Revision 378285286 of "Tank Wars" on enwiki

{{Infobox VG
|title = Tank Wars
|image = [[Image:Tankwars-title.png|200px|]]
|developer = Kenneth Morse
|publisher =
|version = 3.0
|released = [[1990 in video gaming|1990]], [[1991 in video gaming|1991]], [[1992 in video gaming|1992]]
|genre = [[Artillery game]], [[Strategy game]] 
|modes = [[Single player]], [[Multiplayer]]
|platforms = [[DOS]]
|requirements = [[Video Graphics Array|VGA]] monitor
|input = [[Computer_keyboard|Keyboard]], [[Computer_mouse|Mouse]]
}}
'''''Tank Wars''''' (also known as '''''BOMB''''' because of the filename) is an [[artillery game]] developed in [[1990 in video gaming|1990]] by Kenneth Morse, a year before ''[[Scorched Earth (computer game)|Scorched Earth]]'', and was quite popular at that time; yet, surprisingly, not many people today know that this game appeared before ''Scorched Earth''.

There is another artillery game named Tank Wars, written in [[1986 in video gaming|1986]] by Cody Snider.<ref>''[http://www.mobygames.com/game/tank-wars_ Tank Wars]'' on [[MobyGames]]</ref> Apart from the basic concept, these two games are not related.

There is also a similar game on the [[Commodore International|Commodore]] [[Amiga]] computer system called ''Scorched Tanks'', written by Michael P. Welch (who also made ''[[Pocket Tanks]]'').  The things that stand out in this game compared to ''Scorched Earth'' is that the Twanger AI when bouncing walls are turned on, the sound effect of the nukes, and the colorful backgrounds that also animate/move in newer 2.5x and later versions. Scorched Palm is the version designed for the Palm OS.

==Description==
[[Image:Tankwars-shot.jpg|thumb|right||200px|Tank Wars in-game screen shot]]

The game allows for up to ten players in any combination of human and computer players.  The number of games played in a set is chosen before the game (default is 20 games).  New terrain is randomly drawn at the start of each individual game, and the tanks fall one by one into their start positions in random order, evenly spaced horizontally on the screen.  The tanks then take turns firing at opponent tanks, order going left to right, until only one tank remains.  

Whether or not there is wind during the game, and the amount of wind can be set. Other options are available including rebounding walls, background effects, and whether the tanks can fall when terrain is blown out from under them.

Points are awarded during the games for kills and wins.  Points can then be used for each player to purchase new weapons and misc. items in between games.  These weapons range from the Nukes that give the shot a larger blast radius to energy shields, as well as dirt bombs that can be used to increase defences.

== Computer Players ==

There are several AI personalities that have distinct shot calculating techniques and therefore appear to have their own personality.

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
! Player
! Technique
|-
| Mr. Stupid 
| Randomly fires
|-
| Lobber
| Uses trial and error to zero in on opponents
|-
| Rifleman
| Uses direct line of sight shots
|-
| Lob & Shoot
| Can act as Lobber or Rifleman depending on circumstances
|-
| Windless Wit
| Uses physics to calculate perfect parabolic shots but cannot compensate for wind
|-
| Windmaster
| Same as Windless Wit, but compensates for Wind flawlessly
|-
| Twanger
| Fires using the ceiling and walls for bank shots. If the walls are non-rebounding he is the same as Rifleman
|-

|}

==Versions==

Tank Wars is 320x200 256 colors only.  It prefers 286 and 386 computers, but is playable on 486s and slow Pentiums as well.  Versions 2.0 and 2.5 seem to be optimized for the 286 PS/2 computers that were handed out to schools in 1988-1991.  Versions 3.0 and 3.2 are optimized for slower 386 machines. Tank Wars runs under [[Windows XP]], but the game runs almost unplayably fast and there are graphical glitches that prevent one from seeing the angle/power settings.
You can manually edit settings.cfg and tweak the keyboard settings.

You can download the DOS emulator DOSbox from DOSbox.com to slow the game down on faster computers.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/tankwars.htm ''Tank Wars'' review and download]

* [http://cd.textfiles.com/gameempire/SOFT/ADV/SECRET/BOMB.DOC ''Tank Wars'' Instructions & Tips]

{{artillery-videogame-stub}}

[[Category:1990 video games]]
[[Category:Artillery video games]]
[[Category:DOS games]]

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