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Scorched Earth (computer game)
Encyclopedia
Scorched Earth is a popular shareware
artillery video game, which is a subgenre of strategy game
. The game was developed in the DOS
era, originally written by Wendell Hicken (using Borland C++
and Turbo Assembler
), in which tank
s do turn-based
battle in two-dimensional terrain, with each player adjusting the angle and power of their tank turret before each shot.
games". Such games are among the earliest computer games, with versions existing for mainframes with only teletype output. Scorched Earth, with a plethora of weapon types and power-ups, is considered the modern archetype of its format.
Its slogan, "The Mother of all Games", was coined in 1991
, during the Gulf War
, after Saddam Hussein
threatened the U.S.
that if they stepped on Iraq
i soil, it would be "The Mother of all Battles" .
The game has a wide variety of customization options from gravity and wind to money and meteorite showers, and a similarly large pool of different payloads, allowing for a large amount of entirely different situations.
In addition to the possible in-game changes, the text messages the AI players can display before firing (e.g. "I shall smash your ugly tank!") and before dying (e.g. "Join the army, see the world they said") are read in two plain text files, TALK1.CFG and TALK2.CFG, respectively, free for creative users to change or translate.
The weapons range from small missile rounds to MIRV warheads. All weapons can be upgraded with tracers
which allow the player to more accurately adjust the trajectory
on their next turn. In addition to conventional warheads, there is also such ordnance as napalm
, wildly bouncing bombs, and earth weapons, allowing the player to dump dirt on other tanks or to remove ground from beneath them. A tank which is covered with dirt has to shoot itself free and may get damaged in the process; one which falls from too high a level may be destroyed. A variety of utilities, such as deflector shields
, recharge batteries, and tank parachute
s, make it much harder to score a kill with a single hit even with the more bizarre and advanced weapons, adding another dimension to the game's tactics.
Projectiles can be manipulated in their flight-path by wind
, shields and guidance systems, and sometimes have partially random effects. Walls may have a bounce, wrap-around
, or no effect, as may the ceiling. As the player advances in the game, he can afford more and more powerful weapons, but so can his opponents.
The game can be played against up to nine other human players and/or computer-controlled ones. A broad range of differently skilled player types is offered by the program. If the player-controlled tanks are destroyed before the others, the AI-controlled players continue to battle each other, effectively turning Scorched Earth into a zero-player game
.
There is also a similar game from the same era called Tank Wars
and another on the Commodore
Amiga
computer system called Scorched Tanks
. Tank Wars was made in 1990 by Kenny Morse, a year before Scorched Earth. Commodore also released a similar version in their educational software catalog called Artillery.
The first is to take a movable tank and invest in plenty of fuel. If the player moves left then right over and over again, the tank will rise into the air. While doing this it will dig through dirt and the shields of other tanks. Projectiles may then be fired through the hole thus created. This can also be used to undermine other tanks and cause them to take falling damage.
The second, which relates to the use of the first, is to exploit the characteristics of napalm, in combination with those of shields. If napalm can be poured through a hole in a tank's shield (sometimes a napalm shell itself will do this) the shield will hold the napalm in next to the affected tank causing the maximum amount of damage for the napalm shot.
There are several versions known to exist, the earliest being 1.0b (where "b" is presumed to mean "Beta"). Public versions include 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and lastly, 1.5, which was released in 1995
.
Although, graphically, 1.0B looks similar to the later versions, in-game, its menus were completely different. It was also not as feature-rich and contained some different AI class names, such as "Rifleman" and "Twanger" (which may have been changed, as they were also AI class names in the slightly earlier artillery game, Tank Wars).
Starting with 1.0 in 1991, the game became Shareware and was graphically the same Scorched Earth that is widely known of today.
In Version 1.1, more weapons were added, such as Napalm, Smoke Tracers, and Liquid Dirt as well as Joystick support and two new death animations among other things. Also in 1.1, a modem icon was added with the intention of including some form of net play in a following version, however, this feature was never implemented.
Nearly a year later, in 1992
, version 1.2 was released which added, among other minor things, a new death animation and Synchronous firing mode. Versions 1.21 and 1.22 were released as very minor updates, both of which listed themselves as version 1.2 in-game and in all documentation except for the "readme" file. In early 1993, version 1.23 was released, and it identified itself as such in-game.
The last version (1.50) was not released until 1995. In 1.5, the registration feature was removed and instead, only a shareware version was released freely while the registered version could only be obtained through a mail order. Purchasing the registered version allowed the player to use the triple-turreted tank and added 25 scanned mountains as well as removing the shareware reminders. New to this version were lasers and SuperMags as well as a couple of new skies and the introduction of scanned mountain ranges.
clone), Scorched 3D
, which attempt to modernize the gameplay and graphics, and others such as Charred Dirt that take a different approach by using a unique graphical style. In 1999 a clone written in Java
was released called Scorched Earth 2000 which ran from a web browser
and supported online multiplayer games. There are also several variants, such as WarheadsSE in which the players fire missiles between planets, with the trajectories curving as missiles pass through gravitational fields.
It was hinted in December 2005, by the original developer, that more news on the official version would surface soon. He mentioned this again in February 2006 in his blog. This is suspected of being related to a suggested "Scorched Earth project" that the developer has mentioned in his blog in March 2006.
The Scorched 3D remake is faithful to the original, including the same economics, physics, weapons, and environments as the original. It includes full network support, a headless server daemon and a server browser from within the game. Its official site offers a CD containing all versions of the registered game (except for 1.0b). The CD also includes a .MTN builder to create your own Scorched terrains and an HTML version of the version 1.5 manual. The website also has special scholastic site licenses for the game.
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
artillery video game, which is a subgenre of strategy game
Strategy video game
Strategy video games is a video game genre that emphasizes skillful thinking and planning to achieve victory. They emphasize strategic, tactical, and sometimes logistical challenges. Many games also offer economic challenges and exploration...
. The game was developed in the DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
era, originally written by Wendell Hicken (using Borland C++
Borland C++
Borland C++ is a C and C++ programming environment for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. It was the successor to Turbo C++, and included a better debugger, the Turbo Debugger, which was written in protected mode DOS....
and Turbo Assembler
Turbo Assembler
Turbo Assembler is an assembler package developed by Borland which runs on and produces code for 16- or 32-bit x86 MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows. It can be used with Borland's high-level language compilers, such as Turbo Pascal, Turbo Basic and Turbo C. The Turbo Assembler package is bundled with...
), in which tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s do turn-based
Turn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
battle in two-dimensional terrain, with each player adjusting the angle and power of their tank turret before each shot.
Description
Scorched Earth is one of many games in the genre of "turn-based artilleryArtillery (computer game)
Artillery is the generic name for either early two- or three-player computer games involving tanks fighting each other in combat or similar derivative games...
games". Such games are among the earliest computer games, with versions existing for mainframes with only teletype output. Scorched Earth, with a plethora of weapon types and power-ups, is considered the modern archetype of its format.
Its slogan, "The Mother of all Games", was coined in 1991
1991 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Microprose creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game .*Electronic Arts releases James Pond 2 and Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the 1990s....
, during the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, after Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
threatened the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that if they stepped on Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i soil, it would be "The Mother of all Battles" .
The game has a wide variety of customization options from gravity and wind to money and meteorite showers, and a similarly large pool of different payloads, allowing for a large amount of entirely different situations.
In addition to the possible in-game changes, the text messages the AI players can display before firing (e.g. "I shall smash your ugly tank!") and before dying (e.g. "Join the army, see the world they said") are read in two plain text files, TALK1.CFG and TALK2.CFG, respectively, free for creative users to change or translate.
The weapons range from small missile rounds to MIRV warheads. All weapons can be upgraded with tracers
Tracer ammunition
Tracer ammunition are bullets that are built with a small pyrotechnic charge in their base. Ignited by the burning powder, the phosphorus tail burns very brightly, making the projectile visible to the naked eye...
which allow the player to more accurately adjust the trajectory
Trajectory
A trajectory is the path that a moving object follows through space as a function of time. The object might be a projectile or a satellite, for example. It thus includes the meaning of orbit—the path of a planet, an asteroid or a comet as it travels around a central mass...
on their next turn. In addition to conventional warheads, there is also such ordnance as 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...
, wildly bouncing bombs, and earth weapons, allowing the player to dump dirt on other tanks or to remove ground from beneath them. A tank which is covered with dirt has to shoot itself free and may get damaged in the process; one which falls from too high a level may be destroyed. A variety of utilities, such as deflector shields
Force field
A force field, sometimes known as an energy shield, force shield, or deflector shield is a concept of a field tightly bounded and of significant magnitude so that objects affected by the particular force relating to the field are unable to pass through the central axis of the field and reach the...
, recharge batteries, and tank parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
s, make it much harder to score a kill with a single hit even with the more bizarre and advanced weapons, adding another dimension to the game's tactics.
Projectiles can be manipulated in their flight-path by wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
, shields and guidance systems, and sometimes have partially random effects. Walls may have a bounce, wrap-around
Wraparound (Video Games)
Wraparound, in video games, is a gameplay variation on the single-screen in which space is finite but unbounded; objects leaving one side of the screen immediately reappear on the opposite side, maintaining speed and trajectory...
, or no effect, as may the ceiling. As the player advances in the game, he can afford more and more powerful weapons, but so can his opponents.
The game can be played against up to nine other human players and/or computer-controlled ones. A broad range of differently skilled player types is offered by the program. If the player-controlled tanks are destroyed before the others, the AI-controlled players continue to battle each other, effectively turning Scorched Earth into a zero-player game
Zero-player game
A zero-player game is a game that has no sentient players.In computer games, the term refers to programs that use artificial intelligence rather than human players....
.
There is also a similar game from the same era called Tank Wars
Tank Wars
Tank Wars is an artillery game developed in 1990 by Kenneth Morse.There is another artillery game named Tank Wars, written in 1986 by Cody Snider for DOS and the Apple II...
and another on the Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
computer system called Scorched Tanks
Scorched Tanks
Scorched Tanks is an artillery style game released for the Amiga platform in 1993. The game is inspired by MS-DOS game Scorched Earth .-Gameplay:...
. Tank Wars was made in 1990 by Kenny Morse, a year before Scorched Earth. Commodore also released a similar version in their educational software catalog called Artillery.
Exploits
There are two main techniques which can be applied to exploit bugs for an easy victory in Scorched Earth.The first is to take a movable tank and invest in plenty of fuel. If the player moves left then right over and over again, the tank will rise into the air. While doing this it will dig through dirt and the shields of other tanks. Projectiles may then be fired through the hole thus created. This can also be used to undermine other tanks and cause them to take falling damage.
The second, which relates to the use of the first, is to exploit the characteristics of napalm, in combination with those of shields. If napalm can be poured through a hole in a tank's shield (sometimes a napalm shell itself will do this) the shield will hold the napalm in next to the affected tank causing the maximum amount of damage for the napalm shot.
Versions
1995 in video gaming
-Events:*May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek *May 11-16 — The 1st annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is held in Los Angeles, California...
.
Although, graphically, 1.0B looks similar to the later versions, in-game, its menus were completely different. It was also not as feature-rich and contained some different AI class names, such as "Rifleman" and "Twanger" (which may have been changed, as they were also AI class names in the slightly earlier artillery game, Tank Wars).
Starting with 1.0 in 1991, the game became Shareware and was graphically the same Scorched Earth that is widely known of today.
In Version 1.1, more weapons were added, such as Napalm, Smoke Tracers, and Liquid Dirt as well as Joystick support and two new death animations among other things. Also in 1.1, a modem icon was added with the intention of including some form of net play in a following version, however, this feature was never implemented.
Nearly a year later, in 1992
1992 in video gaming
-Events:-Notable releases:* Gremlin Graphics releases Zool, Amiga's answer to Mario and Sonic. It goes on to become the best selling Commodore Amiga game, boosting the already popular computer to be the leading gaming machine in Europe....
, version 1.2 was released which added, among other minor things, a new death animation and Synchronous firing mode. Versions 1.21 and 1.22 were released as very minor updates, both of which listed themselves as version 1.2 in-game and in all documentation except for the "readme" file. In early 1993, version 1.23 was released, and it identified itself as such in-game.
The last version (1.50) was not released until 1995. In 1.5, the registration feature was removed and instead, only a shareware version was released freely while the registered version could only be obtained through a mail order. Purchasing the registered version allowed the player to use the triple-turreted tank and added 25 scanned mountains as well as removing the shareware reminders. New to this version were lasers and SuperMags as well as a couple of new skies and the introduction of scanned mountain ranges.
Scorched Earth in the present
There have also been numerous clones made (and are still being made) such as Atomic Tanks, Nasty Armoured Tanks of War, xscorch (Open SourceOpen source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
clone), Scorched 3D
Scorched 3D
Scorched 3D is a turn-based artillery game modeled after the classic DOS game Scorched Earth "The Mother Of All Games". Unlike Scorched Earth however, it is available free in its entirety. Also, Scorched 3D adds, amongst other new features, a 3D island environment and LAN and internet play...
, which attempt to modernize the gameplay and graphics, and others such as Charred Dirt that take a different approach by using a unique graphical style. In 1999 a clone written in Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
was released called Scorched Earth 2000 which ran from a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
and supported online multiplayer games. There are also several variants, such as WarheadsSE in which the players fire missiles between planets, with the trajectories curving as missiles pass through gravitational fields.
It was hinted in December 2005, by the original developer, that more news on the official version would surface soon. He mentioned this again in February 2006 in his blog. This is suspected of being related to a suggested "Scorched Earth project" that the developer has mentioned in his blog in March 2006.
The Scorched 3D remake is faithful to the original, including the same economics, physics, weapons, and environments as the original. It includes full network support, a headless server daemon and a server browser from within the game. Its official site offers a CD containing all versions of the registered game (except for 1.0b). The CD also includes a .MTN builder to create your own Scorched terrains and an HTML version of the version 1.5 manual. The website also has special scholastic site licenses for the game.