“… a gaping hole through which you can see the river.”

This game review made me reaaaally want an Atari 400, even if it did look like a prop from Blake’s 7.

This was Blue Max.

(The game was named after a chap in WWI that gave the German’s such a pummeling that they offered their most prestigious medal, the Blue Max. He was henceforth known as Blue Max.)

Yes, this is the kind of screenshots we got back then. Someone took a quick snap with their Kodak Instamatic and then had to rush down the chemist to send the film to get developed.

The bit from the review that really got me was this:

“… through which you can see the river”. What. The. Hell?! These graphics were approaching a level of realism I’d never seen before. It was freakin amazeballs! The river showed through the hole in the bridge!! How else could the reviewer end the review but like this:

Do you see what he did there? A medal of its own? Huh? Because the game was named after a medal. Clever, huh?

Personal Computer News, September 1983

Blake: Is this thing awesome looking or what?

Zen: Con-firmed.

Avon: rolls eyes