Beach Head (video game)

Beach-Head is a video game developed and published in 1983 by Access Software for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64 home computers in the US. Versions for the Commodore 16, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Acorn Electron (as well as the Atari and C64 versions) were published in Europe by U.S. Gold in 1984, followed by a version for the Amstrad CPC platform in 1985.

Beach-Head
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)Bruce Carver
Kevin Homer
Platform(s)Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, Apple II, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, MSX, Acorn Electron, Enterprise, Thomson MO5, Thomson TO7/70
Release1983
Genre(s)Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)Single player, Two player

Gameplay
Tank on the run to the enemy gun

The game's setting is the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II.[1] Gameplay consists of several varying stages in which the player must control various vehicles including warships and tanks in order to defeat an enemy fleet, break through enemy beach defences and destroy an enormous gun-emplacement to win the game. The gun emplacement requires multiple hits to be destroyed, but traverses faster than tanks can aim and fire, so it cannot be destroyed in a single attempt. In order to complete the game multiple tanks must make it through to the final level.

Reception

Beach-Head was Access' best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987.[2] Ahoy! stated "This game is a blast". It praised the graphics and concluded, "It is a remarkable programming achievement".[3] Compute! listed the game in May 1988 as one of "Our Favorite Games", stating that it was superior to its "many imitators".[4]

Zzap!64 reviewed the game in a retrospective feature in October 1985. They argued that although it was considered impressive at the time of release it had already become dated. It was rated 70% overall.[1]

In 1996, Computer Gaming World declared Beach Head the 117th-best computer game ever released.[5]

Legacy

The game was included on the 1985 compilation They Sold a Million,[6] along with Daley Thompson's Decathlon, Sabre Wulf, and Jet Set Willy.

A sequel, Beach Head II: The Dictator Strikes Back, was released in 1985. A loose remake of the game, Beach Head 2000 was released in 2000.

References
  1. "Impossible to Display Scan". Zzap!64.
  2. Ferrell, Keith (December 1987). "The Commodore Games That Live On And On". Compute's Gazette. pp. 18–22. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  3. Peterson, Cheryl (April 1984). "Beach-Head". Ahoy!. p. 63. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  4. "Our Favorite Games". Compute!. May 1988. p. 12. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  5. Staff (November 1996). "150 Best (and 50 Worst) Games of All Time". Computer Gaming World (148): 63–65, 68, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 84, 88, 90, 94, 98.
  6. "They Sold a Million". World of Spectrum. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
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