Choplifter!

Choplifter! is an action arcade shooter released in 1981. Players take the role of a combat helicopter pilot tasked with rescuing hostages held in prisoner of war camps in territory controlled by the Bungeling Empire.

Hostages must be collected and safely transported to a nearby friendly base while the helicopter comes under attack from tanks and other enemy combatants. Its backstory explains that the helicopter’s parts were smuggled into the country disguised as “mail sorting equipment.”

The game appeared across a range of home computers and consoles, including the Apple II, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, ColecoVision, Commodore VIC-20, Nintendo Famicom, Sega Master System, and others. In 1986, arcade-version ports were developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Master System, with gameplay and scoring changes while retaining the arcade remake’s environments, music, and approximate scoring structure.