{"id":183,"date":"2007-07-12T20:24:21","date_gmt":"2007-07-13T01:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=183"},"modified":"2019-09-17T14:35:20","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T19:35:20","slug":"great-moments-in-shareware-scorched-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/183\/great-moments-in-shareware-scorched-earth","title":{"rendered":"Great Moments in Shareware:<\/span> Scorched Earth<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scorched<\/p>\n

Sixteen years after its humble emergence in the golden age of the BBS<\/a>, Wendell Hicken’s timeless 1991 artillery simulation remains a hallmark in shareware<\/a> history. Scorched Earth<\/em> stands as nothing less than a masterpiece in the field of computer games.<\/p>\n

With its numerous gameplay settings, variable computer AI, and an impressive variety of entertaining power-ups, Scorched Earth<\/em> possesses nearly infinite replay value. It’s also one of the greatest party games ever devised: up to ten players can take turns plotting the explosive demise of their closest friends at the hands of a Nuke, MIRV, or Death’s Head over as many as 1000 rounds. As a testament to the pure strategy of the game, veterans skilled in the ways of Scorch<\/em> know the best ways to dispatch foes — or merely survive as others duke it out — under any circumstance, rain or shine, springy walls or rubber.<\/p>\n

\"Title<\/a> \"Tank<\/a> \"Weapon<\/a> \"Game<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

Many of today’s game designers seem envious of Scorch’s<\/em> ability to consistently entertain for over a decade. Fans of Hicken’s classic have attempted modern remakes of or improvements upon Scorched Earth<\/em>, but to this day, none has even begun to approach the solid feel, intricate balance, or professional production values of the original. That’s how good it is.<\/p>\n

Hicken didn’t invent the artillery game; he perfected it. And as long as our computers run without smoking, we’ll still be playing the original Scorched Earth<\/em> as good Wendell intended.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Scorched Earth 1.5<\/strong><\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Release Date:<\/font><\/strong><\/small><\/td>\n1991 (1.0), 1995 (1.5)<\/font><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Author:<\/font><\/strong><\/small><\/td>\nWendell T. Hicken (aka “Sprig”)<\/font><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Platform:<\/font><\/strong><\/small><\/td>\nMS-DOS<\/font><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Runs Best On:<\/font><\/strong><\/small><\/td>\nAny 286 or 386 PC with 640K+ RAM and a VGA card<\/font><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Notes:
<\/font><\/strong><\/small><\/td>\n		Amazingly, Scorched Earth<\/em> runs pretty well on modern computers under Windows. If the game seems too fast, adjust the in-game “Firing Delay” setting (under “Hardware”). You might also want to try running the game under DOSBox<\/a>. The game uses the PC speaker for sound.<\/font><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
– Download Scorched Earth 1.5<\/em> – (633KB)<\/a><\/font><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sixteen years after its humble emergence in the golden age of the BBS, Wendell Hicken’s timeless 1991 artillery simulation remains a hallmark in shareware history. Scorched Earth stands as nothing less than a masterpiece in the field of computer games. With its numerous gameplay settings, variable computer AI, and an impressive variety of entertaining power-ups, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,37,7,13,39],"tags":[258,439,133,437,426,438,436],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bbs-history","category-computer-games","category-computer-info-and-history","category-video-game-info-and-history","category-great-moments-in-shareware","tag-258","tag-artillery-game","tag-ibm-pc","tag-scorched-earth","tag-shareware","tag-tanks","tag-wendell-hicken"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2662,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/2662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}