Game 387: Rescue Raiders

Ok, I was wrong. There's one more game to close out my 1984 phase.

Rescue Raiders' existence and importance as a proto-RTS was made known to me by commenters on a Wargaming Scribe article concerning the "first" RTS. I had this one filed as a 1985 game, but while going through and finalizing my 1985 playlist, realized it actually came out in 1984. Coincidentally, that means we're ending the year on a Sir-Tech game for the third time in a row, though it's no Wizardry title this time.

Rescue Raiders, resembling a Choplifter! clone at first, stands as an interesting contrast to The Ancient Art of War of the same year. War looks like a primitive realtime wargame, and plays somewhat like one, but is not directly ancestral to the modern RTS template. Rescue Raiders, on the other hand, looks like Defender/Choplifter at first, and certainly draws influence from both, but eventually it becomes clear what you're actually playing - this is a MOBA! You control a heavily armed helicopter, your target is the enemy base on the far side of the map, and you'll need to raise and escort an army to take it out before they do it to you. Rescue Raiders influenced Herzog and Herzog Zwei, which in turn influenced the genre-codifying Dune II, making it a direct ancestor to the entire RTS genre.

"We have Command & Conquer: Red Alert at home."

AppleWin emulates Mockingboard speech synth, but MAME has better analog joystick support.

Recruiting a small army for initial ground gains

 

The goal of Rescue Raiders is to assault the enemy's base on the far left side of the map and take out their time machine. It's a strictly linear path, with bunkers and flak guns that either side may take control of dotting the terrain in the middle, effectively making it a one-dimensional tug-of-war in which the front constantly moves back and forth as both armies funnel their war machines into the grinder. Hopefully it trends toward the left, though holding onto your gains becomes increasingly challenging the farther out you get. Armies cost cash, which generates at a fixed rate, and newly-recruited units spawn at the bases, so the closer you are to victory, the farther your reinforcements have to march to reach the action, and the enemy has all the less distance to march in order to push back.

The chopper, which you control directly, is by far your most powerful weapon, able to airlift infantry, bust bunkers, and single-handedly devastate mobile platoons on a single armament. Your weapons include:

• Seeking missiles. Meant to hit targets off-screen, you'll need to acquire a "lock-on" by using the radar display to align yourself vertically with your target before firing. The most powerful weapon, but tricky to use, not 100% reliable, you only get two per loadout, and it's much too easy to accidentally fire both of them at once.
• A front-firing machinegun. You get 50 high-caliber bullets per loadout, and if you can fly low enough to the ground without landing, this can devastate ground units, as it slightly outranges even tanks.
• High-explosive bombs, for bunker busting or for when you just want to destroy a mobile ground unit without exposing yourself to return fire. You get ten bombs per loadout, and it's very easy to destroy tanks and trucks, but more difficult to hit ground troops. 
  

 

Your chopper is too awesome to not use, but it's also incredibly expensive to replace - you start with three backup choppers, each additional replacement costs as much as five tanks, and if you run out, you lose. It's also not enough on its own; attacking AA guns is very risky, attacking SAM sites is suicidal, the time machine is impervious to conventional weapons, and you'll need to constantly fly all the way back to your own base to reload, refuel, and repair, which takes longer and longer the farther out you are.

The enemy has choppers too, which are also their most powerful weapon, capable of destroying your entire army in one swoop if they get close enough. Unlike you, they get unlimited backups, not to mention unlimited ammo, and they are aggressive. You quickly learn to never engage choppers at visual range; they will happily crash into you. Watch the radar, take them out with your missiles, and if you miss, or if they sneak up on you, run.

Your other units cost money to deploy - a bag of cash is generated every fifteen seconds - and act independently, marching forward and firing at the enemy until they themselves are destroyed. Frustratingly, you cannot order units to halt, which makes it impossible to reinforce your front line with anything that you can't airlift!

• Tanks cost 4 cash bags each and are your workhorse ground unit, being the best weapon against AA guns and resilient to enemy fire, though enemy tanks and infantry will eventually wear them down. If you do not have tanks in the front of your line, then enemy tanks will easily destroy everything that isn't behind a tank. Tanks are completely defenseless against choppers.
  
• Infantry cost 5 bags for a squad of five. They aren't as powerful as tanks, but can be airlifted, and more importantly, can take control of enemy bunkers and use their defensive weapons.
• Engineers cost 5 bags each and will repair and operate AA guns. You can airlift them, but you don't want to, because this turns them into normal infantry.
• Anti-aircraft carriers cost 3 bags each. These are one-shot chopper killers and are incredibly important; you can't babysit your army every second, and if your line runs out of anti-aircraft carriers, the enemy chopper will destroy everything. They have a long range, but self-destruct when firing, and occasionally miss, which will suck hard for you. Thankfully, the enemy does not use these... yet.
• Lastly, demolition trucks cost only 2 bags each. These serve one purpose only - to destroy the enemy time machine, and are completely defenseless.
  

 

This is a difficult, frustrating, and often random and unfair-feeling game, and it took me several tries before I could even finish the first and easiest mission. Taking out the enemy base is the hardest thing; your army moves slow, taking over six minutes to cross the map. The enemy has no real chance of taking your base this way, so instead, you get limited choppers, and they get unlimited. As you get closer, the enemy chopper is respawning pretty much constantly, taking no time at all to fly back into combat range, while you need to fly all the way back to your base in order to reload your precious missiles and back again to support your army, and pray it doesn't get crippled in your absence. Reinforcing the army is impossible; what you build at the base is what you get, and if it's not enough, then there's nothing you can do but watch it fall, build a new army at the base all over again, and try to stop the enemy from retaking too much ground as you wait for it to slowly march all the way back again.

Here's a video of a successful mission 1:

 

I don't know if I'm going to be able to finish this game, but I'll try. Expect at least one more post on the game before we move into 1985.