Apple ][ - Sabotage

One of the earliest games for the Apple ][ that I remember playing by myself was the game of Sabotage. After a fair bit of training, I loaded the 5 1/4" floppies into the machine and turned it on, listing to the clunking of the drive heads in the floppy disk drives, as they read data.

The game of sabotage was relatively simple, you operated a canon. You could pivot the canon left or right, and shoot. The game used either the keyboard, or the analog input from the apple paddle controller. The less rounds you shot, the higher your score. The goal was to defend your base from incoming paratroopers. You could shoot the paratroopers, helicopters, jets, and even bombs. But when four paratroopers landed on a side of your canon, they would jump up and demolish your canon.

The game did have an alternate play mode, where pivoting the canon would also cause the bullets to steer. This was helpful as shooting the parachutes off of incoming paratroopers, plummeting them to the ground, sometimes smashing troops below.

Shooting off the parachutes of the incoming paratroopers may be some type of virtual war crime. .