Nuclear War (PC/DOS) 1989, New World Computing

Let's play one random round of Nukewar (Nuclear War)
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Developed by New World Computing, Inc. and published by New World Computing, Inc., Nuclear War is a strategy game revolving around licensed title. It was published in 1989, feel free to download and play it now!
One of the better games in the niche sub-genre of tongue-in-cheek strategy, Nuclear Warlets you unleash a nation's nuclear might at other nations headed by equally sadistic leaders, all witty caricatures of real-life world leaders. The big stars in this game are Infidel Castro, Jimi Farmer, Tricky Dick, Mao the Pun, P. M. Satcher, Ronnie Raygun, Ghanji, Gorbatchef, Col. Khadaffy, Kookamamie and you, Hans Meier. You compete against 4 opponents, any of which can be computer- or human-controlled. Play options in each turn is mostly limited to three choices: using "propaganda" on an opponent to try to get his or her opponent to defect into your own country, nuking someone, or setting up some nuke-protection facilities if you fear you are the next target. Since you can only do one action per round, you must choose carefully. From time to time you will be given the option to produce some weapons, but what your people produce is more or less random. The limited gameplay options in Nuclear War reduce the game to a boring guessing game, especially after you notice that each enemy has a favorite strategy he or she always uses. For instance, Ghanji and Farmer always use Propaganda, while Ronnie, Kookamamie and Khadaffy love nuking. If you are very unlucky, all four enemies can choose to attack you first, thereby ending the game right after the first turn. Definitely not a good game design. What saves the game, to some, are the jokes that your enemies crack during the game, and various random events that look like cheap gags but are fun to watch nonetheless. You might see a town suddenly lift off into space, or UFOs land on your terrotory. If you don't appreciate this kind of dead-pan or political humor, however, you will find Nuclear War just another badly executed "light" game that is full of good ideas, but lacking in gameplay.
Review by HOTUD

[@warhawk05]

I love this game and still have it for DOS. It needs a remake.

[@fuqupal]

Yes! That is online and cross play with tablets. Play it online here playclassic.games/games/turn-based-strategy-dos-games-online/play-nuclear-war-online/ Download here (might require dosbox) www.myabandonware.com/game/nuclear-war-py Horrible remake here www.homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?id=3857

[@leonardorojas7354]

World Domination 1 & 2 are remakes

[@jamiebigham9420]

Ah the memories

[@aceman0000099]

Crazy how one of the characters is still alive 35 years after the game came out

[@user-qi6pv9jh7o]

It looks like a game that inspired World domination (the flash game where you are unnamed president surrounded by caricatures you choose, and all gameplay is like there, but more detail). Probably it had a full version, but nobody seems to know where is it(flash game is demo, and tells us that full version has satellites, even stronger nukes, more caricatures and more) Anyway, it was cool and had biological warheads (kills less people, but blocks few random buttons from usage for a next turn. Looks like no leader is crazy enough to forget about quarantine)

[@user-qi6pv9jh7o]

Upd: DOS Nuclear War has more various texts, which is good Flash World Domination had primitive 3d sprites, which really did fly, float and run to a target city Also WD had a sort of diplomacy and relationship system (AIs even negotiated between each other), which is "gimme/I pay X money for proportional turns of no attack" plus at leastone enemy will always have relationship with you dropping, so war is inevitable

[@user-qi6pv9jh7o]

Also, in flash game, your propaganda never made your people leave, but its success chance was dropping, and to keep it good, you had to do special "mass media" action (2 actions per turn, mass media only improved the quality)

[@user-qi6pv9jh7o]

Upd: ending is interesting In World Domination, I lost and some countries remained (mostly because of my poor skill)

[@mrdude3697]

I cant get it run on my dos machine. I have a 486dx2 66mhz. When i start the exe its just the "_" blinking and loading. i can only get it run on dosbox

[@AppleSauceGamingChannel]

Maybe a memory issue. You can try with different boot settings

[@fuqupal]

I love this game but it doesn't run on windows 8. Someone help?

[@shankao]

Use dosbox

[@fuqupal]

shankao sahagun That was almost 3 years ago. I have Windows 10 now

[@shankao]

Fuqu Pal dosbox is still the best option, even on Windows 10

[@fuqupal]

shankao sahagun Thought it didn't work on Windows 10

[@nuherbleath461]

While windows has legacy support for 16 bit MS-DOS applications as it was based on it originally, it has not been in use since the late 90s (windows 98 SE and windows ME/2000)- the support was removed in windows xp, however there is a application for windows that ran dos. It was an optional add on however it was not updated for 64 bit systems only 32 bit. If that did work the graphics mode the game used (EGA 16 colour) is not supported on newer graphics chips it is legacy so it may not work correctly. With some tinkering you could run as a native application however that’s kinda hard - so just use DOSBOX.

[@arjuna207]

sound effects are so annoying! game seems fun

[@android584]

Such horrible sound compared to the Amiga version.

[@fuqupal]

Play it online here playclassic.games/games/turn-based-strategy-dos-games-online/play-nuclear-war-online/ Download here (might require dosbox) www.myabandonware.com/game/nuclear-war-py Horrible remake here www.homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?id=3857