The Saddam Hussein Game

Title           The Saddam Hussein Game
Game Type       Shoot-em-up
Company         (C) 1991 by Dwagon Computers & Software, Littleton, CO
Players         1 or 2 (simultaneously)
Compatibility   A500 and (512k required, 1 megabyte recommended)
HD Installable  Yes
Submission      Brian C. Horner (nairbrian@hotmail.com)

Review
I ordered this brand-new over the internet in 2001, not long after the
terrorist attack on America of 9/11. It came from an auction on the
internet site "eBay.com", which is where people can all across the world
can bid on various items. The game was created & developed by a man named
Shawn Steele and it was a relative of his who was selling this. In fact,
the author asked me to let him know when/if I beat the game!

This must be one of the rarest titles for our beloved machine. The
packaging was very nice, although I was fooled when I opened the CD case
and was presented with a lone 3.5 disk inside. The reason for this, I was
told, is that they were a small company and this was the easiest/best way
to package the game.

Ever come upon a new CD release for a Windows PC? One where the disc is in
a case that doesn't have any identifying enclosures? I hate that - not
being able to know what a CD is until I look at the top of it. How about
the ones where they only gave you a cheap plastic envelope and you have to
get your own disc case. With all of the money spent for these items, you
think they could focus on this more instead of the unnecessary giant boxes
containing nothing much else.

Sorry about that little rant. Anyway, the front/back covers in the CD
holder for the game are nice. There's a drawing of Saddam on it
overlooking a battle scene; the title; and the game's requirements. Inside
the cover are instructions on how to load and the keyboard controls.
Opposite this is a listing of various items you will encounter. They are:

American flag: helps Iraq's neglected soldiers surrender
handcuffs: used to capture the enemy on touch
M16: your main weapon; a dark green M16 is empty
plastic explosives: used to destroy enemy installations
LAW: Light Anti-tank Weapon
gas mask: the colour indicates degree of contamination
yellow antropin injectors or red anthrax vaccinators
parachute: necessary to survive long falls
keys: for unlocking doors
spray-paint can: * SEE BELOW *
e-tool (shovel): used to dig

Those aren't the only things, of course. I've come upon grunting camels,
chanting crowds of people, enemy soldiers (obviously), jets, moving tanks,
and imprisoned POW's. I believe that there are over 100 screens; I haven't
gone far at all, so who knows what else I might encounter?

The disk was green and had a sticker with the same drawing mentioned
above. The back cover in the case tells us: "Your mission is to find
Saddam Hussein and arrest him so that he can be tried for war crimes. You
are armed with an M16 assault rifle, six 30-round clips of ammunition, a
parachute, 10 plastic explosives, one LAW, and a gas mask. In addition to
finding Saddam, you should destroy any military targets you may find,
avoiding civilian installations if at all possible. You should avoid
capture and rescue any allied POWs that you may encounter. If captured
yourself, resist by any means available."

When the game opens, there is a title sequence lasting a couple minutes
which describes the real events from late 1990 and early 1991 concerning
our war with Iraq. It is printed letter by letter in the middle of the
screen, surrounded by many black/white photographs of the events of that
time and is well-done.

Although you are destroying things, this is surely not the worst in
violent software. The enemy do give a quick yell when killed, but there's
no blood or body/parts remaining. It should be mentioned that only one hit
is needed to stop a soldier.

Speaking of them, the Iraqi soldiers must have been involved in some
secret experiments on themselves that have resulted in the capability to
spontaneously regenerate. Kill 'em all on the screen and, within a few
seconds, the same ones are back in the identical starting position. Let's
hope that, should America attack Iraq again, our troops won't have to
contend with that. Fortunately, there always seems to be a lot of ammo
around.

There's even humour: I came across a painting of the dictator, and picked
up a can of spray paint which I used just to vandalize. No points will
be earned, but you might enjoy just splattering his likeness with green
goop.

It's rather silly that you just walk through an aircraft to have it
obliterated. Surely it would have been more interesting to have grenades
at your disposal or the ability to use remote detonators.

You'll discover that you are quite resilient. None of the explosions will
harm you. Things that will are: falling without a parachute; taking a
bullet (unfortunately, one hit is also all it takes to stop you); or
inhaling too much poisonous gas. I'm pretty sure that being run over by a
tank will be deleterious too, and that there will be other unpleasant
surprises as one gets further into the mission. Shooting harmless folk or
animals will take off some points.

This is not a game with incredible graphics, but I did enjoy it and I am
wanting to go further and further. I think that a choice of difficulty
would be good. It's always the same, and I would place it at slightly
above medium. Unfortunately, there is no capability to save your position.

In light of the recent events, the desirability of the game can be hard to
place. Since it deals with terrorism, it may turn some off who don't want
to think about the 9/11 events or what may happen in the future. However,
now that President Bush is planning to oust Hussein (who has taken over
Osama Bin Laden's spot as 'public enemy number 1'), game players might
like to take a virtual try at joining the fight against terrorism.

At least in this game, the goal is to arrest Hussein (as I think it should
be)...not kill him.

In order to get this working best on my expanded A1200, I just used the
"KillAGA" degrading tool in conjunction with the executable.

Hmmm. I just heard on the news (9/27/2002) that Saddam has at least three
surgically-altered imitators of him; the 'Saddam' was on Iraqi TV and
there was question as to whether or not it was the real guy. So, once you
get hold of Hussein, you had best go back and do it a few more times. (:

"Will the real Saddam Hussein please stand up?"


2/2/2002; TESTED ON A1200/68030@40mhz/32 megs fast RAM

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