A group of mercenaries called the Mercenary Alliance has seized oil fields in the Middle East and northern Africa. As the U.N. hems and haws, the countries whose oil fields have been taken form a group called the Small Country Alliance (no shortage of alliances around here!) and prepare to solve the problem themselves. They hire an elite team to help them, consisting of one communications expert, several explosives experts, and one helicopter pilot. The team's mission: To disrupt the Mercenary Alliance's operations until the U.N. gets around to sending in troops to reclaim the fields. You are the helicopter pilot on the team. You will receive instructions from your communications guy, and carry out your orders. Sometimes, you will get to use explosives experts on your missions.

Cobra Gunship is a side-view scroller helicopter game in the style of classics like Choplifter and Armor Alley. This is no mere remake, however. Cobra Gunship is a completely new game, taking advantage of fast processors and fast video to provide an immersive, explosive gaming experience.

You, our intrepid hero, pilot an AH-1A Cobra helicopter at the behest of the Small Country Alliance, a coalition of Middle East countries joined to fight the invading Mercenary Alliance which seeks to take control of their oil fields. After completing a mission assignment and foiling the advances of the Mercenary Alliance, you can upgrade your chopper with more advanced armor and weapons in anticipation of yet more formidable enemy forces.

Cobra Gunship features many mission objectives, ranging from destroying enemy forces to rescuing stranded troops to protecting friendly buildings. Additionally, the missions need not be completed in a strict linear order -- at any one time there are typically several fronts on which the Small Country Alliance needs your help!

Cobra Gunship virtually explodes onto your computer with 640x480 256-color graphics at 30 frames per second, up to 32 simultaneous sounds, with active stereo panning, with CD-quality sound if your computer can handle it! Cobra Gunship has wildly addictive game-play, as our reviewers attest! Cobra Gunship now supports our freely available Java-based mission editor. The registered version of Cobra Gunship allows you to play external missions, so you'll be able to cook up your own levels to challenge yourself or foil others.

Technical Specifications

• 31 missions in a non-linear mission tree, with widely varied objectives.
• 4 primary weapons with unlimited ammunition: machine guns, vulcan cannon, lasers, and flame throwers.
• 7 secondary weapons with limited (restockable) ammunition: bombs, rockets, floating mines, drop rockets, scatter bombs, heat-seaking missiles, and napalm.
• 4 armor, engine, and special upgrades.
• 19 distinct enemies with unique behavior.
• Over 1,000 frames of animated helicopters, soldiers, trucks, and other implements of modern warfare.
• Particle-based explosions.
• 47 movie-quality 16-bit sound effects.
• 640x480 256-color graphics.
• Custom audio mixer supporting up to 32 channels of 16-bit stereo sounds mixed at up to 44.1 kHz and active stereo panning.
• Audio and video engines can be configured to run on many lower-end machines, while still taking advantage of the extra power that faster machines offer.
• Configurable support for joystick, keyboard, or mouse control.