Arctic Moves is the third installment from Dinamic Software's series Army Moves and Navy Moves. In 1991, Arctic Moves was initially scheduled to be published for the Atari ST, but this version was never released due to Dinamic Software's bankruptcy in 1992. The game was later ported for the MS-DOS and published in 1995 by Dinamic Multimedia (founded by agroup of Dinamic Software's owners). The Atari ST version was finally developed by Luis Mariano Garcia (a Dinamic Software ex-member and later a Dinamic Multimedia member). An Amiga version followed many years later and more specifically in 2017.
Review
STORY / GAMEPLAY After being successful on his previous missions in Army Moves and Navy Moves, Derdhal must now travel to the Arctic and infiltrate a base held by aliens who aim to use future human technology for their causes. A U-92 submarine takes Derdhal outside the enemy base where he must use his weapons and finally find out what is going on. The main mission is called Polar Bear and is split into two parts! Part 1 starts outdoors, somewhere in the frozen North Pole, where you infiltrate the enemy base with a cause to destroy their communication systems and blow up all their vehicles! Once the job is done, you get the code for Part 2 (classic Dinamic game). On the first part, you'll fight with hordes of various enemies, from arctic commandos to air troopers that will shoot or throw grenades instantly! Note also that there are several mounted machine guns around the area. Apart from shooting, the game offers a lot of platform-style action, in which you have to jump to higher grounds to reach certain spots and objects. The energy bar is vital, but you have to also watch the limited time before ending your mission. Hopefully, there are energy bonuses (found as hearts) and some extra time bonuses (depicted as clocks) for you to collect. The second part is a bit different but still remains an action shooter! Part 2 takes you inside the alien spaceship! Your mission now is to connect 7 different systems. Inside the huge spaceship, danger is everywhere as you walk the dark corridors and use the elevators, fighting with robots and other deadly aliens (!) trying to terminate your quest! Note also that there are a few huge beasts called CAPITOSAURUS (some of them throwing acid balls) that will only be killed by grenades! Arctic Moves is very difficult and sometimes frustratingly tough (as its predecessors) game, but still, it's fun and has superb visuals.
GRAPHICS / SOUND The DOS version (which is actually a port from the seemingly unfinished Atari ST version) offers very nice graphics with vivid colors and very detailed outdoor and indoor scenes. The sprites are large, with impressive animation, much like its predecessors (Army Moves and Navy Moves). Technically, the PC version is identical to the ST version (a port as I said above) and soundwise, the PC port has music and sound effects during gameplay plus a nice intro tune at the main menu (both missing from the ST version).
CPU: Various processors from Intel,AMD, Cyrix, varying from 4.77Mhz (Intel 8088) to 200Mhz (Pentium MMX) and up to 1995 (available on this site) MEMORY: 640Kb to 32MB RAM (typical up to 1996) GRAPHICS: VGA standard palette has 256 colors and supports: 640x480 (16 colors or monochrome), 640x350 in 16 colors (EGA compatability mode), 320x200 (16 or 256 colors). Later models (SVGA) featured 18bit color palette (262,144-color) or 24bit (16Milion colors), various graphics chips supporting hardware acceleration mainly for 3D-based graphics routines. SOUND: 8 to 16 bit sound cards: Ad-Lib featuring Yamaha YMF262 supporting FM synthesis and (OPL3) and 12-bit digital PCM stereo, Sound Blaster and compatibles supporting Dynamic Wavetable Synthesis, 16-bit CD-quality digital audio sampling, internal memory up to 4MB audio channels varying from 8 to 64! etc. Other notable sound hardware is the release of Gravis Ultrasound with outstanding features!