Best of Commodore 64: Raid Over Moscow
The Commodore 64 was an icon of the 1980’s and so were many of it’s games. Raid Over Moscow was one such game from the 80’s. Even though the cold war was basically over, it didn’t stop developers from capitalizing on it.
Just as there have been many knock offs of Asteroids since the original. Raid Over Moscow was basically a knock off of Beach Head. All which took elements from Zaxxon, Space Invaders, and even Pong. Many of these reboots are much improved versions of the original.
Raid Over Moscow is a great game in its own right. It consists of several stages (mini-games) following a common theme. To invade what was the USSR key cities and destroy their defenses.
While that may sound like a bold and ambitious game, remember this was 1983. Games were running on kilobytes, not megabytes. Incredibly exaggerating the gameplay and overstating the scope of the game was par for the course. Raid Over Moscow was basically a shooting gallery type game.
How to Play
Raid Over Moscow starts off by getting aircraft out of the hangar. Who knew getting an aircraft out of a hangar is so dangerous? Pointing the aircraft toward a wall instead of the exit before launching is incredibly stupid. Still, I suppose it could be explained by them being in a hurry.
At any rate, the first stage is maneuvering an aircraft inside a tiny hangar to get through a small hangar door. After crashing several times into the walls, ground, and door frame you’ll be wondering why the aircraft weren’t just pointed toward the door in the first place.
Once you get the hang of not using too much thrust, it’s easy to get the rest of your aircraft out of the hangar. The next stage reminds me of Missile Command. Except you’re the missile. You have to direct your dot to a city while avoiding the four dots moving toward you. Spoiler, it’s easy.
The next stage has you flying an aircraft Zaxxon style through a city. You shoot buildings, busses, and enemies for points. All while avoiding obstacles. Gauging clearance can be tricky but this stage is a lot of fun. The main difference between Beach Head and this game is you’re flying left to right instead of right to left.
The next stage is similar to the shooting stage in Beach Head. You can only move left to right since up and down control the range of your shot. In this stage there are enemies on either wall flanking you plus a tank in front of the main building you need to destroy.
One of the best parts in this stage is when the tank is taken out by a falling tower from the building. This takes some practice to trick the tank into staying under the falling tower. Basically, as long as you keep moving none of the enemies will hit you.
The final stage is reminiscent of Tron. You’re in a nuclear reactor room with a robot firing at you. Of course, the weapon of choice here is a disc bouncing off the walls as opposed to the gun you were just using. The object here is to hit the robot firing at you from behind since it’s invincible to the discs from the front.
Overall, a fun stage. It takes some practice to get the timing right to hit the robot from behind. But once you complete this stage the game is over. The launch sites and defenses have been neutralized. Finally, Moscow is destroyed by an unstable nuclear reactor.
On a side note, this game was released in 1984, two years before the nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl. Sort of an odd thing to find in a video game, huh? Or is it!
A Great Game for Being So Old
The theme of taking out launch sites and causing a nuclear disaster to destroy a city are corny compared to the actual game play. It’s a simple shooting gallery type game, not the end of the world. Games back then sure employed some exaggerated marketing….. Space Invaders? LOL
Overall, Raid Over Moscow is a combination of several games rolled into one. A shooting gallery, an obstacle course, and a Tron like fighting game. All which make it a fun game.
It isn’t a complex game. Nor one that anyone could play for hours. Raid Over Moscow is just a simple, light arcade game. Considering all the terrible games on the Commodore 64, the bar is so low Raid Over Moscow is actually one of the better ones.
Best of Commodore 64: Raid Over Moscow brought to you by: David M.
I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.
