Operation Wolf

TECHNICAL DATASHEET

Game name: Operation Wolf

Manufacturer: Taito

Year of development: 1987

Category: Rail Shooter


Hardware Platform Info:

  • Main CPU: MC68000 (@ 12 MHz)    Z80 (@ 4 MHz)
  • Sound CPU: YM2151 (@ 4 MHz)   (2×) MSM5205 (@ 384 kHz)
  • VVideo Resolution: 320 × 240 pixels (Horizontal), 8192 colores.


Main developer: Taito

Music composer: Taito


GAME STORY

History of development:

Operation Wolf is a rail shooter in which player controls a UZI (a very famous Israeli-made submachine gun in 70s and 80s) mounted on an oscillating fixed pivot. The weapon vibrates when the trigger is pressed giving a feeling of realism.

Given the originality of furniture, to obtain a credit you had to put two 25 pesetas coins instead of one as in other machines.

Game Overview:

The player assumes the role of Special Forces green beret Roy Adams, who must infiltrate and capture six heavily fortified enemy bases, with ultimate goal of rescuing five hostages.

To complete each level, player must shoot as many enemy soldiers and vehicles (tanks, helicopters, and launches) as each mission requires. Enemy soldiers can launch hand grenades and knives, while enemy vehicles can fire missiles and launch rockets. Player's ammunition and grenades are limited, but can accumulate by shooting at barrels, boxes, pigs, and chickens. Occasionally a special machine gun item appears that causes tUzi to have high cadence and unlimited ammo for 10 seconds.

Hostages do not appear until the Concentration Camp stage. Here, player must protect them from damage while running towards a safe place. During the Airport stage, player must defend himself from attacks of the enemy while hostages run towards the open hatch of an airplane while circulating on an airstrip. A bonus is awarded based on number of hostages who successfully board plane.

A damage bar is displayed to right of screen, which increases each time the player receives a wound. Damage bar is also increased if a civilian (children, stretcher nurses, or bikini girl) or a hostage is shot. Random energy boost elements appear which, if fired, decrease damage by five points. Additionally, player recovers a large amount of damage after completing the Village stage, and a small amount after completing each of other stages. If damage bar is full, the game ends. Farm animals, in the form of chickens and pigs, will occasionally run across the screen. If fired at, they will give additional items like health or ammunition.

The six levels of game are in this order: Communication Base, Jungle, Village, Arsenal, Concentration Camp, and Airport.

Curiosities:

When the language of game is set to English, the six levels follow one another in predefined order, but when language is set to Japanese, the first four stages are available from the beginning and player will be able to choose the order they want which will allow strategic planning given different difficulty between levels.

Upon successful completion of game, former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, personally congratulates us, restarting the 6 phases in more difficult mode.

At the end of the game a statistic of time, shots, enemies and hit percentage is displayed.


HISTORY OF THE MACHINE IN ARCADE VINTAGE

Status: OPERATIONAL

Information on the location and purchase of the Vintage Arcade Machine:

Acquired by José Mª Litarte, in March 2016, at Jamma + forum in England. The machine was transported by Dave from Leeds to Vintage Arcade Association.

Information about the restoration process or repairs carried out:

Monitor was damaged and gun had faulty potentiometers. Monitor chassis was changed and new potentiometers were installed. After that, all that remained was to adjust image and viewfinder of submachine gun, as well as micro of the grenades.

Pending repairs or restorations:

The furniture needs restoration later.