Airborne Ranger

Airborne Ranger is an action game created by MicroProse initially in 1987 for the Commodore 64. It was later ported to MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum.

The Amiga and ST versions, released in 1989, were developed by Imagitec Design.

Lawrence Schick was the game designer for this game. He is also known for F-15 Strike Eagle, and most importantly, he co-authored the first D&D Dungeons Masters Guide with legendary Gary Gygax.

MicroProse was famous for simulation games, but for Airborne Ranger, they launched a new genre defined as "action-simulation." You will have to guide your ranger during several missions behind the enemy lines. Munitions will be scarce (so this is clearly not a shoot 'em up), and a lot of stealth will be required to avoid minefields, enemy soldiers, and traps. It's not Metal Gear, but you can try to find the similarities if you want.

Interestingly, if your ranger is captured, you can start another mission with a new ranger to try to save him. I like this idea a lot.

The Amiga version that we present here could have been better. It's true, the visuals are improved, but apart from this, the developers didn't make much effort to use the machine hardware properly. In any case, this is an exciting and original game.