Nuclear War (video game)

For the card game of the same name, see Nuclear War (card game).

Nuclear War
Developer(s)	New World Computing
Publisher(s)	U.S. Gold
Platform(s)	Amiga, MS-DOS
Release date(s)	1989
Genre(s)	Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	N/A
Media/distribution	Floppy disk

Nuclear War is a single player turn-based strategy game developed by New World Computing and released for the Amiga in 1989. It presents a satirical, cartoonish nuclear battle between five world powers, in which the winner is whoever retains some population when everyone else on earth is dead.

The introduction includes a homage to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Each player - one human, four computer-controlled - is represented by a caricature of a national leader. If there is a computer-controlled winner at the end of the game, that leader is depicted jumping for joy in the middle of a blasted wasteland, crowing "I won! I won!". If the player wins only the high score board is shown. Once a player (computer or human) loses, all of their stockpiled weapons are automatically launched. It's possible for a game to have no winner because of this. If this happens, a cut scene of the earth shattering and exploding is shown, and the high score table appears (though without any new entries.)

Characters

• Ronnie Raygun
• P.M. Satcher
• Infidel Castro
• Col. Khadaffy
• Kookamamie
• Mao the Pun
• Jimi Farmer
• Tricky Dick
• Gorbachef
• Ghanji

See also

• Balance of Power, a conceptually similar game from 1985, but played straight;
• DEFCON, another similar PC/Mac game, in real-time instead of turn-based.

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1990 in Dragon #159 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4½ out of 5 stars.^[1]

References

1. ^ Lesser, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk (July 1990). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (159): 47–53. 

External links

• Nuclear War at MobyGames
• Reviews at Amiga Reviews
• Multiplayer clone