Battlezone 2000 (BBC Micro)

For the Atari Lynx game, see Battlezone 2000 (Atari Lynx).

For the lost BBC Micro port of the arcade game, see Battlezone (1980).

Battlezone 2000

Information
Developer: MC Lothlorien
Platform: BBC Micro
Release Date: 1983

Battlezone 2000 is a game for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron by MC Lothlorien. It is not created under license from Atari, or indeed even associated with their later and more famous Battlezone, but is notable for several similarities in name and gameplay. It is based on the 1977 board game Ogre and its sequel G.E.V..

Gameplay

Battlezone 2000 is a turn-based strategy game set on a grid of 15 tiles by 22. The player's objective is to stop a single computer-controlled enemy tank - the Ogre - from reaching the bottom of the board using a combination of units. In this way, its gameplay can be considered to be the opposite of the original; multiple player-controlled units against a single computer-controlled tank instead of a single player-controlled tank against multiple computer-controlled units.

Units

Units in Battlezone 2000 are represented by small icons and each have four stats applied to them; attack (A), defence (D), weapons range (R) and movement range (M). The player can choose their force makeup to an extent by selecting the number of G.E.V.s, heavy tanks, and missile tanks fielded; the total number of these units cannot exceed nine and they must take a minimum of one of each.

Icon	Name	A	D	R	M	Amount
	Command Post	0	1	0	0	1
	G.E.V.	2	2	2	4+2*	3
	Heavy Tank	4	3	2	3	3
	Missile Tank	3	2	4	2	3
	Infantry	3	3	1	2	6
	Howitzer	6	1	8	0	1

^* : As a particularly fast-moving unit, the G.E.V. is allowed to move twice per turn.

The Ogre

The Ogre has four different weapons, each with a different set of statistics. Its movement speed is calculated as one fifth of the tread units it has remaining.

The Ogre.

Weapon	A	D	R
Missiles	6	3	5
Main battery	4	4	3
Secondary battery	3	3	2
Anti-personnell	1	1	1

Board Setup

Aside from the Ogre, which starts at H21, the board is also littered with craters (), which occupy seventeen terrain squares and render them impassable. The manual mistakenly lists these alongside the player's units. Craters occupy the following tiles:

A7, B3, B6, B12, C3, C9, F4, G7, G12, I11, J8, J11, K5, M3, M12, N9, O7

After the player has selected their difficulty, their forces are laid out as follows. If the default force makeup is overridden, the spaces for the three types of tanks (G.E.V., Heavy Tank and Missile Tank) are filled from left-to-right and top-to-bottom.

Icon	Name	XY	XY	XY	XY	XY	XY
	Command Post	B1
	G.E.V.	C6	M7	N13
	Heavy Tank	C14	F7	I7
	Missile Tank	H6	H13	L6
	Infantry	C5	D3	G6	H11	K6	M6
	Howitzer	G12

Once the forces are placed on the board, the player is asked whether they wish to let the computer take the first turn. After they input an answer, play begins.

Legacy

Atari were working on their own port of Battlezone for the BBC Micro, but it was never released. This may be due to the release of Battle Tank by Superior Software in 1984.

Gallery

Full cover

Cassette

Manual [pdf]

Splash screen

First info page

Second info page

Checking force makeup

Changing force makeup

Play begins

Trivia

• A G.E.V. - or ground effect vehicle - is a vehicle designed to fly at a very low altitude. The term is, as in this case, often incorrectly used to describe hovering or floating vehicles in general, which means the G.E.V. featured in Battlezone 2000 is similar in function to those seen in other Battlezone games.