A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Package of the DOS version of M1 Tank Platoon (C) 1989 MicroProse Software In 1989 - that annus mirabilis marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, MicroProse Software published the original version of M1 Tank Platoon: The Definitive Simulation of Armored Land Warfare.  Part vehicle simulator and part real-time tactics map-based game, M1 Tank Platoon was the first tank warfare game to break away from the "one tank against the entire Red Army" trope in other games set in a conventional World War III scenario. Instead, M1 Tank Platoon put the player in command of a four-tank platoon of M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks and, depending on the mission type selected, a wide array of supporting forces that included M2/M3 Bradleys, AH-64 Apache attack helos, OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopters, A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jets, Improved TOW Vehicles, infantry squads, 107mm mortars, 155mm artillery, and Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) ...

"Main Title" screen from MicroProse's M1 Tank Platoon. (C) 1989 MicroProse Software In the late 1980s and early 1990s, MicroProse Software was one of the most innovative and successful computer and video game publishing companies in the world. Co-founded by retired Air Force pilot  "Wild Bill" Stealey and Sid Meier, the Maryland-based company created some of the gaming industry's most popular titles, including Silent Service, its sequel Silent Service II, the three-game F-15 Strike Eagle series, Red Storm Rising, and the classic world history simulation Sid Meier's Civilization.  Although MicroProse's catalog included games from various genres, many of its titles were military simulators. This isn't surprising; the company's co-founder was a veteran, and many of its best-selling games were simulators of combat aircraft ( F-15 Strike Eagle, F-19 Stealth Fighter ), submarines ( Red Storm Rising, Silent Service II ) and even helicopters (...

Silent Service II torpedo-firing cutscene. (C)1990 MicroProse Software In 1990, the now-defunct video game and computer simulation publisher MicroProse Software released Silent Service II, a submarine simulation game set in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. Developed by MicroProse’s in-house MPS Labs, the game is a sequel to 1985’s best-selling Silent Service. It is a single-player game that puts you in command of a U.S. Navy submarine during America’s war with Japan in various areas of Earth’s largest ocean. The game’s design team – led by the project’s main designer Arnold Hendrick and programmer Roy B. Gibson – took advantage of improvements in computer technology (such as more powerful CPUs, better sound cards, and VGA graphics) to create a more realistic and enjoyable gaming experience that took its cues from Sid Meier’s original game but was a bigger and better simulation. In Silent Service II , players can: Choose Boats from Nine Dif...