Tanktics (1999 video game)

Tanktics
Developer(s)DMA Design
Publisher(s)Interplay Entertainment
Producer(s)Brian Lawson
Programmer(s)Tommy Kane
Artist(s)Kenneth Fee
Composer(s)Craig Conner
Stuart Ross
Platform(s)Windows
Release
Genre(s)Strategy
Mode(s)Single-player

Tanktics is a strategy video game developed by DMA Design for Microsoft Windows. It was published by Interplay in 1999.[2]

The objective of the game is to progress through four time periods, building and controlling tanks from that period to fight the "evil black tanks" from a more advanced period. Tanks are constructed by hand out of parts, which are randomly constructed by a factory (the "Part-o-Matic") in the player's base when it is provided with resources. Different parts may offer the ability to cross different terrain, offensive capabilities more suitable to current tactics, and so forth. The player's primary control is "the crane", a flying magnet (held by, for example, a pterodactyl in the first, ancient time period) which can pick up and drop single parts. A suitable pile of parts becomes a tank, which can be selected and ordered to move by the magnet.

The game also has a strong puzzle element. The magnet can also pick up boulders (e.g. for blocking off enemy routes) and sheep (which can be used to increase the factory's production rate, amongst other things), and there are various terrain types with lasting effects. For example, driving a tank through mud will make it dirty, causing them to move more slowly until washed. Some maps have buttons on them which can only be activated by tanks with sufficient combat experience, and it can take considerable foresight to ensure that a tank will be able to survive to that level and be able to reach the button. Dissassembling a tank will make it lose all experience.

The game is very micromanagement heavy, requiring the player to spread attention thinly over maintaining the continually tiring sheep at the factory, tank battles, negotiation of terrain hazards such as quicksand, and tank construction.

  1. ^ "Games Gone Gold". Gone Gold. Archived from the original on February 3, 2001. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  2. ^ "Gamespot information for Tanktics". GameSpot. Retrieved 2009-08-27.