''Arcticfox'' is a science fiction

tank simulation Vehicle simulation games are a video game genre, genre of video games which attempt to provide the player with a realistic interpretation of operating various kinds of vehicles. This includes automobiles, aircraft, watercraft, spacecraft, milita ...

video game developed by

Dynamix Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator ''Red Baron'', the puzzle game '' The Incredible Machine'', the '' Front Page Sports'' series, ''Betrayal at Krondor,'' and the online ...

and published by Electronic Arts in 1986. It was published in Europe by Ariolasoft. A sequel to Dynamix's ''

Stellar 7 ''Stellar 7'' is a first-person shooter tank simulation video game based on the arcade game '' Battlezone'' in which the player assumes the role of a futuristic tank pilot. The game was originally created by Damon Slye for the Apple II and Commodo ...

'', ''Arcticfox'' was developed for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

as one of the platform's first titles but was quickly ported to other platforms including the

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS and

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

. A third game was released in the series in 1991 titled '' Nova 9: The Return of Gir Draxon''. The game is set in a fictional 2005 where

aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...

have taken over Antarctica in an attempt to steal the Earth's oxygen. The player is sent to eradicate the intruders using a new super tank codenamed ''Arcticfox''. ''Arcticfoxs design team at Dynamix went on to produce '' The Incredible Machine'' and '' Red Baron''.

Gameplay

The player must pilot the tank into enemy territory with the goal of knocking out the alien base. The player uses the tank's abilities to destroy the aliens' ships and equipment. The Arcticfox tank is equipped with a cannon,

guided missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket ...

s and land mines, and is outfitted with radar, a

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

device, and fore and aft viewscreens. The player fights a variety of enemy units including planes, tanks, bunkers and

communication towers Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

. The vantage point for the game is the

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

of the Arcticfox tank. The player can see out of the main viewscreen as well as the tank's sundry features such as the radar screen. The view also shows the character's hand on the

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

which moves in accordance with the tank's movements. Enemy targets are visible on the view screens and on radar.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' called ''Arcticfox'' "the first original ''new'' A gamethat uses the distinctive features of the Amiga", calling the graphics and sound "Sensational!". It advised using a joystick instead of the mouse. In 1996, the magazine ranked the Amiga version of ''Arcticfox'' as the 138th best game of all time, calling it "the seminal 3D polygon-based shooter." '' Compute!'' also praised the Amiga version, and stated that the game would appeal to those who enjoyed both strategy and arcade action. "If you could buy only one game for your Atari ST, it might be Arctic Fox", '' Antic'' said, concluding that it was "a game you will return to play time and time again". '' Info'' magazine gave the Commodore 64 version four-plus stars out of five, praising its "great 3-D graphics", "intuitive control interface", and control over missiles. The staff of ''Crash'' magazine were critical of the ZX Spectrum version of the game, giving it an overall score of 41%.

References

External links

''Arcticfox''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

''Arcticfox''
at the Amiga Hall of Light

at Atari Mania * * {{Dynamix 1986 video games Amiga games Apple II games Ariolasoft games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Electronic Arts games Science fiction video games Tank simulation video games Video games set in 2005 Video games set in Antarctica ZX Spectrum games Dynamix games Single-player video games

Gameplay

Reception

See also

References

External links