Scorched earth is really a mother of all games. It is turn based artillery game. So you have a tank, and your mission is to send every other tank to the graveyard of the tanks ;) You need to adjust shooting power and angle, and decide wich weapon you`ll use. Sounds boring? Sounds simple? Yes, I know it does but when played against a friend, this game really rocks!
At the beginning you have certain amount of money, and you can buy various weapons and shields, and some other stuff like guidance systems and parachutes. After each round, youll have more money, if you have managed to kill other tanks. More tanks you destroy, more money you'll have. (I think the designer has been somehow unalphabetical. I just simply cant see how destroying TANKS get money to you, instead destroying BANKS would be perfectly understandable...)
One of the best features is that you can change various settings, like gravity, terrain, air viscosity, size of the bombs and skill of the computer players. Also I recommend that you edit talk.cfg files, wich determines what tanks “say†when they shoot or get destroyed. Funnier the statements, more your friends laugh ;) Still I must admitt that single player mode is boring after couple of games, but this game is maybe one of the best games you can play with friends... Mmm.. Lil note to the talk.cfg editing. The version that I played wasd old. And I do not mean just old like the version on this site, but I mean OLD! And in that OLD version there were that talk.cfg that was editable, I am not sure if theres similair file in that newer version.
And then couple of hints. Set computer players skill to unknown mode, wich adds some excitement, also set terrain and affect of walls to random, and affect of bombs to maximum. Then let computer have those best tanks (tank far on the right) wich shoots three times when normal tanks shoot only once, so youll have some challenge. Buy at least auto defense, so you can raise your shields before computerplayers shoot you up, parachutes, so you dont get killed when your tank drops, some shield (I prefer force shield) and weapons according to your taste. I recommend at least some mirvs and one deaths head... Then just toast your friends.
I usually have said something about graphics and sounds... Well this time I cannot really say a thing, since I have only played the older version of this game. And its graphics were significantly different from those seen in the screenies.. Anyways, poor graphics will not kill this game, the version I played had possibly the worst graphics of all time, but it didn't matter. I really did not miss any better graphics. But sounds... Thats something I hope they have improved. The noise of PC-beeber was something terrible when playing that old version. Thats why I always disabled sounds totally :) But with sounds it's just as it is with graphics, great gameplay does not need cool 3d graphics or Boldy®© SurGround©® MonoSreteo MegaHyperUltraBoosted®© soundsystem to boost the feeling.
So even tho game is simple, graphics suxx and sounds are terrible, it is one of my favourites when I am drinking beer with some of my mates ^_^ And to tell the truth, thats exactly what abandonware is all about. The idea of some games is just so great, that those games refuse to die!
Written by:
~Maz
