ABRAMS BATTLE TANK 

 In the computer gaming world, the late 1980s will probably be
remembered as the age of simulators. Ever since the groundbreaking
release of Microsoft's FLIGHT SIMULATOR, we've been deluged with
products that simulate everything from WWII aircraft to submarines. 
Until 1989, the tank was ignored, but now there are a number of
major tank simulators led by Dynamix's ABRAMS BATTLE TANK. (This
review is based on the IBM-PC version.) 

 ABRAMS BATTLE TANK is a simulation of the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle
tank that currently serves as the front-line tank in the U.S. 
arsenal. The most expensive tank ever built, the Abrams includes
thermal sighting, laser rangefinding, a turbine engine that runs on
virtually anything flammable, and a 120mm smoothbore cannon
connected to an advanced stabilization system that gives the Abrams
a fire-on-the-move capability exceeding the accuracy of many older
tanks at a full stop. The tank has a four-man crew and three machine
guns, in addition to the cannon. 

 To simplify life, the Dynamix design team made several
compromises: First, they eliminated two of the machine guns, leaving
the coaxial gun. Since they wanted to include the Soviet Hind-D
helicopter (perhaps the most deadly opponent the Abrams might
face), they invented an experimental "AX" anti-air round to give the
tank a means of engaging air targets. Lastly, the loader's position
was eliminated, leaving the player responsible only for driving the
tank and firing the guns. 

 The player runs the tank from four different screens: gunner's
station, tank commander's station, cupola, and driver's station. The
best view is available from the cupola, but you can't do much up
there besides look and steer. You must be at the gunner's station to
fire the weapons, but your vision is restricted to the turret's
facing. The driver's position displays fuel-remaining and engine
temperature status, but since the commander's station also has a
fuel guage, you need spend time here only if you're keeping a close
eye on the temperature. The commander's station offers 360-degree
vision, a damage report screen, and a map of the area. 

 Commands are single keystrokes. There is a joystick interface that
provides movement control and allows you to fire the cannon once
you've locked it on target. The gunner's display includes the
weapons targeting system, which must be activated with the Enter
key: Repeated keypresses cycle through all available targets, as the
systems display lists the target ID and range. The range display is
color-coded to indicate the probability of achieving a hit (based on
range and the type of shell you've loaded). Once you've decided on a
target, "L" locks the system on, and the turret automatically trains
to follow your selected victim. After the system has locked on and a
shell has been loaded, the space bar fires the cannon. After
firing, the cannon is automatically reloaded with whichever type of
ammunition you last fired. 

 There are three types of ammunition available: HEAT rounds, sabot
rounds, and the above-mentioned AX round (which takes somewhat
longer to load than the other types). The sabot is the round of
choice against armored targets, while HEAT rounds are more useful
for infantry-wielding ATGM's and structures. You can specify the
shell mix at the beginning of the scenario, with any combination up
to (a total of) 40 shells of all types. In addition to the main gun
rounds, you have 80 rounds for the coaxial machine gun (which is
useful against infantry and command vehicles), and four smoke
cannisters that dramatically reduce the effectiveness of enemy tanks
lacking thermal sights. The M1A1 actually has both cannisters and a
smoke generator attached to the engine, but the latter has been
removed for simplicity. 

 During play, the game is very busy. You must switch frequently
between the gunner's position and the commander's position to keep
track of enemy targets and your current position. Enemy ATGMs
present little threat to the Chobham armor of an M1 -- that is, 
unless you let them get too close or move onto your more vulnerable
flanks. Each time your tank is hit by an enemy round, the screen
flashes red, and you receive a report regarding the bearing of the
impact. This can save you a lot of guesswork in the middle of a
firefight, but it also momentarily obscures the gunner's viewport. 
When you run low on fuel or shells, or become heavily damaged, you
can return to base to reload and repair. This is one of the
abstractions I dislike about the game, because any and all damage is
magically repaired in zero time at the base -- assuming, of course, 
you can coax your damaged tank back there. (Turning tail on a live
enemy can be hazardous to your health.) 

 The graphics are of the simple polygonal-fill variety. My primary
system is a Turbo XT-clone with CGA, so I find these quite
tolerable, since highly detailed graphics slow my poor machine down
to winter molasses speed. However, if you play on a 386 computer
with super-VGA, don't expect a high degree of detail. The program
runs on IBM PCs and clones (incuding the PS/2s, and Tandy 1000, 
3000, and 4000 systems), and requires CGA or EGA, 512K RAM, and DOS
2.0 or higher. 

 ABRAMS BATTLE TANK comes with eight scenarios that can be played
singly or in random order as part of a campaign. You may set the
level of play to novice (practically like an arcade game), 
moderate, or expert (downright nasty at times). You can also adjust
the speed of play during the scenario. The missions range from
simple search-and-destroy to escort. Each scenario begins with a
briefing from your CO (Colonel Wilson), and ends with his review of
your performance, along with a list of all of the targets you
destroyed and a numeric rating. Be careful about what you shoot at
in the field, however: The Colonel gets pretty peeved if you destroy
any allied vehicles.... 

 Unfortunately, I have problems with a few of the game's design
decisions. It'd be hard to call a simulator complete that didn't
provide helicopters, but the idea of trying to track and fire on a
helicopter with a tank's main gun is somewhat hard to swallow. I'd
have preferred it if they'd either added the Commander's machine gun
(which is the primary defense against helicopters), or omitted the
Hind altogether. Also, the instant repair-and-reload feature is
troubling. What are the enemy AFVs doing while you refuel and
reload? If you're allowed to take time out of the middle of a
firefight to reload, they should be permitted to redeploy forward, 
set up ambushes, and possibly be reinforced. Not pleasant, but war
is hell. Finally, every time you change positions there's a disk
access. It'd be nice if the product used extended memory for
stashing the graphic overlays when possible. Apart from these
criticisms, I enjoyed playing ABRAMS BATTLE TANK. 

 ABRAMS BATTLE TANK is published by Dynamix and distributed by
Electronic Arts. 

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253