DESCRIPTION

Power up the rotor, you're going behind enemy lines. Broderbund's answer to the then-hit arcade game Defender, Choplifter! puts you at the stick of a nimble helicopter, with the mission is to rescue hostages from an enemy compound, 16 men at a time, and then whisk them back to your own base and offload them. Naturally, it's not the enemy's job to make this task easy for you — they send tanks and other choppers after you, and if they find you on the ground taking passengers on board, you're powerless to stop them from blasting you to bits. The secret of Choplifter! lies with being a good judge of when to be on the ground or in the air. In its Apple II incarnation, Choplifter! sports colorful, fluid graphics, better-than-average sound, slick controls, and an ability to make just about any joystick jockey obsessed with getting it right without losing any hostages or helicopters. Choplifter! was later ported to numerous videogame consoles, and Sega licensed it for translation into an arcade game. Along with Lode Runner, Choplifter! helped to secure the future of Broderbund, though the company later chose productivity software such as Print Shop over the kind of entertainment titles that made it famous early on. ~ Earl Green, All Game Guide