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.
Read more about North Atlantic '86: Game Details
Famous quotes containing the words north and/or atlantic:
“Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“All the morning we had heard the sea roar on the eastern shore, which was several miles distant.... It was a very inspiriting sound to walk by, filling the whole air, that of the sea dashing against the land, heard several miles inland. Instead of having a dog to growl before your door, to have an Atlantic Ocean to growl for a whole Cape!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)