METROPOLITAN ATTACK!
Uncredited, but probably by Dale Low
ARCADIAN 6, no. 11 (Oct. 31, 1984): 110.
Comments by Adam Trionfo and Paul Thacker


This program appeared in the ARCADIAN newsletter with no author or instructions 
listed.  The game has not been found on any tapes, so I decided to type it in 
using TXT2PRG, KCS and 300 BAUD TO 2000 BAUD TAPE CONVERTER (from the 
"AstroBASIC" manual).

When the game runs, it looks very similar to the hand-drawn "screenshot" of 
Astrogames' METRO ATTACK on tape A1:

http://www.ballyalley.com/documentation/reviews/Astrogames_Review/images/Astrog
ames%20Ad%20(Arcadian_vol_6_issue_4_page_032).gif

Yup, as can be seen from the above picture, this is a MISSILE COMMAND clone.

Michael Prosise reviews the game (briefly) in his December 1983 Game Player 
column:

"Metro Attack. Three cheers for Dale Low! This is a game I could really get 
excited about! It is the best MISSILE COMMAND simulation I have ever seen. It 
contains selectable levels, turns, players, bonus energy points, whew! In 
short, this game has it all! My personal favorite."

METROPOLITAN ATTACK! doesn't seem to have selectable levels or players, so 
maybe this program is slightly different from the tape release of the game.


Comments from Paul Thacker:

Thanks for typing it in. It seems to work well, and is a solid game on top of 
that.

Having read everything I could find on METRO ATTACK by Astrogames, which is a 
surprisingly large amount, I think METROPOLITAN ATTACK is almost certainly by 
Dale Low / Astrogames, but I tend to think that it's a different version. Here 
are some differences:

1) The Niagara review says it has selectable levels, turns, and players, but 
the only thing you select in this is the number of bases (lives).

2) The Arcadian review in volume 6, page 7 (which also calls it "METRO ATTACK 
1988", presumably predicting a nuclear war in a few years) says you shoot from 
five bases, but this one only has three. But maybe that's an error in the 
review, since it does draw five bases. Or even a bug in the code. Hard to say.

3) It's advertised as using machine language routines in Arcadian volume 5, 
page 172, and Niagara page 12. I don't see anything like this in the printed 
code in the Arcadian listing.


Archiving Notes, by Adam Trionfo


Here's some additional information about METROPOLITAN ATTACK! And some of the 
archiving process:

1) Load the game with :INPUT;RUN

2) I spent some time figuring out how to make a title screen using the article 
"Title Screen Instructions" from the April 1983 Arcadian newsletter.  This is 
pretty time consuming... but it works.  I don't know if I'll do this again for 
other programs.

3) The game handle controls your missile cursor and the trigger fires a 
missile.  The Knob controls from which base you shoot (left, middle, right).  
This works pretty well, so my guess is that using the division sign on line 100 
was correct.  The only downside is that there is no indication from which base 
you'll be shooting-- you have to get used to the position of the knob to know 
your firing-base location.

4) You can run out of missiles from each base, so you do need to shoot from 
different bases.

5) If you score around 400-600 points than you get a bonus base (life) and you 
get a fuel bonus (but I don't know what that is-- maybe it is points... I 
didn't notice).

6) When the game is over, then you exit back to BASIC.  This is normal, as I 
checked the program's flow.  You can restart the game from BASIC without 
issues.

This is a pretty good game-- certainly one of the more fun type-in games that 
I've seen.