Artillery game

Video game genre

Artillery games are two or three player (usually turn based) video games involving tanks (or simply cannons) trying to destroy each other. The core mechanics of the gameplay is almost always to aim at the opponent(s) following a ballistic trajectory (in its simplest form, a parabolic curve). Artillery games are among the earliest computer games developed; the theme of such games is an extension of the original uses of computer themselves, which were once used to calculate the trajectories of rockets and other related military based calculations. Artillery games have been described as a type of "shooting game", though they are more often classified as a type of strategy video game. Early precursors to the modern artillery type games were text only games that simulated artillery entirely with input data values. One of the earliest known games in the genre is War 3 for two or three players, written in FOCAL Mod V by Mike Forman (date unknown). The game was then ported to TSS/8 BASIC IV by M. E. Lyon Jr. in 1972. Ported again to HP Time Shared BASIC by Brian West in 1975. And, finally, to a cross platform subset of Microsoft BASIC by Creative Computing in 1979 for the book More BASIC Computer Games where it appears with multiple names: Artillery 3, Artillery 3, and WAR3. Another early game is Gunner (1973) by Tom Kloos. These early versions of turn based tank combat games interpreted human entered data such as the distance between the tanks, the velocity or "power" of the shot fired and the angle of the tanks' turrets.

The Tektronix 4051 BASIC language desktop computer of the mid 1970s had a demo program called Artillery which used a storage CRT for graphics. A similar program appeared on the HP 2647 graphics terminal demo tape in the late 1970s. Graphical adaptions of the artillery game, such as Super Artillery and Artillery Simulator, emerged on the Apple II computer platform in 1980. These games built upon the earlier concepts of the artillery games published in Creative Computing but allowed the players to also see a simple graphical representation of the tanks, battlefield, and terrain. The Apple II games also took wind speed into account when calculating the path of the artillery. Some games used lines on the screen to show trajectories previous shots had taken, allowing players to use visual data when considering their next shot. Similar games were made for home computers such as the Commodore PET by 1981. Following in 1990, Kenny Morse released Tank Wars, which introduced the concept of buying weapons and multiple AI computer player tanks to the artillery game. Gravity Wars was a conversion of the Amiga game of the same name that took the artillery game into space, introducing a 2D gravity field around planets, a format that has also inspired multiple re makes. In 1991, one artillery style game in particular got widespread attention when Gorillas was distributed as part of QBasic with MS DOS 5.0, the Amiga also had a release at this time called Amiga Tanx distributed via Amiga Format magazine in the UK which included some digitized voices of the tank commanders, some quite amusing when shots got too close for comfort. That year also saw the release of the first version of Scorched Earth by Wendell Hicken. Scorched Earth was a popular shareware game for MS DOS in which tanks do turn based battle in two dimensional terrain, with each player adjusting the angle and power of his or her tank turret before each shot. Scorched Earth, with numerous weapon types and power ups, is considered the modern archetype of its format, on which the popular games Worms, Atomic Cannon, Hogs of War, SpaceTanks, GunBound and Pocket Tanks are based. Scorched Earth incorporates many of the features of previous graphical artillery games (including sarcastic comments by each player's tank before firing) while expanding the options available to each player in regard to the choice of weapons available, the ability to use shields, parachutes, and ability to move the player's tank (with the purchase of fuel tanks). The game is highly configurable and utilizes a simple mouse driven graphical user interface.

In 1995, Team17 released the first version of its successful Worms series of turn based games on the Amiga computer platform. In Worms, players control a small platoon of worms (rather than tanks) across a deformable landscape, battling other computer or player controlled teams. The games feature bright and humorous cartoon style animation and a varied arsenal of bizarre weapons. Subsequent games in the series have been released since 1995, including a 3D variant (Worms 3D) in 2003. This was later followed by Worms Forts and Worms 4. The game then went back to its 2D style gameplay in Worms Open Warfare (2006) and Worms: Reloaded (2010). In 1996, James Payne released PyroSoft’s Genocide which was a 3D version of Scorched Earth with procedurally generated vector graphics terrain and many weapons. In 2000, Infogrames released Hogs of War, featuring 3D graphics, and a third person perspective. The game is set in the First World War era where anthropomorphic pigs engage in combat. In 2001, Gavin Camp released a 3D artillery game called Scorched 3D that is loosely based on the earlier game Scorched Earth. Scorched 3D offers options such as multiplayer LAN and Internet play, player avatars and flexible camera views. Players with their tanks, shoot enemies after maneuvering the trajectory by controlling the shot angle and power.