Ludography
Arcticfox cover

1986 · First-person shooter · Science

Arcticfox

It's up to you. Alien invaders have landed in Antarctica and are plotting the extinction of the human race. You alone must infiltrate the frigid enemy territory and rid the world of this awesome nemesis. Your machine?

Released
1986
Platforms
AmigaAmstrad CPCApple IIAtari STAtari ST/STECommodore 64Commodore C64/128/MAXMS-DOSMSXPC-9800 SeriesZX Spectrum
Genres
First-person shooterScienceSimulation
Developers
—
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
First person
Themes
ActionScience fictionWarfare
Country
United States
Languages
English

About

Arcticfox is a science fiction tank simulation video game developed by Dynamix and published by Electronic Arts in 1986. It was published in Europe by Ariolasoft.

Keywords

  • tank simulator
  • tank
  • airplane
  • alien invasion

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player must pilot the tank into enemy territory with the goal of knocking out the alien base. The player uses the tank's abilities to destroy the aliens' ships and equipment. The Arcticfox tank is equipped with a cannon, guided missiles, land mines, and is outfitted with radar, a GPS device, and fore and aft viewscreens. The player fights a variety of enemy units including planes, tanks, bunkers and communication towers.

The vantage point for the game is the cockpit of the Arcticfox tank. The player can see out of the main viewscreen as well as the tank's sundry features such as the radar screen. The view also shows the character's hand on the joystick which moves in accordance with the tank's movements. Enemy targets are visible on the view screens and on radar.

Reception

Roy Wagner, writing for Computer Gaming World, called Arcticfox "the first original new [EA game] that uses the distinctive features of the Amiga", calling the graphics and sound "Sensational!". It advised using a joystick instead of the mouse. In 1996, the magazine ranked the Amiga version of Arcticfox as the 138th best game of all time, calling it "the seminal 3D polygon-based shooter".

Compute! also praised the Amiga version, and stated that the game would appeal to those who enjoyed both strategy and arcade action.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Amiga6 February 1986North America
Apple II9 October 1986North America
Commodore C64/128/MAX13 November 1986North America
Atari ST/STE18 June 1987North America
MS-DOS18 June 1987North America
PC-9800 Series19 August 1988Japan
Amstrad CPC31 December 1988Europe
ZX Spectrum31 December 1988Europe
MSX31 December 1989Europe

Games like this

Collections4 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.