''Beach-Head'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed and published in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

Access Software Access Software, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in November 1982 by Bruce Carver and Chris Jones, the company created the '' Beach Head'', '' Links'' and ''Tex Murphy'' series, as well as '' R ...

for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

and

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 ...

home computers in the US. Versions for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

, and

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...

(as well as the Atari and C64 versions) were published in Europe by

U.S. Gold U.S. Gold Limited was a British video game publisher based in Witton, Birmingham, England. The company was founded in 1984 by Anne and Geoff Brown in parallel to their distributor firm, CentreSoft, both of which became part of Woodward Brown Ho ...

in 1984, followed by versions for the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...

Commodore 16 The Commodore 16 is a home computer made by Commodore International with a 6502-compatible 7501 or 8501 CPU, released in 1984 and intended to be an entry-level computer to replace the VIC-20. A cost-reduced version, the Commodore 116, was ...

and Plus/4 in 1985.

Gameplay

The game's setting is the

Pacific Ocean theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Gameplay consists of several varying stages in which the player must control various vehicles including warships and tanks in order to defeat an enemy fleet, break through enemy beach defences and destroy an enormous gun-emplacement to win the game. The gun emplacement requires multiple hits to be destroyed, but traverses faster than tanks can aim and fire, so it cannot be destroyed in a single attempt. In order to complete the game multiple tanks must make it through to the final level.

Reception

''Beach-Head'' was Access' best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987. It was the first U.S. Gold release to sell 250,000 copies. ''

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, focusing on all Commodore color computers, but especially the Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 198 ...

'' stated "This game is a blast". It praised the graphics and concluded, "It is a remarkable programming achievement". ''

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET c ...

'' listed the game in May 1988 as one of "Our Favorite Games", stating that it was superior to its "many imitators". ''Zzap!64'' reviewed the game in a retrospective feature in October 1985. They argued that although it was considered impressive at the time of release it had already become dated, and was rated 70% overall. In 1996, ''

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 ...

'' declared ''Beach Head'' the 117th-best computer game ever released.

Legacy

A sequel, '' Beach Head II: The Dictator Strikes Back'', was released in 1985. A version of the game for Commodore Amiga was planned, but was cancelled when an agreement to publish with U.S. Gold could not be reached. In 2000, a loose

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...

of the game, ''

Beach Head 2000 ''Beach Head 2000'' is a first-person shooter game developed by Digital Fusion. It was originally released by WizardWorks for Microsoft Windows and MacSoft for Mac OS as a "value-priced" release. A loose remake of the 1983 computer game '' Beach He ...

'', was released for the

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

MacOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

platforms.

References

External links

* * {{Access Software 1983 video games Amsoft games Amstrad CPC games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Commodore 16 and Plus/4 games Commodore 64 games MSX games Multiplayer and single-player video games Ocean Software games U.S. Gold games Video games developed in the United States World War II video games ZX Spectrum games