Red Lightning (video game)

Red Lightning
Red Lightning
	Cover art of Red Lightning
Publisher(s)	Strategic Simulations
Designer(s)	Norm Koger
Platform(s)	Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS
Release	1989; 1990 (Amiga)
Genre(s)	Wargame
Mode(s)	Single-player

Red Lightning is a wargame created by Norm Koger and published by Strategic Simulations for the Atari ST and MS-DOS in 1989. An Amiga conversion followed a year later. The game is set in Europe and hypothesizes a Soviet invasion of Western Europe.

Illustrator Marc Ericksen created the Box Art for Red Lightning, ^{[citation needed]} which features Soviet T-80 tanks advancing under heavy weather with Mig-29s flying air cover.

Reception

In the November 1989 edition of Games International (Issue 10), John Inglis noted that the menu-driven system "can be a little tedious, as it takes many keystrokes to move you from one part to the next." However, he concluded by giving the game above-average ratings of 4 out of 5 for both gameplay and graphics, saying, "I would [...] recommend it to traditional wargamers."^[1]

In the January 1994 edition of Computer Gaming World, M. Evan Brooks stated that Red Lightning's user interface had "serious flaws." While the Atari ST version's mouse-driven user interface was not as flawed, Brooks concluded that "the overall ease of use is sorely lacking in what is supposed to be computer entertainment," giving the game a poor rating of only 2 out of 5.^[2]^[3]^[4]

References

^ Inglis, John (November 1989). "Red Lightning". Games International. No. 10. pp. 51–52.
^ Brooks, M. Evan (September 1989). "Red Lightning". Computer Gaming World. No. 63. p. 26.
^ Brooks, M. Evan (June 1992). "The Modern Games: 1950 - 2000". Computer Gaming World. p. 120. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
^ Brooks, M. Evan (January 1994). "War In Our Time / A Survey Of Wargames From 1950-2000". Computer Gaming World. pp. 194–212. Archived from the original on 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2017-11-08.