Operation Hanoi Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
20Developed and published by Players Premier in 1990.
I never owned this Operation Wolf clone, but I remembered seeing a mediocre review in a magazine and decided to check it out.
It has decent graphics and sound are reasonable enough and the coders did a good job with hit detection and a much improved crosshair movement mechanism than the C64 version of Operation Wolf has.
You can collect extra bullets, smart bombs (crates) and health kits as they float down from the top of the screen on tiny parachutes. It's vital that you collect these as you'll die very easily otherwise. A good strategy to adopt is to leave the last few enemies alive and to simply harvest all the power-ups that spawn so you're fully equipped for the next level.
The biggest problem Operation Hanoi has is that it's too damn fast!! The screen fills with planes, tanks and bad guys who start pumping you full of bullets and your damage meter fills up extremely quickly. You're constantly trying to find time to collect the power-ups and kill the enemies and frequently end up doing neither particularly well. YouTube converts videos to 30 fps, so it's difficult to appreciate the original 50 fps madness when playing it for real!
The game only has 3 stages and the final showdown is a piece of cake, providing you stocked up on ammo and a few smart-bombs.
Another interesting point is that the game generates enemy placement and power-up types at random, so using the regular tool-assists didn't work when trying to record the game. The only way I could beat the game without using cheats was to play the game at half speed and then double the frame-rate/audio speed in post-production.
Enjoy!
#retrogaming