Satellite Defense (ColecoVision)

It's the United States versus the Soviet Union in this Cold War-era simulation of all-out nuclear war! The Soviet missiles are already in flight, targeting dozens of major American cities. You are in charge of the Americans' satellite-based anti-missile laser system. Your mission is to take aim at the missiles and blast them out of the sky before they hit their targets. Do you have what it takes to hold back Armageddon?

War Room is the only game released by Probe 2000, Philips's short-lived attempt to branch out into producing games for systems other than the Odyssey². As it's a ColecoVision game, you'd expect it to be more sophisticated than a standard Odyssey² title, and you wouldn't be disappointed. The expansive playfield for the game is no less than the entire continental United States -- very impressive indeed. Ringing sirens announce the arrival of a Soviet salvo, which will be tracked on a small radar display near the top of the screen. Quickly, you scroll the screen over to the attack site and zap the incoming warheads before they detonate. As the war progresses, attacks become faster, more frequent, and more devastating. (In this vision of WWIII, the Soviets are destined to win -- you're just trying to survive as long as you can.)

As if defending your country weren't enough, you must monitor your cities' production as well. Between attacks, you must collect and distribute food, raw materials, and machinery among your surviving cities. In return, certain cities will produce fuel for your lasers. To collect fuel or other supplies, you must enter a city and outrun Communist spies in an interesting "chase" mini-game that is presented rather comically, with you controlling an Uncle Sam figure who slips past hammer-and-sickle icons. But it's no laughing matter -- if the Commies nab Uncle Sam, the city becomes "lost" to the Soviets and starts launching yet more missiles. When that happens, you have to destroy the city to save it. Yes, true Cold War sensibilities really come through in this game!

War Room is an involving action game whose only weakness is that it's merely defensive -- that is, you can take out your enemy's missiles but you can't launch any yourself. Other than that, it's a blast that squeezes in fast-paced shooting, on-the-fly resource allocation, and even a bit of "chase" action. It's really too bad that this is Probe 2000's only release; they would have produced some winners if they had survived the videogame crash. Since this is for the ColecoVision, it's obviously more detailed and complex than any Odyssey² game, but play it and you'll find that it's even better than many other ColecoVision games.

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