Beach Head - First Impressions

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Post them here folks

[the_hawk]

I remember when this first came out, it was a huge, huge game.

I think I spent a lot of hours on it round a mate's house & I seem to remember it being a lot of fun but my memory is so fuzzy playing it again will probably be like discovering a completely new (old) game.

[lanky316]

I just remember it looking like the complete WW2 D-Day simulation. Run the blockade, get your troops on the beach and march to Berlin.

[thevulture]

One the 1st C64 games i played, was like taking part in some WW2 flick on your C64. The sound FX just struck me the most.The sonar Ping, Shell Fx, SploosH as shell landed perilously close, just created superb atmosphere.

[jdanddiet]

EVERYONE was talking about Beachhead when it came out - whether because it was he first release by US Gold or because of the different levels. Quality cover and superb presentation helped.

[paranoid marvin]

The plane/ship destroying level looked awesome , and was definately the highlight of the game, Continued play showed the game to be quite shallow and easy to complete , but it's testament to the gameplay that it was a title I always returned to

[yakmag]

Remember playing this the first time round, couldn't believe my eyes!!

The way the planes flew from the carrier towards you, they looked and sounded like the real thing!!!

Bombing the ships, brilliant (do you go for the carrier or not?)

The tank bit, amazing (for the time)

The Dictators bunker, crapped myself when the cannon turned on me!

The only weak bit for me was the spectrumesqe cave n torpedo bit, always thought that could have been better...

Playing it now...

It's like going to see an old friend who you've not seen for years. Just pick it up and play, no instructions to read, no manuals to plow through, just pure game play. For me it just took me right back to 1984, I can finish it almost everytime I play it these days, but that doesn't take anything away from it.

[mrspud]

I received this as part of the first They Sold A Million package for the Spectrum and up against Jet Set Willy, Sabre Wulf and Daley Thompson's Decathalon it just in my opinion couldn't compare: in fact I hated it. So it'll be interesting to give a replay now!

OK played this for half an hour or so. It's better than I remember, but that's because I've got further this time round, only to get frustrated with the bombing the ships sequence. So I've given up. I did find my way to the mine field sequence, something I'd not discovered back in the day, but that's a pretty mundane experience, even on the hardest level.

[Timothy Lumsden]

I received this as part of the first They Sold A Million package for the Spectrum and up against Jet Set Willy, Sabre Wulf and Daley Thompson's Decathalon it just in my opinion couldn't compare: in fact I hated it. So it'll be interesting to give a replay now!

OK played this for half an hour or so. It's better than I remember, but that's because I've got further this time round, only to get frustrated with the bombing the ships sequence. So I've given up. I did find my way to the mine field sequence, something I'd not discovered back in the day, but that's a pretty mundane experience, even on the hardest level.

ha ha - I was about the type same of the Amstrad version - as it was the runt of the They Sold A Million cassette I owned - though I did eventually play it a fair bit.

[Mayhem]

I'd been looking for a copy for a little while and found it was included on the first Gold Collection compilation for the C64 (along with the excellent Spy Hunter and sublime Dropzone, making that an essential purchase). On the surface it really did amaze with so many different sections and although underneath it is a little shallow, you can always replay the game and try to better your score. Difficulty level four is NOT a pushover I can tell you

[Smurph]

I don't have memories of this the first time round, it completely passed me by for some reason. On booting it up, the first section I played was the caves - possibly not a good introduction, as it's not much fun. Very simple and boring. However, after that, getting my hands on the guns to hit their weak spot for massive damage has brightened it up, it's great fun. I've just now got past all the ships by sinking them all, and that section is my favourite so far - working out the elevation, and firing off a lucky shot that gets a ship first time is top notch.

I wasn't expecting this to draw me in after the weak first section, but this is fun.

[Scapegoat]

I remember seeing the screenshots in magazines and pronouncing to all that it was impossible, then the smug look on my C64 owning mate's face when he called me round to play the game, and my jaw hit the floor. What a git.

As a consequence, when I played this on the A8, despite it being a match for the C64 version in every way, it came as somewhat of an anti climax.

[Matt_B]

My first impression was that it was basically just five minigames that individually wouldn't have stood on their own merits. The hidden passage in particular was hilariously crap and the sort of thing that I could imagine the magazines of the time giving a single figure percentage score to if presented by itself. Ah well, at least you could skip it in favour of a prolonged air attack.

Still, the whole game just about managed to be more than the sum of its parts, although I still felt that the finale was a bit of a let down with it being just another artillery game and not nearly as good looking as the Sea battle had been earlier.

[moora101]

I suppose like most games of this era, the rose tinted nostalgia glasses haven't helped. Even on the superior C64 version, it looks a bit "sparse". But the gameplay really holds up well on both the Spectrum and C64 versions. It also seems a little bit easier, than what I remember!

[Denny Haynes]

One of the megagames when it came out, US Gold flashing the cash with single and double spread adverts in crash and zzap to further wet the appetites of the gamers.
For the time flashy graphics and the push to find out what lay beyond the first level spurred me on.