Operation Wolf.

This 1988 Operation Wolf conversion of the hugely successful coin-op showed the Spectrum was still relevant in the ST/Amiga era and able to deliver high quality licences. You control “Lone Wolf”, a soldier of John Rambo-hardness who is parachuted into the jungle to locate concentration camps where fellow countrymen are being held captive. Armed with just a few grenades, half a dozen magazines of ammo and a VHS copy of First Blood Part II, you must find them and free them… you are their only hope!!

The arcade version’s big novelty was the machine gun which you fired into the screen to take out the enemies. The big concern was how Ocean would adapt this machine gun controller to the ageing computer, but they got joystick movement of the gun-sight bang on, and it’s dead easy to master. Only the slight camouflaging effect of the mono graphics mark it down, with civilians sometimes hard to pick out from the bad guys. That and the pretentious half-minute intro to get to the options screen. Bloody hell guys, it takes long enough to load the 128K version off tape as it is! Even so, I don’t think fans of Operation Wolf could be disappointed by the finished product, because it nails the spirit of the original to an extent that it compares favourably even to the console versions. Highly recommended.