How to play Choplifter! online
- Fly the helicopter: arrow keys (up and down change height, left and right move you along the ground)
- Fire: X (the upper buttons). Facing forward you shoot straight ahead; facing the screen you drop bombs on the ground below.
- Turn the helicopter: Z (the lower buttons). One press turns it to face you, so you can land and hit tanks; another press turns it round the other way.
- Start: Enter
- Pause: P
- Full screen and save states: the emulator toolbar
The keypad is not used; this is a one-player game with no options to set.
Gameplay
Sixty-four hostages are locked in four barracks on the far side of a border. Your base, with its post office and landing pad, is on the safe side. Fly out, open a barracks and the hostages pour out. Land near them (not on them) and they run to climb aboard. The helicopter seats sixteen, so you need at least four trips to get everybody home. Back at base, set down right on the cement pad next to the post office, or the passengers will not get out.
The tally at the top of the screen shows, from left to right, how many hostages have died, how many are on board and how many are safe. Hostages die if a tank shoots them, if you land on them or if a wall comes down on top of them. Tanks can only hurt you when you are low or landed, jets fire missiles at you in the air, and from your third trip into enemy territory heat-seeking mines drift after you. Only the guided missiles can follow you back across the border.
You have three helicopters. The game ends when the third one is destroyed, or when every one of the 64 hostages has been either rescued or lost. There is no points score; the number of hostages you bring home is the result.
Tips
- Never land on the hostages. They are crushed instantly. Set down a little to one side and let them run to you.
- Face the tanks. Turn towards the screen when you land so you can shoot tanks that come for the hostages. A tank’s shot can also blow a barracks wall open for you if you park in front of it.
- Count your passengers. Once the middle number reaches sixteen, fly home.
- Go far first. The distant barracks get more dangerous as the game goes on, so collect those hostages while you still have spare helicopters.
The story behind Choplifter! on the 5200
Dan Gorlin wrote Choplifter for the Apple II and Broderbund published it in May 1982. It sold 9,000 copies in its first month, Billboard named it computer game of the year, and it was ported to the Atari 400/800 computers the same year. Sega later turned it into an arcade machine.
Atari released the 5200 cartridge (model CX5253) in 1984, and Wikipedia’s list of 5200 games credits the conversion to General Computer Corporation, the company that also wrote Atari’s 7800 launch titles. AtariProtos counts it among the last games Atari shipped before the market crash, which makes the cartridge harder to find today, and notes that many players prefer it to the computer version because the two fire buttons separate shooting from turning. A planned Atari 2600 version was never finished; a prototype about half complete has surfaced. An Atari 7800 version came out in 1987 and is also on this site.
