Scorched Tanks
Encyclopedia
Scorched Tanks is an artillery style game released for the Amiga
platform in 1993. The game is inspired by MS-DOS game Scorched Earth .
.
Scorched Tanks is notable for a massive array of weapons and equipment. The game features 70 weapons and 13 types of shield, ranging from simple to the elaborate. Players purchase equipment before each round, and bonus cash is awarded for dealing damage to opponents.
Innovative weapons include the Liquid Nitrogen, which fills like a liquid and deals damage to tanks before it evaporates, and the Grab Bag, which fires a shot of a random weapon worth more than $4,000. Many weapons specifically destroy, create, move or ignore terrain.
Shields include the inexpensive Absorb, which absorbs damage, the Magnetic shield which deflects incoming warheads, and the X-tinguisher which absorbs weapons that make a direct hit and puts them into the target's own inventory.
, after whom the Independent Games Festival
's Seumas McNally Grand Prize is named. Scorched Tanks was written with Amos Professional.
Version 0.50 added shields and improved graphics. Version 0.70 added music and several new weapons. Version 0.95 added parachutes, the Lava weapon and the Liquid Nitrogen weapon. Version 1.00 added computer controlled opponents and four new weapons: the Scatter Shot, Firecracker, Super Zapper, and Chain Reaction.
Version 1.15 added tank movement, new shield types and support for Amigas with only 512KB of chip RAM. Version 1.20 added configuration options, including settings for wind and explosion size, and added the Crimson Flood weapon. Version 1.75 added twenty new weapons, the Displacer and Feedback shield types, new death sequences, tank sliding, music by Eric "Sidewinder" Gieseke, and various minor improvements.
Version 1.85 and 1.90 added new music by Sidewinder, added 10 new weapons bringing the total to 70, and improved some graphics, including options for 16 and 64 colour graphics modes. Version 1.85 was uploaded to Aminet on 13 April 1995. Version 1.90 was made available to registered users only at the same time, and unlocked the load/save game function added in version 1.80 and the option to play more than five rounds.
The author intended to bring the game's total to 100 weapons, but did not release another Amiga version of the game. However, the author later released a Scorched Tanks clone for Windows and Mac named Pocket Tanks
, which including expansion packs features 250 weapons in all.
, a simpler clone of Scorched Tanks for Windows and Mac OS X. Pocket Tanks bears many similarities to its predecessor, including a massive array of weapons (60 in the main game, up to 250 with a series of expansion packs).
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
platform in 1993. The game is inspired by MS-DOS game Scorched Earth .
Gameplay
Between two and four human and computer-controlled opponents each control one stationary tank in a two-dimensional playfield of randomly generated mountainous terrain. The aim of the game is to destroy the other tanks by shooting, utilizing indirect fireIndirect fire
Indirect fire means aiming and firing a projectile in a high trajectory without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire...
.
Scorched Tanks is notable for a massive array of weapons and equipment. The game features 70 weapons and 13 types of shield, ranging from simple to the elaborate. Players purchase equipment before each round, and bonus cash is awarded for dealing damage to opponents.
Innovative weapons include the Liquid Nitrogen, which fills like a liquid and deals damage to tanks before it evaporates, and the Grab Bag, which fires a shot of a random weapon worth more than $4,000. Many weapons specifically destroy, create, move or ignore terrain.
Shields include the inexpensive Absorb, which absorbs damage, the Magnetic shield which deflects incoming warheads, and the X-tinguisher which absorbs weapons that make a direct hit and puts them into the target's own inventory.
Development
Scorched Tanks was developed by Dark Unicorn Productions. Dark Unicorn's membership also included Seumas McNallySeumas McNally
Computer game programmer Seumas McNally , was the founder, president and lead programmer of independent game development company, Longbow Digital Arts...
, after whom the Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
's Seumas McNally Grand Prize is named. Scorched Tanks was written with Amos Professional.
Version 0.50 added shields and improved graphics. Version 0.70 added music and several new weapons. Version 0.95 added parachutes, the Lava weapon and the Liquid Nitrogen weapon. Version 1.00 added computer controlled opponents and four new weapons: the Scatter Shot, Firecracker, Super Zapper, and Chain Reaction.
Version 1.15 added tank movement, new shield types and support for Amigas with only 512KB of chip RAM. Version 1.20 added configuration options, including settings for wind and explosion size, and added the Crimson Flood weapon. Version 1.75 added twenty new weapons, the Displacer and Feedback shield types, new death sequences, tank sliding, music by Eric "Sidewinder" Gieseke, and various minor improvements.
Version 1.85 and 1.90 added new music by Sidewinder, added 10 new weapons bringing the total to 70, and improved some graphics, including options for 16 and 64 colour graphics modes. Version 1.85 was uploaded to Aminet on 13 April 1995. Version 1.90 was made available to registered users only at the same time, and unlocked the load/save game function added in version 1.80 and the option to play more than five rounds.
The author intended to bring the game's total to 100 weapons, but did not release another Amiga version of the game. However, the author later released a Scorched Tanks clone for Windows and Mac named Pocket Tanks
Pocket Tanks
Pocket Tanks is a 1-2 player computer game for Windows and Mac OS X, and more recently, the iPhone, created by Blitwise Productions, developer of Super DX-Ball and Neon Wars...
, which including expansion packs features 250 weapons in all.
Other games
Mike Welch, Scorched Tanks' author went on to produce Pocket TanksPocket Tanks
Pocket Tanks is a 1-2 player computer game for Windows and Mac OS X, and more recently, the iPhone, created by Blitwise Productions, developer of Super DX-Ball and Neon Wars...
, a simpler clone of Scorched Tanks for Windows and Mac OS X. Pocket Tanks bears many similarities to its predecessor, including a massive array of weapons (60 in the main game, up to 250 with a series of expansion packs).
External links
- Scorched Tanks v1.85 - AminetAminetAminet is the world's largest archive of Amiga-related software and files. Aminet was originally hosted by several universities' FTP sites, and is now available on CD-ROM and on the web.-History:...
download link