Gunship 2000 - Amiga OCS/ECS version

One of my fovorite helicopter flight sim from the Amiga - Gunship 2000.

Originally released in 1991 by Microprose on PC for MS-DOS it was a sequel to Gunship from 1986 which was released for many 8-bit and 16-bit platforms of the time. Released in 1993 for Amiga (OCS/ECS version - 32 colors) and 1994 for CD32 (AGA version - 256 colors) was very good port of the PC version, unfortunatelly it lacked the improvements introduced in the exclusive PC Scenario disk - new theaters, support units and missions builder. There was also a Playstation 1 version released in 1996.

The sequel introduced new helicopter types. Along with AH-64A Apache you could strap yourself in lighter and faster but less armored AH-1W Super Cobra, transport and extract troops and equipment in UH-60K/L Blackhawk, scout the battlefield in AH-6 Defender or OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. With new promotions you get access to stealthy RAH-66 Comanche in both Scout and Gunship configurations and finally to the ultimate killing machine - AH-64B Longbow Apache (in real life Longbow was designated as Delta, Bravo designation was assumed by Microprose as the Longbow was still not fielded at the time of game release).

Initially you flew solo missions in Central Europe or Persian Gulf - but after few successful sorties you were given the opportunity to command a flight of 5 helicopters in single flight missions or campaign mode. The game had pretty good command interaface, where you could plot a flight plan for each section or individual unit. Select flight profile (speed & altitude), RoE (weapons hold/free) etc. In PC expansion "Islands & Ice" which introduced new theaters - Philippine Islands and Antarctica, you got additional support in the form of artillery or air strikes at designated points.

You had to take care of your men. They gained experience and were more and more efficient with more sorties under their belts. But they could perish and you would get new green replacements in their place. There was cool feature, that if one of your guys went down and you had Blackhawk (or possibly Kiowa) in your flight, you could pick up your own flight member to make sure he will not end up as MIA after the mission!

There are few differences between the PC and Amiga versions. Besides the obvious graphic engine, Amiga version seem to ignore the visiblity range aspect - unlike in PC version, no matter what's your altitude or weather conditions, the enemy can see you and vice versa at constant distances more than 7km away provided there's clear line of sight. That makes sneaking up on enemies a bit harder on Amiga version. On PC you could get really low and sneak up to someone for a gun kill at 1,5km, here it's impossible in open terrain.

When still flying solo, it's better to take on only one target - primary or secondary, as when you try to take out both it will probably take you more than 30 minutes in which case points will be deducted at the end of the mission. Not to mentions increased risk of getting shot down. When you take command of a flight that's non-issue as you can send each section to different task.

@12:20 Showcased in this mission is ripple firing laser guided Hellfires - they still are not fire-and-forget weapons, but if the target group is tightly packed, you can fire several Hellfires at few second intervals. While the targets are eliminated the next ones are being lased and missiles will switch targets mid flight. This way you can take out several targets in short amount of time.

If you want to give it a go you can grab it here:
https://thecompany.pl/gra/Gunship+2000

Gunship 2000 Amiga Playthrough:
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