APACHE STRIKE

FAST LOOKS

You're flying an AH-64 Apache attack chopper at street level, dodging gunfire from tanks and other helicopters. You find your primary target—what appears to be an orbital communications satellite floating in the center of the city.

This is the unlikely scenario behind Acti vision's Apache Strike. In this fast-action arcade game, you must pilot a helicopter through a maze of skyscrapers, blasting away tanks and helicopters while searching for the Strategic Defense Computer (SDC). On earlier levels it's relatively easy to use your radar to find the SDC and destroy it quickly, without worrying about other targets. However, you may want to save the SDC for last, since you earn bonus points for destroying all the tanks and choppers.

Graphics in Apache Strike are sparse but colorful. The city you fly through is populated by identical gray skyscrapers, with only an occasional elevated crosswalk to break up the landscape's monotony (and break up your helicopter, should you accidentally fly into one). However, the cockpit and enemy vehicles make good use of color. This is one of the few low-priced arcade games I've seen that takes advantage of the 256-color graphics available with VGA and MCGA adapters.

Apache Strike is best played with a joystick or mouse. While you can control the game with the keyboard, the speed-control keys are so far away from the keys used to fire guns and missiles that you'll find yourself looking down at the keyboard, a distraction with deadly consequences.

If you're looking for a realistic helicopter flight simulator, look elsewhere. But if you just want blow some bad guys out of the sky without having to think too hard, Apache Strike may be for you.

DENNY ATKIN