Chopper Hunt

Chopper Hunt is a side-view shoot 'em up written by Tom Hudson and published by Imagic in 1984 for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64. It was one of the last games from Imagic before the company went out of business.[2] The Atari 8-bit original was previously released by ANALOG Software as Buried Bucks in 1982. In both games, the player files a helicopter that uses bombs to unearth buried items.

Chopper Hunt
Developer(s)ANALOG Software
Publisher(s)Imagic
Designer(s)Tom Hudson[1]
Platform(s)Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64
Release1984
Genre(s)Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)Single-player

Development

ANALOG Software, the game publishing label of Atari 8-bit magazine ANALOG Computing, published Buried Bucks (stylized as Buried Buck$) in 1982. Programmer Tom Hudson documented the expanding explosion effect used in the game as an article in ANALOG Computing, which included the assembly language source code.[3] The same effect was used in another game for the magazine, Planetary Defense.[4] Hudson later told Atari Explorer that Buried Bucks was his first Atari 8-bit game and called it "pretty simplistic."[5]

The 1984 Imagic release changed the name to Chopper Hunt and made some alterations to the visuals.[6] A Commodore 64 port was released simultaneously.

Reception

As part of a "Five Great Games for the Atari" article in 1983, John J. Anderson reviewed Buried Bucks: "once in a while a package appears that takes a unique premise and develops it into a new game that bears little resemblance to anything that has come before."[7] Later he commented, "The level of graphics and sound in the program is utterly professional."[7]

In a 1985 review in Antic, Jack Powell wrote, "Chopper Hunt would make a very nice public domain game," and "If you plunk down your hard-earned money for this outdated arcade game, you are helping to prove that Barnum is right."[8]

References
  1. Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. "Imagic". Retro Gamer (161): 55.
  3. Hudson, Tom (August 1982). "Graphic Violence!". ANALOG Computing (8): 57. Archived from the original on 2018-08-31. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  4. Hudson, Tom. "Planetary Defense 2012!". klanky.org.
  5. Jainschigg, John (December 1986). "Gradus ad Parnassum". Atari Explorer. 6 (3): 44.
  6. "Buried Buck$, Chopper Hunt - gameplay, compare". YouTube.
  7. Anderson, John J. (Fall 1983). "Five Great Games for the Atari". Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games (2): 110.
  8. Powell, Jack (November 1985). "Product Reviews: Chopper Hunt". Antic. 4 (7): 77.
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