A PC Game Involing Gangs from the Late Eighties

May 11, 2005 4:49 PM

I have very fond memories of playing a graphically-simple game in the late eighties or possibly early nineties. It was set in the future, in a plague-ridde, post-apocalyptic America. You were a gang leader, and your job was to assemble gang members, vehicles and guns and essentially deliver America from ruin.

There were two modes--a map of America and then a tactical view for vehicle to vehicle battles. The game featured fairly detailed resource management. I remember that there were five kinds of troops, each starting with the letters A through E (D was definitely dragoons). I also recall that if you stopped by the California city where the game was developed, you could get your vehicles super-charged. Any takers?

posted by dbarefoot to sports, hobbies, & recreation (11 comments total)

Roadwar 2000?
posted by icontemplate at 4:56 PM on May 11, 2005

Oh, according to this strategy guide, since the game was made in San Jose/Mt. View, you could visit SSI headquarters and gain a few powerups.
posted by icontemplate at 5:03 PM on May 11, 2005

Not only were the troops lettered from A to E, but the names had one fewer letter as you went:

Armsmaster
Bodyguard
Commando
Dragoon
Escort

wish I knew how to show those in fixed-width :(
posted by agropyron at 5:09 PM on May 11, 2005

DOS version available at Home of the Underdogs, and is most likely playable in DOSBox.

agropyron, use the <tt> or <pre> HTML tags.
posted by zsazsa at 5:17 PM on May 11, 2005

Yes! Roadwar 2000! How could I forget? Thanks very much.
posted by dbarefoot at 5:22 PM on May 11, 2005

Reminded me of this game, which -- since it's so great -- I'll post here anyways.
posted by ori at 5:30 PM on May 11, 2005

ori - duuuude, that game was teh roxor! Have you tried the new(er) Freedom Force?
posted by PurplePorpoise at 6:00 PM on May 11, 2005

I remember Roadwar 2000 and always wanted to give it a try, but never could find a copy of it. I had to settle for Autoduel by Origin Systems (gobbled up by Sierra) based on Steve Jackson 's Carwars, which could use a good update.
posted by john at 7:09 PM on May 11, 2005

Armsmaster
Bodyguard
Commando
Dragoon
Escort


Woo, so beautiful. I am really impressed that they found soldier-type names that are in alphabetical order AND descending number of characters.
posted by agropyron at 7:36 PM on May 11, 2005

And there was a sequel to it called Roadwar Europa. I got the two of them, along with Wargame Construction Kit in a package called "Roadwar Bonus Edition." This was by Wizardworks, back when they were making cheap shovelware compilations of old games, rather than cheap new ones.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 8:31 PM on May 11, 2005

I should mention that I was reminded of this game (and the RPG "Car Wars") by this news from E3, about a new game called "Auto Assault".
posted by dbarefoot at 10:45 PM on May 11, 2005