Old Gamers Never Die: Putting Metal on Target with MicroProse's 1989 Armored Warfare Sim 'M1 Tank Platoon' (Review in Link)

Title screen from M1 Tank Platoon. © 1989, 2020 MicroProse/Interplay Entertainment

 If you read my last post in A Certain Point of View, you know that this weekend I purchased M1 Tank Platoon, an armored warfare sim developed and published in 1989 by the original MicroProse Software and reissued by Interplay Entertainment two years ago.  

This was one of my favorite games when I started playing computer games programmed for MS-DOS/Windows. Since I didn’t purchase it until 1990 – I had to “share” my copy of M1 Tank Platoon with a friend that owned an “IBM clone” – the common term for MS-DOS-based machines at the time – I can’t claim I acquired it when MicroProse first released it, but I did own/play M1 Tank Platoon during the runup to Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and for years later – in my own PC then – after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

M1 Tank Platoon isn't just an M1 Abrams tank simulation; it's also a primer in armored land combat in the 1980s. © 1989, 2020 MicroProse Software/Interplay Entertainment

I don’t remember when I stopped playing my original copy of M1 Tank Platoon; I used to buy “homebuilt” PCs made with inexpensive components from 1992 to 1999, and even when they still came with floppy drives from 3.5-inch diskettes, I remember that many of my MicroProse games either did not run well once they were installed or were impossible to install at all due to compatibility with various versions of Windows. The only MicroProse game that installed and ran well on all the computers I owned that came with floppy drives was Silent Service II; all the others, including M1 Tank Platoon, were hors de combat.

It was in 2017 that I started playing M1 Tank Platoon again from my browser at ClassicReload.com; at the time, the website featured a treasure trove of old games that the site owners claimed were “abandonware.” I registered at ClassicReload and for a while I played quite a few old MicroProse games that were not available on Steam at the time, including Red Storm Rising and F-15 Strike Eagle III.

Target: BMP! HEAT up! © 1989, 2020 MicroProse/Interplay Entertainment

Anyway, since Atari released MicroProse’s Command Series trilogy – Crusade in Europe, Decision in the Desert, and Conflict in Vietnam on Steam earlier this year, I figured I had nothing to lose if I searched for M1 Tank Platoon in the Steam Store page. And, to my surprise, on Saturday, May 20, I searched – and I found it.

Yesterday I wrote a review of M1 Tank Platoon for our sister blog over on WordPress, so if you’re interested in reading it, just click here.

I also purchased M1 Tank Platoon II, which MicroProse developed and published in 1998, but I have not played that one as much as I’ve done the original one. I bought both games separately for $9.99 each, but later on I saw that I could have bought the “bundle” for $14.98.  Ay, caramba!