Battle for Midway

The game is set during the Battle of Midway in the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II and revolves around the United States Navy attacking a large Imperial Japanese fleet stationed at Midway Atoll, in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the game, the player assumes control of American forces and must eliminate all Japanese forces around the atoll by air or naval combat. Midway received largely negative reviews upon release. It was criticised for its incompatibility with black and white television sets, as the game was only accessible in a limited range of colours. The easy difficulty of the gameplay was also criticised.

• Title — Battle for Midway • Developer — Personal Software Services • Publisher — Personal Software Services • Series — Wargamers • Designer — Alan Steel • Genre — Turn-based strategy • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC

• Illustration — A map showing combat around Midway Atoll The game is a turn-based strategy and focuses on naval battles during the Battle of Midway, which is initiated in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The player commands three American task forces; two United States Navy forces and one United States Army Air Force unit, which are stationed on Midway Atoll. The objective of the game is to defeat three attacking Imperial Japanese naval forces. Each American task force has an aircraft carrier, whereas the Japanese have four. The player begins the game with two American search aircraft used to locate and track the attacking Japanese forces. When the main attacking Japanese force has been located, the player must send all available air units to engage them in combat. Air combat takes place over real time, and may take up to a minute of travel time once launched from an aircraft carrier. Aircraft will run out of fuel over time and will crash if not refuelled at a carrier. The game contains elements of arcade gameplay, which will automatically enable once the player comes into contact with the enemy. The arcade sequences involves the player utilising an anti-air machine gun in order to shoot down Japanese aircraft. The game ends once all four Japanese aircraft carriers have been destroyed.

Upon release, Battle for Midway was packaged with an exclusive ring-binder and a manual detailing the nature of the Battle of Midway. It was later re-released as part of a Wargamers compilation cassette known as Conflicts 2, published by Personal Software Services.