Chopper Commando - MS-DOS

My old favorite. This simple chopper game has multiple missions, sarcastic dialogues and beautiful 4-color graphics. Using bombs, missiles and atomic bombs from your helicopter, you must complete missions to deliver documents, collect lost capsules, intercept other helicopters, planes and cruise missiles, and destroy some strange-looking tanks and various enemy buildings. It is possible to eject from a damaged helicopter (automatic ejection activates when the landing gear is raised) and wait for a new one to be sent from the home base, as well as throw grenades when you walk outside the helicopter. There are three difficulty levels that differ only in the number of bombs carried, as well as three mission categories (easy, regular, and hard), each with five unique missions that are selected randomly before each flight. In addition to changing the main objective, the mission number also determines which enemies will be on the map: for example, there are helicopters on three screens, but not all of them are present in some easier missions. The documentation for version 2.0 mentions that for $ 5 the author will send you the source code for version 2.5 which adds five new missions in the new "Very Difficult" category, but was never distributed compiled and had no permission to mass distribute or upload to BBS. Author Mark Currie was kind enough to send me a compiled copy and the source code for version 2.56, and this may be the only site that has them. I used source code to fix bugs and typos, change the behavior of one of the secret areas, and make the sky blue during day missions (few CGA games have used the ability to change the background color from the default black). The variety of missions and difficulty levels makes the game interesting for players of all ages, and the popularity of the game is all the more impressive as it was written by a 15-year-old.