DEFCON Everybody Dies

If The Bomb Drops! Introversion Software's DEFCON

The popular new strategy game from Introversion Software, "the last of the bedroom programmers."

Posted Friday November 10th, 2006

DEFCON (DEfense CONdition) is the popular new strategy game from Introversion Software, "the last of the bedroom programmers."

Introversion is also the developer of the two acclaimed games, Darwinia and Uplink Hacker Elite. DEFCON's script is based on the the 1983 movie War Games in which a Cold War era computer program named Joshua is told to simulate a US/USSR nuclear war. The resulting screen is filled with white arcs and circles depicting contrails and mushroom clouds from missile launches and warhead explosions. I remember it seemed so cool at the time.

In DEFCON, you have the chance to engage in global thermonuclear war against online opponents or the game's AI. You choose a superpower "character" - North or South America, Europe, Africa, Russia, or Asia - and hustle to build alliances with other superpowers as you strategically move your units to protect your territory while the DEFCON level escalates from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1

Ground units consist of missile silos, airbases, and radar dishes. Sea units consist of submarines, battleships, and aircraft carriers. Air units consist of fighters, bombers, and nukes. Each unit type has its unique capabilities and limitations.

At DEFCON 1 Armageddon unfolds on your PC screen as the nukes are deployed. How you fare and score depends on how wisely you deploy your units and form alliances, and how much destruction and death your territory sustains.

Just a note on alliances - beware of betrayal.

For those of you who already own Uplink Hacker Elite, it includes a machine named the Protovision Game Server. Login to it with the password "joshua" for a playable Global Thermonuclear War.

Let the War Games Begin: Inside Introversion Software's DEFCON