S.D.I. (video game)
Encyclopedia
S.D.I. is a 1986 action adventure
computer game developed
and published
by Cinemaware
. The game is set during the Cold War
.
did not collapse in 1991. The game uses the controversial Strategic Defense Initiative
(S.D.I.) as its plot device
. True to its name, Cinemaware also looked to Hollywood for some inspiration of the storyline. The storyline is reminiscent of several secret agent
movies (such as the 007 film
s From Russia with Love
and Moonraker
). The game assumes that both the USSR and the United States
have their own version of S.D.I. protecting their respective nations. The American station is never referred to by name. However, the manual and the in-game text indicate that the Soviet facility is called V. I. Lenin Defense Station. It is also mentioned that the Soviet station has laser
cannons for defense against fighters.
of the American SDI system, who according to the game manual is a General
named Sloan McCormick, presumably in the United States Air Force
. McCormick has his headquarters
in the American space station
, which monitors a network of twelve anti-missile satellite
s in geosynchronous orbit over the United States
. The game's advertising blurb, available at Mobygames
, indicates that these American satellites employ particle beam
s. The plot states that Russian revolutionary extremists, led by discontented members of the KGB
have gained control of several ICBMs, as well as space launch facilities needed for deploying manned orbital fighters. Because they have received no response to their demands for the Kremlin
to surrender and for the Americans to abandon their SDI system, the revolutionaries have begun using their seized assets to periodically launch fighters against both space stations. They have also begun periodically firing waves of nuclear missiles at the United States
. The player engages the enemy projectiles and enemy ships using a space-based fighter
. The player must destroy the incoming missile
s lest they wreak destruction upon the U.S. The player must also make repairs to the defense satellites that become damaged during the battles.
Later in the game, the player continues the role of McCormick as, in order to finish the game, McCormick must make a desperate attempt to rescue his lover—he does not necessarily have to succeed. She is the Soviet station commander, and according to the manual her name is Natalia "Talia" Kazarian. She is placed in grave danger because her station is eventually boarded
by the enemy forces, so McCormack must attempt to fight his way past them and reach Kazarian before she is killed. The manual even goes so far as to say that she is at risk of torture
, but this is not shown. It is interesting that "Kazarian" is definitely not an ethnic Russian name. In fact, it can be confirmed if one goes to the web site http://www.kazarian.com that the name is from Armenia
, or, in the counterfactual universe of the game where the Soviet Union did not fall in 1991, it is from the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The concept of a high-ranking female officer in command of an orbiting Soviet military installation is also interesting when one considers certain realities of gender discrimination -- even in light of such exceptional luminaries as Major General Valentina Tereshkova
. Complex issues of Soviet racism
and Soviet cultural assimilation
would certainly have impacted the life of such a person as the fictional Natalia Kazarian. A person in such an important position of authority who was not an ethnic Russian might well have been a carefully vetted
'pet native' prize pupil, selected for special treatment on the basis of political reliability and above-average potential, with perhaps a special dispensation to attend Moscow State University
.
, the most capable home computer
of the era. It was also released for the Atari ST
, DOS
, and Macintosh
.
praised the Atari ST game, particularly for its touching ending sequences. The review also noted the game "relies more on arcade elements than the other Cinemaware games".
The Amiga version of the arcade game was reviewed in 1987 in Dragon
#128 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
computer game developed
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
and published
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
by Cinemaware
Cinemaware
Cinemaware was a computer game developer and publisher that released several popular titles in the 1980s based on various movie themes. The company was resurrected in 2000, before being acquired by eGames in 2005.-Cinemaware Corp...
. The game is set during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
Plot
This game was released near the end of the Cold War. According to the game introduction screen, it takes place in October of 2017 – obviously, in a universe when the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
did not collapse in 1991. The game uses the controversial Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
(S.D.I.) as its plot device
Plot device
A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
. True to its name, Cinemaware also looked to Hollywood for some inspiration of the storyline. The storyline is reminiscent of several secret agent
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
movies (such as the 007 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s From Russia with Love
From Russia with Love (film)
From Russia with Love is the second in the James Bond spy film series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1963, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1957 novel of the...
and Moonraker
Moonraker (film)
Moonraker is the eleventh spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The third and final film in the series to be directed by Lewis Gilbert, it co-stars Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Corinne Clery, and Richard Kiel...
). The game assumes that both the USSR and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
have their own version of S.D.I. protecting their respective nations. The American station is never referred to by name. However, the manual and the in-game text indicate that the Soviet facility is called V. I. Lenin Defense Station. It is also mentioned that the Soviet station has laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
cannons for defense against fighters.
Gameplay
The player takes the role of the commander-in-chiefCommander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
of the American SDI system, who according to the game manual is a General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
named Sloan McCormick, presumably in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
. McCormick has his headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
in the American space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
, which monitors a network of twelve anti-missile satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s in geosynchronous orbit over the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The game's advertising blurb, available at Mobygames
MobyGames
-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
, indicates that these American satellites employ particle beam
Particle beam
A particle beam is a stream of charged or neutral particles which may be directed by magnets and focused by electrostatic lenses, although they may also be self-focusing ....
s. The plot states that Russian revolutionary extremists, led by discontented members of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
have gained control of several ICBMs, as well as space launch facilities needed for deploying manned orbital fighters. Because they have received no response to their demands for the Kremlin
Kremlin
A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
to surrender and for the Americans to abandon their SDI system, the revolutionaries have begun using their seized assets to periodically launch fighters against both space stations. They have also begun periodically firing waves of nuclear missiles at the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The player engages the enemy projectiles and enemy ships using a space-based fighter
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
. The player must destroy the incoming missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s lest they wreak destruction upon the U.S. The player must also make repairs to the defense satellites that become damaged during the battles.
Later in the game, the player continues the role of McCormick as, in order to finish the game, McCormick must make a desperate attempt to rescue his lover—he does not necessarily have to succeed. She is the Soviet station commander, and according to the manual her name is Natalia "Talia" Kazarian. She is placed in grave danger because her station is eventually boarded
Boarding (attack)
Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion on to a ship's deck of individuals. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the forcible insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party without the consent of the captain or crew...
by the enemy forces, so McCormack must attempt to fight his way past them and reach Kazarian before she is killed. The manual even goes so far as to say that she is at risk of torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, but this is not shown. It is interesting that "Kazarian" is definitely not an ethnic Russian name. In fact, it can be confirmed if one goes to the web site http://www.kazarian.com that the name is from Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, or, in the counterfactual universe of the game where the Soviet Union did not fall in 1991, it is from the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The concept of a high-ranking female officer in command of an orbiting Soviet military installation is also interesting when one considers certain realities of gender discrimination -- even in light of such exceptional luminaries as Major General Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a retired Soviet cosmonaut, and was the first woman in space. She was selected out of more than four hundred applicants, and then out of five finalists, to pilot Vostok 6 on the 16 June, 1963, becoming both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in...
. Complex issues of Soviet racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and Soviet cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
would certainly have impacted the life of such a person as the fictional Natalia Kazarian. A person in such an important position of authority who was not an ethnic Russian might well have been a carefully vetted
Vetting
Vetting is a process of examination and evaluation, generally referring to performing a background check on someone before offering him or her employment, conferring an award, etc...
'pet native' prize pupil, selected for special treatment on the basis of political reliability and above-average potential, with perhaps a special dispensation to attend Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
.
Ports
As with most Cinemaware titles, S.D.I. was developed first on the AmigaAmiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, the most capable home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
of the era. It was also released for the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, and Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
.
Reception
A review in Computer Gaming WorldComputer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
praised the Atari ST game, particularly for its touching ending sequences. The review also noted the game "relies more on arcade elements than the other Cinemaware games".
The Amiga version of the arcade game was reviewed in 1987 in Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#128 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.