The same year that The Metal Jacket I came to the theater Konami had the clever idea of transferring the mechanics of its hit Track & Field to a military environment. Instead of facing the athletics levels here, we played a recruit (or two, if we played CO-OP) during his training period. Crush buttons for the homeland.
The original game
Unlike the in-house versions, which we’ll talk a little about below, the original Combat School controls didn’t include a joystick, but a trackball accompanied by two buttons, which we had to conscientiously punish to pass the seven levels (plus one secret) that the hobby deployed. The plate could also be modified for use in conventional furniture with a joystick (in fact, that’s how it landed Combat School in my neighborhood).
Gameplay
Combat School wasn’t excessively long (not even for a hobby), so Konami pulled the difficulty to rogue limits in an attempt to “stretch the gums”. Not that all the levels were hell (ok, some were screwed up), it’s that if you failed one, the game would end. Without further ado.
At most, if you narrowly missed the target on a level, the good guy with the sergeant gave you one chance to continue, as long as you finish within the established time a series of pull-ups.
The game levels
In the seven levels, we had to compete with the CPU or the second player, and the first of these was an obstacle course, on a split screen and with vertical scrolling. Come on, what was known in my neighborhood as an “American track”.
The second level involved firing a machine gun at a series of targets that appeared and disappeared from the firing range.
The third challenge was an Ironman race, back to split-screen but this time with a zenith camera. By mashing buttons, we had to reach the goal, dodging obstacles and mines on the run and launching ourselves into the river to swim like trout. It was also possible to reach a canoe that could go faster, but this didn’t last long as it immediately ended up colliding with the logs carrying the current.
The fourth level brought us back to the range, although this time we had to give a good account of the moving targets that were moving at full speed.
Fortunately, losing the I impulse on the fifth level didn’t take you to the Game Over screen. And thank God, because, in the early games, it was difficult to understand its mechanics. If you played CO-OP, both players went head-to-head. If you played alone, you had to pound the CPU.
Konami cushioned the shooting range again in the sixth level, which was new “cheat” targets in the shape of an instructor’s hat. Shooting at them penalized.
The final hurdle to our graduation was the seventh level: melee combat with the instructor sergeant (or between two human players). This level can be defined as Flood Street Fighter, in which you have a jump and a kick to keep the instructor at bay. Losing to him meant Game Over. On the house, boy.
If you managed to take down the instructor, the game rewarded you, finally with an endearingly patriotic graduation ceremony. After the cap was launched, the game commissioned us with an eighth mission, consisting of none other than saving the President of the United States.
Enemies
Unlike the Gerard Butler movie, those holding the president at the White House weren’t deadly foreign agents! America’s most protected building had been taken over by a group of criminals armed with razors and Molotov cocktails. The Secret Service was at its lowest ebb.
In this kind of final mini-game, we’d have to shoot the Kung Fu Master terrorists. Unfortunately, with the exception of the final battle against the Navajo chief (with identical mechanics to the duel against the sergeant), receiving a single impact from the enemies meant dying directly and meeting a beautiful Game Over when we were on the verge of glory. Konami makes friends.
Consoles and Controllers
Unlike Track & Field, Combat School did not inspire a console adaptation. It was only released for 8-bit computers (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64), at the end of 1987, by Ocean. There weren’t even any conversions for Amiga or Atari ST.
Some Excellent ports (Among the team responsible for programming the CPC and Spectrum deliveries was the talented Mike Lamb) that delighted joystick manufacturers. With this server game, two new sticks were loaded with micro-switches so that Amstrad would return to the rudimentary but indestructible Amstick.
A memory for the Lovers of the Soldiers War Games
Combat School was very popular at the time, but has been buried by Konami since 1987. It wasn’t even saved from one of the classic compilations released by the company on PlayStation or Game Boy Advance. It’s as if it never existed, except in the memory of those kids who destroyed their joysticks doing pull-ups.
Well, if you played or just like the style of the game, you can always try our Toy Soldiers games, it has a relatively similar style and vibe, and we put a good amount of work into guaranteeing that most of the war and soldiers games lovers will like it as well.
