Combat School Video Game – Comparison
Released: 1987
Genre: Track and Field
Publisher: Konami
Combat School (released as Boot Camp in North America), is a 1987 video game produced by Konami where the player takes control of a military recruit who is undergoing basic training at a United States Marine Corps Recruit Training camp, also known as a boot camp.
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THE ARCADE GAME
Combat School was originally released in the arcades in 1987, the control panel had a trackball and two buttons with different functions depending on the event.
The game can be played as a 1 player or 2 player game, Player 1 takes control of Nick, a brown haired recruit in orange attire. Player 2 controls Joe, who has blonde hair and a blue top.
THE EVENTS
There are 7 main events in the Combat School video game, if you fail severely in an event it usually leads to a game over, the player must do a series of chin-ups as punishment to continue, this chance only occurs once!
Here are a list of events in the Combat School video game:
- Obstacle Course – Climbing walls and clearing bars in an allotted amount of time, you are racing against an opponent, but it doesn’t mean it;s game over, as long as you do the course in the given time limit.
- Shooting Range No.1 – The aim is to shoot as many targets as you can in the time limit, if played in 2 player mode, the player with the most hit targets wins the round.
- Iron Man Race – This one is a top-down view angle, the player must reach the finish whilst avoiding mines and other onstacles along the way. Eventually you must cross a lake either swimming or rowing a boat. You must do this in the given time limit to progress.
- Shooting Range No.2 – This one is the same as Range No.1, only this time you have moving targets!
- Arm Wrestling – This one is a bonus level, and whether you win or lose against your opponent, you still progress.
- Shooting Range No.3 – Same as Range No.2 but with penalty targets that you must avoid.
- Fighting – You must face your instructor in hand-to-hand combat in the final event, if yo lose, it’s game over, but if you win you will graduate from Combat School, hurrah!
WAIT! THERE IS AN 8TH STAGE??!
Oh yes, Combat School also features an 8th stage, in this one, you get sent on a mission to rescue the U.S. president from armed terrorists.
The stage is rock-solid, a side scrolling level where you use all of the skills you ascuired from the first 7 events, but one hit, and it’s game over, BRUTAL!
THE PORTS
Ocean Software released ports of the game for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC in Europe.
Konami themselves later released the Commodore 64 version in North America under the Boot Camp title in 1989 alongside an MS-DOS version. An Amiga version was announced, but never released, shame!
Game platforms: Arcade, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS
COMBAT SCHOOL ARCADE CABINET
VIEW COMBAT SCHOOL VIDEO GAME BOX ART
COMBAT SCHOOL VIDEO GAME TITLE SCREENS
COMBAT SCHOOL VIDEO GAME GAMEPLAY SCREENS
The newsagents near my secondary school had a Combat School cab for about 3 months (it was swapped out regularly). Me and my school friends (we were 13 at the time) would play it after school, but I could never get any good at it.
Although I was decent at Track n Field and Hyper Sports, for some reason the challenge that Combat School laid before me was too much!.
I played it again just recently… I haven’t improved!