Published by: Philips Interactive Media of America
Original release: 1991
Genre: Boardgame adaptation
CD-i type: Compact Disc Interactive, base-case standard CD-i disc, no DVC required
Catalogue: 8130002 (Germany), 8140031 (The Netherlands), 8150002 (Italy), 699033-2 (USA)
Releases: Originally released as a USA CD-i launch title in a grey longbox with slipcase. In 1992 in Europe released in a large vertical jewelcase. In 1993, a normal jewelcase version was released in USA and Europe. The USA version again had a slipcase.
Emulator: Working in CD-i Emulator v0.53b4 and higher, no issues
Description from the developer:
You command a fleet of five ships. Your mission is to seek and destroy your enemy’s ships before he destroy yours! Place your ships wherever you like or use the “deploy” feature to automatically place them for you. Now seek out enemy and destroy him! Point to a position on the target grid and press the fire buttom. Watch the guns tilt and fire on the vídeo screen – with full hi-fidelity stereo sound you can feel the recoil. Listen for the resounding crash of a hit or the miserable splash of a miss. Shots are recorded automatically with red and white boxes. Once you sink na opponent’s ship it’s revealed in a ghostly red.
Game Facts:
Another boardgame adaptation by CapDisc, before they did Axis & Allies. The bare graphics and slow gameplay did not really push CD-i to its limits, but these boardgames were the first wave of games that Philips envisioned for its CD-i system: A bit of education and boardgames have a family friendly expression. Shortly after introduction they shifted to other genres as these boardgame adaptation were not very succesful!
ITS WAR!!! The evil (your choice of villanous military force's name here) have attacked. Time to roll out the Navy and defend your country from assualt. Deploy your ships, and ready your weapons. It's going to be a tough fight. Will your forces be able to fend off the vicious assualt? Your strategy and ability may be all that can save you. Good luck Admiral. The fate of your country is in your hands.
This is a truely classic board game. One of my personal favorites. Battleship has always been fun, even when you had opponents who ALWAYS played the same way. heh. A real treat sometimes is when programmers and designers don't make too many changes to a classic to keep the feel of the original game in tact. Saddly, this is too true in this case. The gameplay remains faithful to the original, and transfer of it to the video game age should have been slightly more intresting.
Being an early CD-i title, hopes weren't very high for many innovations. These expectations were met however. A solid, exact representation of the original board game. To keep you in the WAR mood, they have stock footage of ships manuvering, firing weapons and shell hits & misses playing in the lower lefthand corner.. Pretty decent, albeit very small. Sometimes the looping of these files pauses gameplay. A major no-no. But, all in all a nice addition to break up the mediocre graphics.
Sound is pretty solid, no real music except for the intro and title page. Audio for the video plays over the game. Pretty straight forward horns, guns and waves sounds. Not too distracting or droning. Options for gameplay are nice. I usually chose one shot per ship. The other options are nice, but that way you're rewarded for strategy of layout of your ships, and for your shot accuracy. A really neat change. Control with the thumbstick is pretty clean, but all in all the mouse or game pad is reccomended.
To sum it up, this game is a faithful translation of the classic board game. No real bells and whistles (except in the video.. heh) but nothing to really keep this one from being a nice diversion. Reccomended for a fun game to play with a friend, or just to kill some time playing the computer.
From the Disc
Copyright: Copyright Philips Interactive Media of America 1991 and Capitol Multimedia
