Made by the same company who made Tank Attack, Marine Attack was to be released by CDS Software sometime around the late eighties. There is no real information on this game, merely a reference to its existence in a statement by CDS about Tank Attack and in the Zzap! magazine review of Tank Attack.
Judging from the reference in Zzap! Magazine, the game was intended as a sequel to Tank Attack, which was a board game/computer game hybrid, where players played on a game board with playing pieces, with the computer acting as a sort of moderator. Marine Attack would have been similar but with cruisers and battleships instead of tanks. CDS must have been confident of having a hit with Tank Attack to be already working on the follow up before the game was even released.
Although an innovative concept, it may have been a contributing factor as to the game’s downfall, as with increased costs of production would come increased pressure for sales and if Tank Attack did not do spectacularly well then perhaps Marine Attack was pulled due to unacceptable risk. On the other hand by planning the follow up before the release of Tank Attack it suggests CDS were confident of having funding to push forward with a release. Nonetheless Tank Attack garnered some positive reviews, getting 80% in Zzap! magazine.
A problem for us is that if the game does ever turn up, its highly unlikely it will come with a playing board and playing pieces, as these would probably have been made after the computer game was created and so may have never even existed. So even if we find the computer-based section of the game its possible it will be unplayable.
In any case it’s a shame the game never saw the light of day, with the retro scene alive and well it would be nice to see both Tank Attack and Marine Attack set up alongside each other at retro events for gamers old and new to play.
Contributions: Marco
