Computer War

Computer War is an arcade, simulator, and strategy game based on the movie War Games. Developed by Thorn EMI Computer Software and published by Creative Sparks, it was released in 1982 for Atari 8-bit, Commodore VIC-20, and Texas Instruments TI-99 computers.

Gameplay

The game is divided into three stages. On a map of the United States, players use a joystick to select incoming missiles. The view then zooms into the missile area, where the missiles must be shot down. Finally, players solve a pattern-matching puzzle to crack the code.

Missile or puzzle failures lower the DEFCON countdown from 5 toward 1. Reaching DEFCON 1 triggers global war. The game requires an 8K expansion.

Computer War was reviewed in Compute! Magazine, Issue 45, February 1984, page 134.