Depth Charge
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Name:
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Depth Charge
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|
| Company: |
Amiga |
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Model #:
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N/A |
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Programmer:
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Jerry Lawson
(Videosoft) |
| Year: |
1983
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Released?
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No
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Notes:
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Sold as a
reproduction cartridge in 2010 |
Depth Charge was described as being the first
‘machine-interactive video game’ (whatever that means)
and offering head-to-head play with one player being the
submarine commander and the other the ship
captain. Each player was to have their own screen
display and commands. However only the submarine
commander portion of the game was finished before being
stopped, so we can only imagine what the ship captain
portion would have looked like (probably something
similar to Sub-Scan). As it stands, Depth
Charge plays remarkably similar to the old arcade game
Sea Wolf (and not coincidentally, like Atari’s own
Submarine Commander). You start out the game with
a preset number of torpedoes and must sink as many ships
as possible before you run out. Depth Charge
offers six different game variations which vary the
number of starting torpedoes (30, 60, or 90) and whether
or not they are fixed or guided.
Upon starting the game you’ll be
presented with a view from your sub’s periscope showing
the ocean and some ships moving back and
forth. Pressing down the fire button will
bring up your (rather large) targeting sight.
While the sight is up, you can move it left or right to
aim your torpedoes at the enemy ships. Releasing
the fire button will fire your torpedoes, and if you’re
playing one of the guided variations you can continue to
move them until they hit the ship (on the fixed
variation they’re locked in to the spot you fired them
from). Also of note, when you hold down the fire
button it will display the number of torpedoes you have
left at the top of the screen. If you run out of
torpedoes the game doesn’t automatically end, but you
will be unable to shoot any more boats (making you a
sitting duck for the Torpedo Boat).
A direct hit can sink a ship instantly (and
is worth more points), otherwise it make take a few
indirect hits to bring one down. There are six
different ship types, each being a different size and
moving at a different speed. The smallest and
fastest of these boats is called the Torpedo Boat, can you
guess what it carries? If a Torpedo Boat makes it
all the way across the screen without being hit you will
be sunk. At the bottom of the screen there is a
display that shows the current ship/torpedo status (Ready,
Armed, Fired, or Loading). While this is a cute bit
of eye candy, it really doesn’t add anything to the game
and is probably there just to fill up the available screen
space.
The
history of Depth Charge is interesting. It was
originally planned to be a cassette based game for
the Amiga Power Module (a Supercharger type unit),
but unlike the other Amiga Power Module games, it
was never planned to appear on a Power Play Arcade
multicart (see this page for more
information). It’s not known why Depth
Charge was scrapped, perhaps it wasn’t shaping up as
well as Amiga had hoped? Whatever the reason,
Amiga dropped the game when the idea of the Power
Play Arcade carts came into existence and never
looked backed. In the end, none of the Amiga
Power Module or Power Play Arcade games made it out
the door due to Amgia’s decision to stop with the
games and focus on a little computer that they’d
been developing instead...
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