Airborne Ranger (PC/DOS) 1988, Microprose

In this action/simulation game by Microprose the player takes the role of an U.S. Army airborne ranger. These Airborne rangers are dropped behind enemy lines by parachute to perform all kinds of dangerous missions. Gameplay consists of 3 phases:
Reading the mission briefing and outfitting 3 supply pods with machine gun ammo, time bombs, first-aid kits, grenades & LAW rockets depending on this briefing.
Flying over the mission map in a V-22 Osprey plane to drop your 3 supply pods and parachuting out of the plane yourself.
Performing the actual missions and reaching the pick-up point before time runs out. There are 12 different missions which include capturing an enemy officer, blowing up an ammunition depot, photographing an experimental aircraft and liberating P.O.W.'s
Missions take place in either an arctic, desert or temperate setting. Using the mission map the player must decide the route towards the mission objective. This might require them to crawl through trenches, run around minefields or take out enemy soldiers and bunkers. Airborne Ranger was one of the first games with some missions that required a stealthy approach (staying undetected until a certain time, taking out a guard and stealing an enemy uniform etc.).
Airborne Ranger can be played in practice or veteran mode. In practice mode, gameplay is limited to a single mission, while in veteran mode, a series of missions or an entire campaign is played in order to earn medals & promotions. All missions can be played on several difficulty levels.

[@savagex9000]

I used to play this for hours and I remember as a child I never won a single game but had a blast!

[@TheAdatto]

It was hard. Remember stealing the codebook but not much more

[@robtaylormusic]

This game basically is the father of modern FPS and other game play... First game you could properly level up and develop a character through medals, choose your loadout and use stealth or mayhem as a gameplay choice... Amazing.

[@markhamilton3215]

the first game i played on C64 back then , Im over 45

[@TheAdatto]

3rd person

[@evolgenius1150]

​​@@markhamilton3215heck yeah dude airborne ranger c64. 8 yr oldnme would run around the neighborhood playing this game in my mind, throwing grenades and quoting rando stuff from the manual like "never cross a river by the same ford" 😂 good times

[@SandyofCthulhu]

hey it's a game by my old pal Lawrence Schick. I borrowed ideas from this game later on when I worked on Doom.

[@elamigoreptiliano3316]

your work is amazing, Maestro !

[@stonerdemon]

I remember playing this on my brother's 286 PC with Hercules monochrome monitor and I was so happy with that. This, F15 Strike Eagle, Barbarian and Prehistorik were all the games I needed to have a good time. My other brother gave me an NES for Xmas in 1993, but I never stopped playing these oldies.

[@arunchitrapu140]

One of my favorite PC games that I played growing up!

[@aeliayousaf]

the origin of open world shooting games - one of my fav games growing up.

[@Aranimda]

I played this as a kid on an Amber Hercules Monochrome PC/XT. It ran very slow but that probably just helped me by giving more time to react. I remember there was an artic mission where you could throw hand grenades on the ice to make spots where enemy soldiers drowned in. I used to take a lot of grenades and create a big trap all around me and enemy soldiers kept walking into the holes in the ice. :D

[@theriverofgordon1470]

This is actually super impressive they do a great job with the low end graphics. The trenches look very believable.

[@Fercyful]

So many hours played with C=64. One of my fav games of all times. Hope a remake can be possible now that MicroProse is back!

[@zryndin]

One of the best games ever. Microprose rules.

[@stefanstoyanov5640]

30 years later still looks impressive

[@VeteranLu]

i played this game as a kid. Thank you for the memories

[@billysherman2702]

Great game. I was a huge Sierra Adventure fan at the time and this game brought that same feel with action into my life!

[@Orion-yd4dy]

I spent years trying to find this game’s name! I played it when I was 6, and all I had as clue was DOS and parachuting supplies. Thank you for this play through!

[@hcrun]

I loved this game. :)

[@rakhwan]

Played it circa 1989 at my friend’s computer. I was hooked on it!

[@DoggyHateFire]

I just remembered this game not too long ago and holy hell the memories are flooding back. I probably played this game when I was like eight around 1992 maybe.

[@falkerhard]

7:48 there was something very appealing about this color scheme back then on the PC. I was hoping you would go in the water as well. It was an impressive effect in PC games.

[@Sergei_Agarkoff]

You could sit (forgot the word) in water to hide yourself to suddenly jump over unsuspecting enemy soldier. But it could cost you life - to keep yourself underwater. Also the funny part was to throw a grenade on iced lake. If I'm not wrong, the first grenade did not breach the ice, but made it crackled. Then the enemy walking over the damaged ice will break the ice and instantly drow. The pity was when you dropped the supply pod into the open water or onto the enemy gun-bunker: the pod will be lost.

[@GeneralWildDog]

So the key is: Always on the run, or enemies will swarm at you from every direction.

[@Hauptseite]

You can actually stealth your way through levels and there are some that require a quiet approach. You're armed with a knife, can go prone and hide behind cover or in ditches to remain hidden. Even a few missions where you can disguise yourself as the enemy too.

[@Squiggy2010]

PUBG's great grandfather.

[@richieesco]

Facts. This game was amazing

[@AryanWirawan]

I believe this game is the baby of spec ops series

[@rumfunksivastcha]

ONE OF THE BEST in my 426!!! Please remake this game.

[@jeschinstad]

It could be your first project learning Godot. :) They have very good tutorials for beginners and it's entirely free, so there's no risk.

[@gercast82]

THE MEMORIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@andrewheffernan2961]

This game used to take 6 hrs to load on my commodore 64 tape loader. If you touched the keyboard or joystick it made the loading fail. Great game though

[@nequals151]

Vaguely recall recall you could kind of cheat by going out in the middle of cracked ice and the bad guys would all die around you by falling through the ice. I think it's this game. I loved this game. Funny how I never would have drramed that I would be watching this on a tablet thirty years later.

[@Sergei_Agarkoff]

Yes, it is. 1st grenade made the ice crackled and non-passable. Second destroyed the ice patch completely

[@louismartinez7040]

This game is giving me Metal Gear vibes. Feels good. 😀

[@normandy1140]

Nice! Thanks for sharing

[@thomasgreen1816]

Outstanding game back in the day

[@Magg78]

Played the C64 version of this as a kid, great game 👌🏻

[@PlasticCogLiquid]

The PC speaker sounds are pretty good on this one.

[@tomasauren918]

i remember. thank you

[@raymondyee2008]

They have this now on GOG.

[@mialbum]

Thank you!!!

[@elamigoreptiliano3316]

beautiful game

[@Hauptseite]

I'm surprised. The C64 version has superior sound!

[@In-Ear-Studio]

I’m searching a game in this time period, i remember seeing and playing a helicopter or plane or even a tank, dont know for sure, that flies from down to up. But in this game we fly from up to down. Can someone suggest me what game may be?

[@clinicalpsychologist]

Did you know that once you kill a soldier, before he disappears, you crouch on him and you get his uniform and you can hide yourself as one of them (until you fire again)

[@nequals151]

Woah. Im pretty sure I had no idea. Been a long time but don't think I knew that.

[@Sergei_Agarkoff]

Wow! Didn't knew... That could save hours....

[@scruffycryptid1931]

Ow yeah!!! I played that 4ever when i was a Young God! I had An NCR computer with 640k memory and two bigass floppy's in there 😂😂😂🇳🇱 Stay safe and healthy everyone.

[@thetruth7633]

Cool game but hard to play I remember

[@imperia777]

its looking better on 360p or even 240p

[@erkascazuchi8443]

enemy's soldiers certainly do not see and hear a suspicious plane flying above their headquarters. while at our side, we don't drop our ranger in our destination (toppest area) although we come from that direction. i dunno which one is more amusing

[@elamigoreptiliano3316]

or drop a bomb directly...

[@raymondyee2008]

Well i tried this game and after an hour I gave up it’s so damn hard.

[@ronmcdon01]

Sound was better on C64!

[@Sergei_Agarkoff]

The PCs of that era of the dinosaurs was not equipped with the very expensive sound cards. Speaker and sometimes COVOX (via LPT port) was the choice of most users.

[@Cosgy15]

YO MY GRANDMA WAS THE GAME DESIGNER FOR THIS GAME!! Iris leigh Barnes Idokogi

[@scruffycryptid1931]

Ow yeah!!! I played that 4ever when i was a Young God! I had An NCR computer with 640k memory and two bigass floppy's in there 😂😂😂🇳🇱 Stay safe and healthy everyone.