Firepower

Firepower was finally, after many delays, released for the IIGS in 1989 by MicroIllusions.

MicroIllusions has a patchy history with IIGS releases; it was second to own the rights to Dondra, which later became QuestMaster but I don't believe was ever released under the  MicroIllisions banner. They were supposed to have done a IIGS version of Faery Tale, but it never surfaced. They did release a IIGS version of Sky Travel, which seems to be rather rare, and when it finally became available on eBay I bought a copy... only to discover, to my horror, that the disk was corrupt and unplayable!

But back to Firepower! Described simply, it's a fun filled carnage action romp. You control one of three different types of tanks of at startup of a new game: a tank built for speed, another built for strength and another combining the two attributes and depending on the type of game you play, you'll have a different objective.

In all my games of Firepower, I never really enjoyed playing a single player game (it's rather hard to finish the objective with a finite number of tanks) but as a two player game, Firepower really shines. Two player games can be achieved with both players being huddled at the same computer (one player to use joystick, the other keypad with shift as the fire button) or, and remarkably for its time, a two player game could be played thanks to a modem connection. For a two player game, once play has started, it doesn't end until one player has captured the enemy's flag and returned with it to your home base to claim victory.

The screen is split vertically into two and it becomes apparent which side you're on when you try some directional controls. You have an unlimited amount of tanks to carry out your wake of destruction on the various defenses and buildings of your enemy (don't forget to run over their fleeing vulnerable men while you're at it). You can also lay down mines to protect yourself or an area from your adversary (but be careful, your own mines will detonate just as well in your vicinity as they would in your enemy's).

I first played this game for a whole afternoon on a friend's Amiga and I was very pleased to see Firepower make its way to the IIGS. Great stuff.