Gulf Crisis Pushes Video Combat Games to Front Line in Sales
Sunrise comes to the Persian Gulf as you strap yourself into your F-15 fighter jet and roar away from the deck of a carrier. Welcome to the gulf war--in a video game simulation.
MicroProse Software Inc. of Hunt Valley, Md., is giving would-be fighter jocks a chance to test their mettle with the closest thing to combat simulators: highly sophisticated video games.
One of the games, F-15 Strike Eagle, has been especially popular. It contains a war scenario in which jets blow up enemy oil and military sites while outrunning tank and missile fire.
Sales of F-15 Strike Eagle, Gunship, Airborne Ranger and other games are up 30% since the crisis began Aug. 2 when Iraq invaded Kuwait, MicroProse spokeswoman Kathy Gilmore said.
“We think it’s because of the Middle East crisis. We think people know what’s happening over there, and our games realistically simulate a situation,” she said.
Even soldiers in Saudi Arabia may soon be at the controls of Strike Eagle. One of the game units is being flown out for servicemen to kill time and imaginary enemies in the absence of outright hostilities.
Gilmore declined to give exact sales figures, but she said 500,000 “computer pilots” are now enjoying the F-15 simulation on home machines, in addition to thousands playing the game at arcades.
MicroProse is preparing a more sophisticated gulf war game for personal computers. The scenario is being built into a game tentatively titled Gunship 2000, awaiting a spring release at an expected retail price of $59 to $69.
Gunship 2000’s chief designer, Jim Day, said its gulf scenario will feature Army helicopters that go out to destroy military and oil installations while rescuing “guests” detained at the sites.
Players select types and numbers of helicopters and weaponry, and bone up on maps and intelligence before their missions. No two missions are ever played the same way.
Day said his researchers combed large amounts of publicly available military data for precise details on weapons and tactics, including the sounds they make.
