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→B-1 Nuclear Bomber
{{Infobox review
| title = Report CardB-1 Nuclear Bomber
| performance = A
| use = A
| requirements = console, monitor or television, cassette recorder
}}
'''This game's right on target'''
B-1 Nuclear Bomber is the first
computer game translated into TIBASIC
by the Avalon Hill Game
Company. Microcomputer Games is
the company's computer games
division.
The game is a text-only simulation
programmed in BASIC. I was
fascinated by the cnallenge of frying
to penetrate a web of Soviet defenses
to drop a thermonuclear weapon on a
major population center. All moral
considerations aside-this is a game,
after all-things seem to happen so
fast I didn't notice that it wasn't written
in Extended BASIC. Incidentally,
it runs perfectly well in Extended
BASIC.
Performance: There are no preliminaries
in this game. The first thing
you see is a message indicating that
war has begun and you are to fly your
B-1 Bomber from Thule AFB to a
target in the Soviet Union. You are
told what your primary target is and
then given a "fail-safe" code to arm
your one megaton nuclear warhead.
You control your mission through
four types of commands: ·rnght control,
navigation, combat and bombing.
Flight commands allow you to
change course or altitude· as well as
the distance you fly on any heading.
Navigation commands allow you to
determine what course to set to reach
a particular target and lets you check
the status of your mission. You can
also use radar and use the search
command to locate Soviet defense
complexes in your flight path. Combat
commands allow you to fight off
surface-to-air missiles and MIGs
that are launched against you. You
may use electronic countermeasures,
take evasive action or fire
Phoenix missiles. (Phoenix is spelled
"Pheonix" in several place in the
program and missile is spelled ''missle"
throughout.) You have six of
them. Bombing commands are used
only when you've reached a target,
whether primary or secondary. I've
not been able to bomb a primary
target and return safely to the air
base. I reached the base once only to
find out that the crew had died of
radic(tion poisoning from a nuclear
