war involving nuclear weapons. generally not a good idea.


also, a great computer game from the XT days. highly addictive and fun.

(updated 14th April 2000)

the characters 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, the human player.

you choose up to four computer opponents. the map displayed is that of the world with the Atlantic Ocean in the centre, except that there's a new island/continent in the centre where you are.

each turn your options are one of the following:

  • Propaganda - use propaganda against one of the other leader's countries. the aim is to entice some of the people there to defect to your country and raise your country's population. propaganda is the most unpredictable thing you can do, however, with all sorts of random results possible ranging from:
    • your people leaving your country for another country
    • a stork bringing in extra people to your country
    • Aliens coming in to clone your people
    • using a Cow-catapult to launch a cow, doing damage to one of your opponent's cities
    • a 60 ton weight coming down from space to render damage to one of your cities
    • fertility drugs in the water raising your country's population
    • other stuff I can't remember, but they were all hilarious
  • build - use your country's industrial might (dependent on population size) to build missiles, warheads, bombers and strategic defense stuff.
  • prepare missile
  • prepare bomber
  • select warhead -- if, in the previous turn, you selected one of the two above options, this option is available. this is followed directly after by selecting a target city.
  • use defense -- there were two types of defense. both had funny names, but I can't remember them. one was only useful against missiles and the other was useful against both missiles and bombers.

once you had chosen what you wanted to do, the view shifts to the map view and you see what each other player chose to do.

there are cute windows that give you cute pictures of the enemies - their facial expressions show their current feelings towards you. you can click on the pictures and change a cartoon face on top of the window to change your attitude towards them (smiley face for benevolent, emotionless face for a neutral attitude, angry face for anger, and so on)

All in all, an addictive if simple game. I'm still waiting for the multiplayer online version to come out.