How to bring the hostages home in Chopper Rescue

Behind enemy lines, a row of huts holds the hostages you've come to rescue, and Chopper Rescue puts you at the controls of the helicopter sent to fetch them. Tanks and jets are in the way, and your job is to get people home. It's one of the 8-bit games on the Retro arcade shelf of Games by Zaweba, in the style of a 64K home computer, and it mixes shooting with careful flying in a way that rewards a steady hand as much as quick fire.

The mission

You start at base and fly left. Out there are huts with hostages inside. You shoot or bomb a hut open, land gently beside the hostages, and they climb aboard, up to 16 at a time. Then you fly them back and land on the H pad at base. There are 40 hostages in all, and you need to bring home at least half of them to complete the mission.

That limit of 16 on board shapes the whole game. You can't rescue everyone in one trip, so you'll make several runs out and back, and each run is a chance to lose the chopper and everyone in it.

Flying, shooting and bombing

Arrows or WASD fly the helicopter, and Up takes off. Space or Z fires. X turns the chopper to face the front, and in that position Space drops bombs instead. Switching between facing sideways to shoot and facing the front to bomb is how you deal with different targets, so get comfortable with X early on.

Tanks and jets attack you on the way. You can fight them, but the mission isn't to destroy them, it's to get hostages home. There's often more to gain from getting past trouble than from staying to fight it.

Landing with care

Landing is the delicate part. Land gently, and beside the hostages, not on them. Coming down hard or on top of the people you came for is the quickest way to undo a good run. Slow your descent as you near the ground, and pick a clear spot next to the group.

Landing at base does more than drop off passengers: it mends the chopper too. If you've taken damage, a trip home is a repair as well as a delivery, and it can be worth heading back with a partly full load rather than pushing further out while the helicopter is in a bad way.

Planning your runs

A sensible pattern is to open a hut, fill up, and head straight back, rather than opening several huts and trying to gather everyone in one go. Each landing at base repairs you and makes the people you've carried safe. Keep count against the target too: 20 of the 40 is the mark for completing the mission, and every extra person brought home is one more saved.

It's also worth thinking about the route home as well as the way out. Flying back with a full cabin is when a mistake costs the most, so that's the leg to fly most carefully.

Around the game

Esc pauses when things get busy, F11 gives you the full screen, and the title card and F1 lay out every control, which helps while you're learning the facing and bombing keys. Games by Zaweba keeps your best score and plays on your PC and shows how you did against your best when the game ends. Nothing goes online and there's no account, so the mission is ready whenever you are.

Fly gently near the ground, use base for repairs, and bring people home in sensible loads rather than all at once.