S.A.C. Alert
|
Name:
|
S.A.C. Alert
|
|
| Company: |
Amiga |
|
Model #:
|
2105
(cassette) & 3125 (cartridge) |
|
Programmers:
|
Jerry Lawson
(Videosoft) |
| Year: |
1983
|
|
Released?
|
No
|
|
Notes:
|
NTSC and
PAL prototypes exist
|
S.A.C. Alert (S.A.C. standing for Strategic Air
Command) is the most complete of the five Amiga
prototypes that have turned up, unfortunately it is also
most uninteresting being quite similar to the M-Network
game Air Raiders (now with ground targets!). After
pressing select to choose between a ground or sea
mission (the only difference being the color of the
‘ground’ and the type of enemies you encounter) you will
be shown taking off on what has to be the shortest
runway in the history of videogames. Once you are
in the air you must shoot at both air and ground/sea
targets. Of course the enemy targets will be
shooting back at you, so you must dodge incoming bullets
as well. Although you have an infinite number of
bullets, it’s often hard to hit enemy targets making the
game a bit more frustrating than it should be.
You start the game with three planes
and 99 units of fuel. Fuel acts like a timer in
this game, and you will crash if it runs out. In
addition to a fuel gauge you also have altimeter
showing how high above the ground you are (0 to
50). Being higher lets you shoot down planes,
while being lower lets you shoot ground
targets). Be careful though, if your altitude
hits zero the ground will turn black and you will
crash after a few seconds. There are also
two warning lights on either side of the status bar,
these lights will alert you to different
dangers. They will flash red if you are too low
to the ground (under 9), yellow if you’re running low
on fuel (under 20), and orange if you’ve taken heavy
damage
There
are three types of enemies in the game.
Planes patrol the air and will swoop towards you, fire,
and run off. Taking these guys out is easiest when
they’re doing their swooping motion as they’ll present
the biggest target. In addition to planes there
are anti-aircraft guns (land) and destroyers (sea) that
appear at the beginning of the game, but won’t actually
start firing at you until the third mission.
If you’ve taken too many damage you can attempt to land
for repairs. To land you need to fly low and look
for either a runway (land) or carrier (sea) and line up
with it. Once you’re low enough and lined up with
the runway, pull up to land. It take a bit of
getting used to, but it’s not that hard after a few
times. Once you’ve lost all your lives you
will be given a final ranking (crew, pilot, or ace) and
rated on your performance (0-9).
Interestingly it appears that S.A.C. Alert was
designed with the Joyboard controller in mind.
The Joyboard was an odd controller Amiga developed
where the player stood on a plastic board that was
supported on a little suction cup that stuck to the
floor. The idea was that the player would
balance themselves and lean in the direction they
wanted the character to move. This worked far
better in concept than in reality and makes most games
impossible to play, even those designed for the
Joyboard itself. S.A.C. Alert is no different in
this regard so it is not recommended that you break
out the Joyboard, regardless of what the prototype box
artwork says. Either the playtesters at
Amiga had super human reflexes and balance, or they
were just masochists.
The history of S.A.C. Alert is interesting.
Originally planned to be a cassette based game for the
Amiga Power Module (a Supercharger type unit), it was
then moved to the Power Play Arcade series of multicarts
(see this
page for more information). S.A.C. Alert
would have been teamed up with Mogul Maniac, Surf’s Up,
and Off Your Rocker on Power Play Arcade cart #5 (5
carts were planned in total). It’s unknown why
Amiga decided to put five completely unrelated games on
one cart, but it would have been a real deal for the
penny conscious gamer. Perhaps Amiga knew that the
market was becoming cluttered and thought that offering
several games on one cartridge was a way to stand out
from the crowd (Xonox did something similar with their
double enders). Whatever the reason it was all for
naught as the project was cancelled before getting out
the door due to Amgia’s decision to stop with the games
and focus on a little computer that they’d been
developing instead...
| Version |
Cart Text |
Description |
| ?/??/83 |
|
NTSC
Version
|
| ?/??/83 |
|
PAL Version |
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|
