Terrorist

Terrorist is a real-time, two-player strategy game developed by Steven Pederson of Edu-Ware Services for the Apple II and published in 1980. One player plays the government authority, while the other plays a terrorist organization in three scenarios: the capture of a building and taking of hostages, air piracy, and nuclear blackmail. Players make their moves at the same time through the use of game paddles. Winner and loser is judged by an elaborate scoring system based upon the government player's societal values and the terrorist player's goals.

Released: 1980
Platforms: Apple II
Genres: Strategy
Developers: Edu-Ware
Publishers: —
Modes: Multiplayer
Country: United States

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Terrorist is a two-player game that allows the players to make moves at the same time through the use of the Apple II's game paddles.

The game begins with one player choosing to be the terrorist and using a scenario generator to define the government in which the terrorist incident will take place. For example, among the societal values of individual rights, state rights, and economic progress, the United States, according to the game puts most of its emphasis on the former, while Japan puts most of its emphasis on the latter.

Reception

Terrorist, like most games from Edu-Ware's zip-lock bag era, sold only a few hundred units. However, it was well reviewed, receiving an "A" rating from Peelings II magazine, noting the well-organized text layout of the game screens. One criticism was that the game's scoring algorithm was opaque and programmer-oriented.

John Martellaro, in his review for Peelings II magazine, noted the game's educational merits, writing, "Terrorist is both a chilling and educational use of a microcomputer... It seems a good place for this program is in a college history or political science class."