North Atlantic '86

North Atlantic '86 was a computer war game covering a hypothetical conflict between NATO and the Soviet Union. Written by game author Gary Grigsby and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. it ran on the Apple II platform.

The game used the same basic program used by Grigsby's previous Guadalcanal Campaign and Bomb Alley, which were coded in the Applesoft BASIC language. Each turn represented twelve hours, but in North Atlantic '86 air and land combat could also take place at night instead of only during daytime turns. There were many other additional features, such as electronic warfare, missile attacks, and the ability to conduct multiple paratroop drops. The most important was the ability to not only overrun enemy bases, but use them after a short delay. This made the possession of Iceland especially valuable.

As in the previous two games, an AI "player" was available for one side only: the Soviets. NATO had to have a human player.

The game assumed that Warsaw Pact forces had successfully overrun most of Western Europe. The Soviets' next goal was to close the North Atlantic and starve Britain. Conversely, NATO was required to keep Britain supplied, primarily with ship convoys. The game assumed both sides would restrict the use of nuclear weapons to anti-submarine weapons only. There were four scenarios ranging from one convoy to Britain, up to a full campaign of several months.