Scorched Tanks
What is it?
My story goes like this… I played about five games of Scorched Earth over at a friend's house in early 1992, and it was the first game I'd ever seen for the PC was better than anything I knew of on my beloved Amiga. Since I was a hardcore Amiga fan, I accepted the challenge of making an equivelant artillery game for my favorite system. Scorched Tanks was released in Fall of 1993, and it was far more popular than I had ever imagined possible.
The main reason Scorched Tanks was better than Scorched Earth is that I didn't own a PC at the time. I had no way to go back and compare my work to the original, so I created what I 'thought' was a Scorched Earth look-a-like. But the joke was on me, and Scorched Tanks was a lot better because of it. :) But it's not all my doing… the initial game generated thousands of e-mails and suggestions from Scorched Tanks fans all over the world, and I improved the game to their liking. So in a years time, the game evolved into something that was much greater than anything I could develop alone.—Michael P. Welch
Dr DJ Wickeeeed of the DJ magazine, covered by Amiga Power September 1994, had the following to say about Scorched Tanks:
Yo! This funkily grooving 10–120 spm (shots per minute) blasterama, a remixed, revamped and rejuvenated 12-inch hardcore version of the classic Tanks, provides extra killingly hip weapons and seriously burnin' effects but the overall effect barely improves on the original's bumpingly grinding playability.
The rythm and melody remain essentially untouched—up to four awesomely smokin' tanks take it in turns to fire heavy ammo at each other, having to decide the angle of the gun turret, the force of the blast and what sort of missile to use whwn they shee-oooot.
Does remix improve groove? No way, San Tropez. Changes minimal—up to four tanks instead of just two about the best. While non-detracting from the primeval playability of the shatteringly shootworthy original, the new stuff just ain't worth a wink. Pointlessly needless exercisingly expendable.
Time has proven Dr DJ Wickeeeed wrong and Michael Welch right. Scorched Tanks became the most popular artillery game on the Amiga. What I do wonder is, what is this classic Tanks! game the reviewer mentions? Gary Roberts, the author of Tanx, cites it as his main inspiration and suggests you have lived under a stone if you haven't heard of it, yet it has vanished without a trace.
