allows the U.S. Postal Service to maintain a mail distribution center in an area near where the hostages are being kept. You have smuggled an entire helicopter into the post office by disguising it as a mail sorting machine. There, while you reassembled your chopper, you have carefully planned to rescue the 64 hostages and bring them back to the post office.

Suddenly you hear the sound of explosions. Looking out on the plain where the hostages are billeted in four barracks you see one of the barracks aflame. The hostages are running about frantically, desperate for a chance to escape. Bungeling planes and tanks are fast approaching and lives may be lost. Your chopper is ready to go and fully armed- there is no time to waste. Broderbund has already contacted the governments involved and received assurances that if they are returned safely, discussions on world peace can begin in earnest.

Please purchase this package immediately. Go straight home. Read the instructions for operating your helicopter, and lay out your plans for rescuing these innocent people. Then get to it. Don't blow it. 
Being a hero isn't easy or everybody would be one.


http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Choplifter
