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North and South (computer game)
Encyclopedia
North & South is a combined strategy
and action game
for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST
, Commodore 64
, DOS
, NES
, Amstrad CPC
, MSX
and ZX Spectrum
. It was developed and published in 1989 by Infogrames.
North & South is an offshoot of the Belgian comic series
Les Tuniques Bleues
(by Raoul Cauvin
and Louis Salverius/Willy Lambillotte, from Dupuis
) which is based on the American Civil War
. The player basically acts out the Civil War, choosing to play as either the North
or the South
. The player may choose to start the game year from 1861 (the year the Civil War erupted) to 1864. Each year has a different array of armies and states that each side starts with.
North & South contains a lot of humorous elements. For example, it features parodies
of national anthem
s, which are accessible when the player selects one of the different languages supported by the game: (English
, French
, Spanish
, German
or Italian
). In addition, the game is filled with numerous comical situations and gags.
will get periodic reinforcements by ship. Also, railways generate money which in turn generates soldiers. Moving their army units, the player may expand westwards into unoccupied territory. If two antagonistic armies clash, it will result in a battle. There is an option on the main menu where the player can turn off in-game missions and battles to make it purely like a board game
. Whenever opposing armies meet in board-game mode, the results of the battles are left to chance, with the outcome weighted towards the larger army. Either army may retreat from these battles. Whenever a side attempts to capture an enemy fort or rob a train, the result is also randomised.
, cavalry
and artillery
. A standard army consists of six infantry, three cavalry and one cannon. Armies can be increased by up to three times their standard size by merging them together. Each team can only have six infantry, three cavalry and three cannons on the battlefield at one time. A human player can only control one class of units at any one time (although once the cavalry starts a charge, they can be left moving automatically forward in a straight line while the player focuses on either the cannon or infantry). A computer-controlled opponent can move all three classes of units at once, but their infantry and cavalry are not very aggressive. All units in the same class move and fire simultaneously. The infantry can move in any direction including backwards and have a short-range weapon.
Cavalry are melee units that are much faster that infantry, but can not move backwards. Cavalry, will instead return to the battle field every time they reach the end of it after a few seconds. Cavalry that returns in this way will stop moving when returning to their start position on the left-right axis, unhindered by any movement on the up-down axis. It is to note that Cavalry, once movement has started, will not stop moving forwards unless the player actively pulls the horse reigns by pushing backwards with the control method of choice. Cannons can only move vertically and not sideways. Each cannon can only be fired nine times in a battle before they automatically withdraw from battle. If an army wins after their cannons have withdrawn from battle, their cannons will be available for the next battle. If however, the rest of the army is killed after the cannons have withdrawn, the cannons will be also lost. In the middle of the battle map, there may be a river or a chasm, in which case a bridge serves as a choke point
where the fighters are likely to meet. The bridge can be destroyed by cannons. One hit will leave a hole in the bridge where units can fall in and die instantly.
Two hits on a bridge will destroy it. In every battlefield where there is either a river or canyon, there is a narrow, indestructible passage across. The cannons are long-range weapons, but aiming - or rather determining the exact range - is not always easy. Care has to be taken when firing cannons to avoid friendly fire
. A battle usually is a deathmatch
, although a player may retreat. If the attacking army retreats, they will return to the state that were in at the beginning of that turn. If the defending army decides to retreat, they will move to an adjacent state that is still under their control, surrendering that state the battle was on to their enemy. The defenders can not retreat if there are no adjacent states that they own. Retreating will result in the loss of any cannons that the army has. The army of the computer-controlled opponent will retreat if all of its cannons have been destroyed and its enemy has more than three times the units than it has.
crates or dogs, with only the help of knives or punches that send enemies towards the sky, Asterix
style. On occasions, the player also gets the opportunity to capture an enemy train in a similar manner.
If an option is turned on, a storm cloud will sit on one state each turn. The cloud will move to an adjacent state twice each month, once before each player's turn. Any army on the state with the cloud will not be able to move on that turn.
If the option on the main menu is turned on, there will be two non-player sides that pose a threat to the player's armies. A Native American
who lives to the west of the territory might hurl a giant tomahawk
randomly at one of the westernmost states, destroying the army unfortunate enough to be garrisoned there. Similarly, a sombrero
-clad Mexican
living to the southwest might suddenly wake up from his siesta
and toss a bomb into Texas
, result being the same.
If the option is turned on, the side that controls North Carolina has a chance each turn that free reinforcements will arrive at the state via ship.
Strategy game
A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
and action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC 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 Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
, MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
and ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
. It was developed and published in 1989 by Infogrames.
North & South is an offshoot of the Belgian comic series
Belgian comics
Belgian comics are a distinct subgroup in the comics history, and played a major role in the development of European comics, alongside France with whom they share a long common history...
Les Tuniques Bleues
Les Tuniques Bleues
Les Tuniques Bleues is a Belgian series of bandes dessinées , first featured in Spirou and later published by Dupuis. Created by Louis Salverius, the series was taken up by artist Willy Lambillotte and writer Raoul Cauvin. It follows two United States cavalrymen through a series of battles and...
(by Raoul Cauvin
Raoul Cauvin
Raoul Cauvin is a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field.-Biography:Raoul Cauvin was born in Antoing, Belgium in 1938. He studied lithography at the Institut Saint-Luc in Tournai, but upon leaving school found that there no jobs available for lithographers...
and Louis Salverius/Willy Lambillotte, from Dupuis
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. is a Belgian publisher of comic books and magazines.Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French...
) which is based on the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The player basically acts out the Civil War, choosing to play as either the North
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
or the South
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. The player may choose to start the game year from 1861 (the year the Civil War erupted) to 1864. Each year has a different array of armies and states that each side starts with.
North & South contains a lot of humorous elements. For example, it features parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
s, which are accessible when the player selects one of the different languages supported by the game: (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
or Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
). In addition, the game is filled with numerous comical situations and gags.
Gameplay
Taking an extremely simplified board interface, the game features a strategic map of the USA separated into states and territories, where army units are moved around. In each state which "owns" a railway station, there is a fort, the capture of which leads to the player overtaking the whole state. Otherwise, capturing a state involves simple movement, unless there is another army "on" the state. Armies can be reinforced in two ways. By turning on an option at the main menu the player controlling the state of North CarolinaNorth Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
will get periodic reinforcements by ship. Also, railways generate money which in turn generates soldiers. Moving their army units, the player may expand westwards into unoccupied territory. If two antagonistic armies clash, it will result in a battle. There is an option on the main menu where the player can turn off in-game missions and battles to make it purely like a board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
. Whenever opposing armies meet in board-game mode, the results of the battles are left to chance, with the outcome weighted towards the larger army. Either army may retreat from these battles. Whenever a side attempts to capture an enemy fort or rob a train, the result is also randomised.
Battle
The battle screen, one of the action elements in the game, is different from the strategic map. Each player starts on opposite sides of the screen and controls an army consisting of infantryInfantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
, cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
and artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
. A standard army consists of six infantry, three cavalry and one cannon. Armies can be increased by up to three times their standard size by merging them together. Each team can only have six infantry, three cavalry and three cannons on the battlefield at one time. A human player can only control one class of units at any one time (although once the cavalry starts a charge, they can be left moving automatically forward in a straight line while the player focuses on either the cannon or infantry). A computer-controlled opponent can move all three classes of units at once, but their infantry and cavalry are not very aggressive. All units in the same class move and fire simultaneously. The infantry can move in any direction including backwards and have a short-range weapon.
Cavalry are melee units that are much faster that infantry, but can not move backwards. Cavalry, will instead return to the battle field every time they reach the end of it after a few seconds. Cavalry that returns in this way will stop moving when returning to their start position on the left-right axis, unhindered by any movement on the up-down axis. It is to note that Cavalry, once movement has started, will not stop moving forwards unless the player actively pulls the horse reigns by pushing backwards with the control method of choice. Cannons can only move vertically and not sideways. Each cannon can only be fired nine times in a battle before they automatically withdraw from battle. If an army wins after their cannons have withdrawn from battle, their cannons will be available for the next battle. If however, the rest of the army is killed after the cannons have withdrawn, the cannons will be also lost. In the middle of the battle map, there may be a river or a chasm, in which case a bridge serves as a choke point
Choke point
In military strategy, a choke point is a geographical feature on land such as a valley, defile or a bridge, or at sea such as a strait which an armed force is forced to pass, sometimes on a substantially narrower front, and therefore greatly decreasing its combat power, in order to reach its...
where the fighters are likely to meet. The bridge can be destroyed by cannons. One hit will leave a hole in the bridge where units can fall in and die instantly.
Two hits on a bridge will destroy it. In every battlefield where there is either a river or canyon, there is a narrow, indestructible passage across. The cannons are long-range weapons, but aiming - or rather determining the exact range - is not always easy. Care has to be taken when firing cannons to avoid friendly fire
Friendly fire
Friendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...
. A battle usually is a deathmatch
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
, although a player may retreat. If the attacking army retreats, they will return to the state that were in at the beginning of that turn. If the defending army decides to retreat, they will move to an adjacent state that is still under their control, surrendering that state the battle was on to their enemy. The defenders can not retreat if there are no adjacent states that they own. Retreating will result in the loss of any cannons that the army has. The army of the computer-controlled opponent will retreat if all of its cannons have been destroyed and its enemy has more than three times the units than it has.
Events
On the states that have a train station, the player must do a short side-scrolling mission through a fort to capture that state. Here, the player controls a single soldier who runs towards the goal (before the clock reaches the end) while meeting obstacles such as enemy soldiers, dynamiteDynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
crates or dogs, with only the help of knives or punches that send enemies towards the sky, Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
style. On occasions, the player also gets the opportunity to capture an enemy train in a similar manner.
If an option is turned on, a storm cloud will sit on one state each turn. The cloud will move to an adjacent state twice each month, once before each player's turn. Any army on the state with the cloud will not be able to move on that turn.
If the option on the main menu is turned on, there will be two non-player sides that pose a threat to the player's armies. A Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
who lives to the west of the territory might hurl a giant tomahawk
Tomahawk (axe)
A tomahawk is a type of axe native to North America, traditionally resembling a hatchet with a straight shaft. The name came into the English language in the 17th century as a transliteration of the Powhatan word.Tomahawks were general purpose tools used by Native Americans and European Colonials...
randomly at one of the westernmost states, destroying the army unfortunate enough to be garrisoned there. Similarly, a sombrero
Sombrero
Sombrero in English refers to a type of wide-brimmed hat originating in Mexico. In Spanish, however, it is the generic word for "hat", which originates from "sombra", meaning "shade"....
-clad Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
living to the southwest might suddenly wake up from his siesta
Siesta
A siesta is a short nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal. Such a period of sleep is a common tradition in some countries, particularly those where the weather is warm....
and toss a bomb into Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, result being the same.
If the option is turned on, the side that controls North Carolina has a chance each turn that free reinforcements will arrive at the state via ship.