Desert Fox

• Release Date: 1985
• Genre: Shooter
• Style: Vehicle Shooter
• Similar Games: Super Huey (Atari 7800), Super Huey (Atari ST), Super Huey (Commodore Amiga)

Game Description

In Desert Fox, the player adopts the role of an army commander responsible for various missions executed in a desert theatre of battle. The game offers a practice mode for the player to hone their skills against the various battles that will ensue.

The different modes of play, and hence practice sessions, include tank versus a strafing airplane, tank versus an enemy tank, tank maneuvering an enemy land mine field, tank navigating an ambush corridor (like the Star Wars assault on the Death Star), and finally, player manning dual cannons in an effort to protect a convoy from bomb-dropping airplanes.

The tank versus the strafing enemy airplanes and the enemy tank are exactly the same -- save for the enemy. In strafing airplanes, the layer is in the cockpit of the tank controlling its view in a 360-degree panorama. Radar at the bottom of the screen notifies the player of incoming enemies, and by swiveling the tank around, the player can line up the crosshairs and fire away. Points are gathered for every enemy airplane shot down. Damage is incurred when the enemy airplanes get progressively closer and strafe the player's tank. A damage bar is located at the bottom-center of the screen and gradually fills up the more hits a player takes. When the meter is full, the player is dead.

In tank battle, the player faces an enemy tank that glides in and out at the edge of the periphery. The enemy launches cannon balls that home in on the player,incurs damage and causes the damage meter to increase. The player can dodge the projectiles by swerving away from the shot, but the enemy tank also swerves away from the player's shot. As the player destroys more tanks, the player's score increases.

The minefield match puts the player back in the cockpit of the tank driving across a field littered with land mines. The player has a mounted gun that can shoot the land mines and thus disarm them. If one of the player's tank treads should roll over the top of a mine, damage is incurred, and the player dies when damage has reached the maximum. Points are scored by the tank's forward progression.

The fourth mode of play involves the player travelling down a corridor in the aforementioned tank. Enemy gun installations along either wall fly by as the player navigates the tank down the corridor. The player must destroy the installations by shooting them with the tank-mounted machine gun. As the number of guns the player misses increases, the more the damage the tank will suffer. The player scores points as gun installations are destroyed.

The final combat mode involves the player controlling two guns to shoot down hordes of incoming enemy aircraft intent on bombing the convoy slowly progressing along the bottom of the screen. The player scores points as the convoy trucks successfully complete the transition across the screen. The game is over when all convoys have successfully navigated the dangerous portion of the road or all convoys have been destroyed.

All of these practice modes are incorporated into campaigns. There are five difficulty levels within the campaign mode, with the difference being that the number of points needed to progress to the next mission is greater as the difficulty increases. Once all the missions have been completed and score targets attained, the player has won.

Roots & Influences

One of the first tank shooter sims, Desert Fox helped to introduce the concept of mission-based, first-person warfare.

Production Credits

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: German field marshal noted for brilliant generalship in North Africa during World War II (1891-1944)
  Synonyms: Rommel, Erwin Rommel

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