Real life has been getting in the way of AWB of late, and for 'real life' you may feel free to substitute the term 'Steam Sale' if it will help you relate easier.
AWB lashed out recently can purchased a copy of X-COM UFO Defence (also released as X-COM Enemy Unknown in other parts of the world) recently from Steam. It was $US2.49, took about 39 seconds to download and install and comes pre shipped with a DOS Box for the great ease of all those who are vaguely aware that MS DOS used to exist in the same way most of us are vaguely aware there used to be a time before electricity.
Now, when we say X-COM, we are talking about the original Mircoprose version and not that glossy reboot did the rounds late last year for all the little console kiddies. This is state of the art 1994 and is still sodding hard, additively compelling and bloody scary, all in 8 bit.
For those not family with the back story, the game is set in the near future of 1999 and while the rest of us are out stressing about the Y2K virus and trying to work out where the hottest chicks were going to be come December 31st, the nations of the world were suffering under a serious of mysterious alien attacks. Having decided that us humans were just not going to take this sort of probing laying face down with pants around our ankles, they formed the Extraterrestrial Combat force - X-COM. ET? Your going home in the back of an ambulance.
So this is your role as the player. You have a budget from the good people of the world. You have a starting secret base - probably under a fake volcano for traditions sake - and a crack team of state of the art Interceptors and rapid response ground troops. You are also going to die horribly. The game runs in pausable real time in global mode where you can watch for UFO contacts in between managing your base for research and production, but once you catch your UFO, it is time to send in the troops to shoot everything that moves and loot the wreckage.
This bit is sodding hard. Combat is turn based tactical. You start in the back of your Skyranger transport with your first task of deploying your squad down the ramp. On a good day that is relatively simple. On a bad day you can lose three troopers before you even get to the top of the ramp. The aliens are better then you. Their guns are better, the AI is cunning, and without a careful and systematic approach you will find plasma bolts from unseen enemy carving into your squaddies and killing them with one shot.
That is just on the first mission.
Gradually you research new techs, both home grown and stolen from the aliens and start to feel your new shiney lazer rifles can take these idiots on... right up to the time you suddenly encounter a new alien type and HOLY SHIT! This one FLYS!
For 8-bits it is surprisingly atmospheric. As you annoy the aliens they start throwing terror raids against you where they blatantly land in a built up area and go full body horror on the locals. There, with the hidden movement of the fog of war, screams of terror are heard as somewhere, unseen in the rest of the city, someone is dying horribly. The terrain, unlike newer releases with their fancy pants movie quality graphics, is fully destructible. Every single thing on the map can be blown up if you encourage it with enough violence. Since your performance (and hence your monthly budget) is not effected by how much material damage you do during combat, the game allows the perfectly rational and rewarding tactic of sweeping areas for aliens by blowing up each and every building they might be hiding inside.
X-COM, nearly 20 years old. It's hard. It's dummy spit frustrating. It's playing one more mission at 2am when you have work tomorrow.
Good fun.
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