Into the Eagle's Nest

Into the Eagle's Nest
North American box art
Developer(s)Pandora
Publisher(s)Pandora
Mindscape
Atari Corporation
Producer(s)Richard Paul Jones
Programmer(s)Andrew Challis
Artist(s)Robin Chapman
Composer(s)Keith Harvey
Platform(s)Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum
Release1987
Genre(s)Stealth
Mode(s)Single-player

Into the Eagle's Nest is a video game developed by Pandora and published in 1987 for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC compatibles, and ZX Spectrum. Atari Corporation also released a cartridge version for the Atari 8-bit computers the following year on the Atari XEGS.

Plot

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The player has found the key (Atari ST screenshot)

Into the Eagle's Nest is a game in which the player character is an Allied soldier who must infiltrate the four castles that comprise the top-secret Nazi fortress known as the Eagle's Nest. The goal is to rescue three Allied saboteurs being held in three of the castles, recover the art treasures stolen by the Nazis, and then use explosives to destroy the fourth castle.[1]

Gameplay

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The player uses a joystick for control, using the firing button to shoot the machine gun, which carries ammunition to allow for 99 shots. Nazis are killed when hit by two well-placed shots, although Nazis sitting at a table are killed with a single well-placed shot. The player can survive up to 50 shots from Nazi soldiers. Inside the castles, the player can discover crates which may contain art objects or explosives. The player can also find ammunition dumps, first-aid kits, and food in the castles.[1]

Release

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The game was originally programmed by Andrew Challis for the Commodore 64, and by Kevin Parker for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, and ZX Spectrum, with graphics by Robin Chapman for all formats. It was initially released in 1987 by Pandora in the United Kingdom. The game was also licensed by Mindscape for release in the United States, who handled the Apple II port by Andrew Pines and IBM PC compatible port by Visionware.

In 1988, Atari Corporation published a cartridge version for the Atari 8-bit computers as part of the Atari XEGS release line-up.

Reception

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Compute! called Into the Eagle's Nest "a good, solid arcade game", but criticized it for not allowing progress to be saved during most of the game, and stated that receiving points for killing drunken, unconscious Nazi soldiers seemed like "cold-blooded murder".[4] The game was reviewed in 1987 in Dragon #128 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[1]

Tracie Forman Hines reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World, and stated "Into the Eagle's Nest was some of the best fun this jaded critic has had in ages and it is a game that most people will go back to time after time. Strategic shootout fans will find this one a blast."[5]

A 1991 Computer Gaming World survey of strategy and war games gave it two and a half stars out of five, stating that it was "fun for a short time, but rapidly loses its interest appeal".[6]

Reviews

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (December 1987). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (128): 81–82.
  2. ^ Sinclair User issue #60 - 1987/Mar page 28
  3. ^ Your Sinclair issue #17 - 1987/May page 35
  4. ^ Randall, Neil (November 1987). "Into The Eagle's Nest". Compute!. p. 32. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  5. ^ Forman Hines, Tracie (January 1988). "An Adventure Gamer Looks "Into The Eagle's Nest"". Computer Gaming World. Vol. 1, no. 43. p. 10.
  6. ^ Brooks, M. Evan (November 1991). "Computer Strategy and Wargames: The 1900-1950 Epoch / Part I (A-L) of an Annotated Paiktography". Computer Gaming World. p. 138. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  7. ^ "Crash Magazine Issue 64". May 1989.
  8. ^ "ACE Magazine Issue 05". February 1988.
  9. ^ "The Games Machine Magazine Issue 01".
  10. ^ "ACE Magazine Issue 13". October 1988.
  11. ^ http://download.abandonware.org/magazines/Tilt/tilt_numero043/TILT%20043%20-%20page065.JPG [bare URL image file]
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