Rescue
You are the pilot of a helicopter flying over dangerous waters. Your mission is to rescue a varying number of paratroopers from the water below and you must do this before they are eaten by sharks. Beware of enemy submarines, ships and helicopters. You must avoid or destroy them. After have have rescued a certain number of paratroopers, you must let them off safely on an island. The game uses multi-level parallax scrolling to give the illusion of depth. The game may have even been the inspiration for Choplifter.
SCREENSHOTS
HISTORY
Rescue is a twin-stick shooter arcade video game designed by Chris Oberth and released by Stern Electronics in 1982. The player flies a helicopter over the open sea to rescue stranded paratroopers from enemy forces and sharks. As the player-controlled helicopter flies left and right, the cloud layers move at different rates, giving a parallax scrolling effect.
Gameplay
The player pilots a helicopter over a body of water. Paratroopers drop from the top of the screen and land in the water. They can be picked up by carefully hovering so a short ladder drops, and they climb in. Being slightly too low and touching the water loses a life. A falling paratrooper is killed if it hits the player's helicopter.
Enemy helicopters attack the player and can be shot by moving the second joystick. The falling wreckage is deadly. A "bomb" button releases a projectile straight down for destroying sharks and submarines targeting paratroopers waiting for rescue.
Reception
Electronic Games reviewed Rescue in 1982. The reviewer commented: "With Rescue, everything ties together in a neat package that's not only fun to play, but increasingly challenging the further you're able to go into the mission."
References
1CC RUNS
One-credit clears we point to as the benchmark for this game.