NAM-1975 is a 1990 war-themed action shooting game released by SNK

SNK Playmore

SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....

. It was the first game released for Neo Geo

Neo Geo (console)

The is a cartridge-based arcade and home video game system released on July 1, 1991 by Japanese game company SNK. Being in the Fourth generation of Gaming, it was the first console in the former Neo Geo family, which only lived through the 1990s...

 arcade and home platform, and the only title to not feature the Neo Geo logo in its attract mode.

Plot

"The roar of the helicopters overhead snaps us back into reality. We will never forget the nightmare of that summer..." these were the phrases that started the story of Silver & Brown (the names used to describe the two available players).

The game is set in a very fictional account of the final months of the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. The story begins with the two soldiers entering the war to rescue Dr. R. Muckly, an ex-scientist of the American Army, who has been kidnapped by Northside Terrorists. Nancy Muckly, Dr. Muckly's daughter has also been kidnapped and is presumed imprisoned in the NAM interior.

However, as the game progresses, the armies learn that Dr. R. Muckly is a madman who is building a gigantic laser cannon to take over the world himself (the final boss battle was infamous for disallowing continues, except by modifying the DIP switch).

There are many references to many famous Vietnam War film

Vietnam War film

The Vietnam War has been the subject of many films. One of the first major films based on the Vietnam War was John Wayne's The Green Berets...

s in the game, such as Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...

and Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...

: the attract sequence showing one of the characters firing off an M60 machine gun

M60 machine gun

The M60 is a family of American general-purpose machine guns firing 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges from a disintegrating belt of M13 links...

is clearly ported from the shot of Animal Mother firing on the VC sniper in the latter film.

Gameplay

The joystick moves the soldier and the crosshair left and right of the area. The A Button is used for shooting the gun where the crosshair is positioned. If the firing button is held down, the player can move the crosshair while keeping the soldier in the same spot. The B Button is used for throwing grenades where the crosshair is positioned. The C Button held down and the joystick pulled left or right enables the soldier to run. If the player pulls the joystick Diagonal-Left or Diagonal-Right during a run, the soldier will do an evasive roll that will prevent him getting killed.

The player starts of with a standard machine gun with infinite ammo and 10 normal grenade

Grenade

A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...

s. When certain enemies are killed, they drop collectable guns or grenades. The guns consist of the Balcan (A more powerful machine gun), the Flamethrower (A gun for taking out ground units only) and the Missile Launcher. The grenades consist of the normal grenades, the Spark Bomb and the Napalm

Napalm

Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...

 Bomb.

In addition, by saving a hostage, the hostage will help the player by shooting at enemies until the player is killed.

Controversy

Carts released in Europe were subsequently censored, due to the female on the cover art having a bare thigh exposed. Many carts have a black mark over the thigh with a permanent marker to disguise it for overseas marketing.

External links

• NAM-1975 at the Killer List of Videogames
  Killer List of Videogames
  The Killer List of Videogames is a web site featuring an online encyclopedia devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. It is the video game department of the International Arcade Museum, and has been referred to as "the IMDb for players."....