History

Flash Attack was the first game using Tim Stryker's Flash Protocol. The Flash Protocol was an ingenious multiuser game server protocol that functioned through the Teleconference. The Flash protocol was so unique and produced enough interesting games that it gets its own page here. There are games to download and try, too!

Flash Attack itself is based upon a game written by Tim Stryker and Katie Wasserman in 1979 using the Commodore PET computer, and homemade serial cables. The original Flash Attack was featured in BYTE! magazine in December 1980.

Game Information

The game is a realtime tank warfare game - the object is to build your defenses well enough so you can hunt down and destroy other player's bases before they find and destroy yours. Flash Attack was so popular on its BBSes that people began writing "cyborg" TSR programs to calculate the trig so nuking a base would be simple once you got close enough to it.

The action is full-screen, window-oriented, and blindingly fast. Up to 6 people can play together in one game, and up to 10 games may be in progress on one system at one time.

Gameplay

The game is a DOS program that communicates through an existing modem connection to a BBS, or, dials one. The graphics are ANSI text, and controls are entirely through the keyboard. The audio is basic PC speaker sound.

Players begin on an island covered with mountains, forests and lakes. Each player runs a military base, hosting an array of tanks, lasers, "neutrons", and "seekers". Each tank sports phasers, mines, and "pods". The objective is to destroy all of the other players' bases. While you are in the game, you see only the immediate environments of four of your tanks, as well as your own base – split second decisions are crucial as your tanks roam over the island, since at any instant another player's tank or base may come into view in one of your tank windows, or you may find your own base under attack. Minefields, decoy bases, "neurubble", and the spirits of defeated players all come into play. There is even a fundamentally new type of pre-and post-game multi-user "chat" built in.