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Best helicopter games on GamesNostalgia

Games about flying a helicopter are something very unique to the 1980s and early 90s. From arcade shooters to first-person simulations, you have it all.

One of the earliest helicopter games was Dan Gorlin's Choplifter! for the Apple II. It was a simple 2D side-scrolling game, but the graphics and its realistic action made it feel like a movie. This inspired the development of Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf. It was a less linear game with multiple objectives across isometric levels. Another popular side-scrolling arcade, Silkworm, featured a helicopter and a jeep, a great example of co-op gameplay.

Games like Gunship were more aimed at simulation. You would sit in a detailed cockpit of an AH-64 Apache helicopter. You would need to move around the obstacles carefully. And select appropriate weapons depending on your targets while evading enemy fire. The details made it the best 8-bit combat flight simulator ever.

When it was released in 1992, Comanche: Maximum Overkill became the new standard for helicopter simulation. Games became more cinematic and action-packed. But still contain a tremendous amount of realistic detail, just like the classics.

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf amigagenesis

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf is an action-shooter helicopter game created by Electronic Arts and released in 1992 for the Mega Drive, Genesis, SNES and ported to Amiga in 1993.

Year: 1993 Genre: Shooter

birds-eye view genesis original game helicopter isometric middle east military multi-directional shooter war

Jungle Strike genesisamiga

Jungle Strike is an action/shooter game with strategy elements created by Electronic Arts originally for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The game is the sequel to Desert Strike: Retu...

Year: 1993 Genre: Shooter

genesis original game helicopter jungle multi-directional shooter

Silkworm amiga

Silkworm is a side-scrolling shooter arcade developed by Tecmo and released initially in 1988. In 1989 the game was ported to Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum by Random Access.

Year: 1989 Genre: Shooter

2 players arcade co-op coin-op conversion h-scrolling shoot-em up helicopter shooter side-scrolling

Jane's Combat Simulations: Longbow 2 windows

Jane's Combat Simulations: Longbow 2 is a helicopter simulation game developed by Origin Systems and released by Electronic Arts in 1997 for PC. As you can imagine, it is the seque...

Year: 1997 Genre: Simulation

helicopter simulation vehicular combat simulator war

Hunter amiga

Hunter is a 3D action-adventure created by Paul Holmes and published by Activision in 1991 for the Amiga and Atari ST. It is considered the first successful example of a "sandbox" video game based on free-roaming in a 3d environment.

Year: 1991 Genre: Action

3d action-adventure amiga original game helicopter naval sandbox tank virtual world watercraft

Gunship 2000 amiga

Gunship 2000 is a helicopter combat flight simulator created by MicroProse as a sequel to Gunship. Available vehicles include the AH-1 Cobra, AH-64 Apache, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, MD 530MG, and UH-60 Blackhawk.

Year: 1993 Genre: Simulation

aga amiga cd32 combat flight simulation helicopter simulation vehicular combat simulator

007: Licence to Kill dosamiga

007: Licence to Kill is an arcade shooter developed by Quixel and published by Domark limited in December 1989. The game is based on the hit James Bond movie of the same name and follows through with the movie plot.

Year: 1989 Genre: Shooter

espionage ham mode helicopter licensed movies multi-type naval shooter spy v-scrolling shoot-em up watercraft

Comanche: Maximum Overkill dos

Comanche: Maximum Overkill is the first game of a series of flight sims created by NovaLogic. Published in 1992 for DOS only, the main feature is the usage of the NovaLogic's Voxel...

Year: 1992 Genre: Simulation

combat flight simulation flight sim helicopter simulation vehicular combat simulator voxel

Choplifter! commodore-64sega-master-systemapple-iiatari-5200

Choplifter! is a helicopter simulator/action-adventure created by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published in 1982 by Brøderbund. The game was converted to Atari 8-bit, VIC-20, C...

Year: 1983 Genre: Arcade

apple 2 original game arcade cinematic h-scrolling shoot-em up helicopter military vehicular combat simulator

Zeewolf amiga

Zeewolf is a 3D helicopter shooter developed and published by Binary Asylum in 1994 for the Amiga. It was the premier game for Binary Asylum and was a success for the company. The ...

Year: 1994 Genre: Shooter

amiga original game helicopter shooter vehicular combat simulator

Thunder Blade amiga

Thunder Blade is an arcade released by Sega originally in 1987 where the player has to control an helicopter, the Gunship Gladiator, to destroy all enemies using guns and missiles and defeat the dictator.

Year: 1988 Genre: Shooter

arcade coin-op conversion helicopter shooter transport

Raid on Bungeling Bay commodore-64

Raid on Bungeling Bay is a helicopter shooter game created by Will Wright for the Commodore 64 and published by Broderbund in 1984. The game was also ported to the NES and MSX (apparently, there was also a coin-op in Japan).

Year: 1984 Genre: Shooter

c64 original game commodore 64 helicopter multi-directional shooter top-down

Jetstrike amiga

Jetstrike is an arcade shooter created by Shadow Software and published in 1994 by Rasputin for the Amiga and Amiga CD32. The authors of the game - Aaron and Adam Fothergill - had ...

Year: 1994 Genre: Shooter

aga amiga original game amos aviation helicopter hotseat multi-directional multiplayer shooter war

Gunship amiga

Gunship is a combat flight simulator created by MicroProse Software and released initially for the Commodore 64 in 1986. Later it was ported to PC, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, and other platforms.

Year: 1989 Genre: Simulation

3d c64 original game combat flight simulation commodore 64 first-person helicopter military polygons simulation vehicular combat simulator