''Rescue Raiders'' is an

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 ...

scrolling shooter published by Sir-Tech in 1984. It was designed by Arthur Britto and Greg Hale.

Gameplay

The game is played on a two-dimensional side-scrolling playfield, where two players start at main bases on opposing sides of the field. The player operates a '' Choplifter''-esque helicopter defending a string of advancing units, which the player purchases throughout the game. The objective is to create and defend a force that can escort a van filled with explosives to the enemy base at the other end of the playing field. Along the way a series of smaller bunkers act as obstacles by flying balloons which, when operating for the opposing team, will destroy the player helicopter (the cable will severely damage the helicopter). The bunkers may be taken over by delivering enough infantry units, which may reach the bunker either by walking all the way from a main base without being killed, or by being carried there more quickly in the player helicopter. The helicopter begins with three weapons: heat-seeking missiles, machine guns, and bombs. As the game progresses, additional weaponry is introduced.

Reception

In 1996, ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' listed it as number 36 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", citing the strategy required to succeed in the game.

Reviews

*''The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine'' #5 (Sept./Oct., 1986)

Legacy

In 1991 Three-Sixty Pacific released ''

Armor Alley Armor Alley is a computer wargame for DOS and Mac OS published by Three-Sixty Pacific in 1991. It is modelled on the Apple II game '' Rescue Raiders''. Player can compete against the computer or other humans via LAN. The game supports cooperati ...

'', a recreation of ''Rescue Raiders'' for Mac OS and MS-DOS which added four-player network support. These games subsequently inspired ''

Super Army War ''Super Army War'' is a 2005 video game developed by French company Neko Entertainment for the Game Boy Advance. It was released in Europe under the title ''Glory Days: The Essence of War''. Gameplay The player controls a Huey or a WWII-era prope ...

'' for the Game Boy Advance and its

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

sequel, ''Glory Days 2''. The game was remade (as "Armor Alley") by Scott Schiller: http://www.schillmania.com/armor-alley/

References

1984 video games Apple II games Apple II-only games Helicopter video games Real-time tactics video games Horizontally scrolling shooters Sir-Tech games Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games {{Scroll-shooter-videogame-stub