THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE



DESERT RATS



PUBLISHER

Cases Computer Systems



AUTHOR(S)

R.T. Smith



YEAR

1985



CATALOGUE NUMBER



CATEGORY

Strategy



DESCRIPTIION

Desert Rats is a war game.



CONTROLS

Self explanatory (menu driven - the 1st letter of each word in

the menu selects that command).



INSTRUCTIONS



ORIGINAL INLAY CARD TEXT



HINTS/CHEATS



SEQUELS/PREQUELS

This was the second game in a series of 3, the first being

Arnhem, and the third Vulcan.



SCORES RECEIVED



REVIEWS



URLS



GENERAL FACTS

'Desert Rats' Deals with the World War II campaign in Libya and

Egypt from 1941 to 1943 (Germany and Italy (Rommel) VS Britain

(Montgomery)). The Scenarios are: Enter Rommel, Battleaxe,

Operation Crusader, The battle of Gazala, El Alamein and The

Desert war (all the above combined). Unit types involved are

given in the top right corner of the scrolling map. The status

of Malta can be changed which affects supply status (Historical

- British recieve more, Operation Herkules - Axis receive more,

not used as a base - no advantage to either side).  The desert

war scenario lasts 624 turns and takes about 18 hours to play

(thankfully there is a save game option!). Axis & Allied sides

are fairly evenly matched (the quality of the Axis is superior

to the Allies (except the Italians!) with the quantity of

equipment in favour of the Allies). The Axis task is either to

wipe out the Allies or capture Alexandria (the British base)

while the Allies need to wipe out the Axis forces.





NOTES

There are expanded 128k versions available of this game which has

additional sounds and scenarios (but are essentially the same).



The main attraction of these games over the run of the mill

strategy wargame is the system used to order units (simple and

effective but complex enough sums it up nicely) and the superb

graphics (for a wargame - based on squares rather than hexes).



The only really annoying feature of both games is that units are

taken away without warning sometimes (and if they were in a

strategic position...).















































