Under Fire!

Instead. The C64 port was by Dyadic Software Associates. The game was not billed as a computer version of Squad Leader, though it did bear some similarities in that players commanded roughly company sized forces. Only three maps were available for play. The game was unique in that for each of the nine scenarios, victory was not declared at game's end. A results screen would show losses in men and equipment, and list possession of objectives, leaving the determination of "victory" to the player. An Extended Capabilities Disk was sold by Avalon Hill also, adding 56 more US, German and Russian assault guns and tanks to the game, as well as providing Japanese, British and Italian forces, with two additional maps and six more scenarios. A Second Extended Capabilities Disk also underwent initial development, bringing a campaign layer to the game, increasing the speed of play, and making use of 64K of additional memory (where available).

• Title — Under Fire! • Developer — Avalon Hill • Publisher — Avalon Hill • Platforms — Apple II, Commodore 64, MS-DOS • Released — 1985 • Genre — Wargame

The player would select display options and game scale at the start of play (the map was divided into squares, which could represent a variable number of metres per square, selected by the player at the outset of the game). The display as very simple, with units represented by crude tank, halftrack, or soldier icons. The display was a four-color output for the IBM PC and 16-color for the Apple II. A scenario and map were selected (with only three choices of each, for a total of nine combinations to choose from). However, forces were randomly selected for each nationality, and the player could also choose to either attack or defend, providing even more diversity to gameplay. The player also had the option of playing either a human opponent, or against a computer opponent. The game was "WEGO" in concept (the same concept later made famous by Combat Mission) in that both players entered their orders, and then watched the order resolution unfold simultaneously. The computer opponent was actually a form of artificial intelligence; in the words of the designer: "I attempted to create a player that would try to win, not simply fire back. The computer has been given a knowledge of small arms tactics. It will, when possible, co-ordinate its attacks."