Game series: Battle Isle
This was meant to go up yesterday, but we had an opportunity to visit some friends and spend a pleasant day socializing. So today it is then: My first post delving into a game series. All photos are taken from my Amiga. They may be a bit janky since I was just pointing my phone at the screen, I’ll work on finding a better way to do this or use emulation for screenshots.
While I enjoy many types of games on the Amiga, my favorite types of games have always been strategy games and the Amiga was lucky enough to get a host of good-to-great titles, so let’s talk about Battle Isle!
Developed by the German company Blue Byte, Battle Isle is a series that was made available on multiple platforms but many things about it feels right at home on the Amiga:
Unlike many strategy games at the time (often conversions of DOS games) it did not rely on menus or keyboard commands but was played with a joystick. The graphics were colorful and clear with little tanks and helicopters instead of NATO icons and the game was set in a futuristic setting (though it resembles “present” day warfare more than anything, with aircraft carriers and bombers).
The most interesting feature is that it is designed from the ground up as a two player game in split screen mode. When you boot up the game, it automatically sets you up to play with a friend and you have to enter a level code to play single player. Even in single player mode, you are still playing in split screen mode: While you give your movement orders, the enemy gives their attack orders and then it reverses.
The game is easy enough to get to grips with and the logic that underpins combat is intuitive and straightforward. The inclusion of experience is a core feature that many strategy games omitted at the time: Units become stronger with experience and repairing a few veteran tanks can easily be a key to breaking an enemy offensive.
Unlike many strategy games at the time (but perhaps anticipating the future rise of the RTS genre) some maps even allow construction of new troops, but maps are limited to a fixed amount of “energy” so you can never rely on a completely attritional strategy.
The biggest criticisms I can give of the games is that the controls can feel a little stodgy at times: While it is never difficult to carry out any action, its easy to wish for a mouse interface.
The AI is pretty weak, mostly relying on headlong rushes at your positions. This is made up for by the single player maps giving the AI much stronger forces which makes the scenarios very fun to play through.
As far as the Amiga is concerned, there were four titles (though the post-Amiga releases were generally quite good as well):
The original Battle Isle game, Air Land Sea, Battle Isle 93 and Historyline 1914–18. All are playable using WHDLoad.
The original game is a great place to start: The difficulty curve is pretty modest and the game does a good job teaching you how to use each type of unit, without ever really having a tutorial as such.
Air Land Sea is also referred to as Data Disk 1. The impression I have is that it was sold as an expansion disk: It changes the graphics slightly and features a new set of more difficult maps. While I like the visuals of Air Land Sea better than the original game, I wouldn’t start here. From the first map, it really assumes you have mastered the game.
Battle Isle 93 also gets listed as “Moon of Chromos” and “Data Disk 2”. It may have been released under different titles, so I used the title on the box I have. This updates the units, adds several new ones and changes the graphics to fight over a moody moon-scape. The battles also get a lot bigger. It is still basically the same game, but I’ll admit, I like this one better overall. It is fairly difficult though.
Finally Historyline was a spin-off title, transferring the mechanics to the first world war. This is a very lavish game (distributed on 7 floppy disks no less) with historical information presented after every battle and lets you play as the French (standing in for the Entente) or the Germans (standing in for the Central Powers). One of my favorite games of all time, I might add.
So there you have it: A brief overview of the Battle Isle series, as it pertain to the Amiga computer. An excellent strategy series with a ton to offer to the patient warmonger.
For personal achievement purposes, I have played through and completed the single player missions of the first Battle Isle as well as the French campaign in Historyline.
