About the Game
History
How to Play
Geneology
Imitations
Links

Original Release
Apple II

Other Releases
Arcade
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Atari 8-Bits
Commodore 64
Commodore VIC-20
ColecoVision
Famicom / NES
Sega Game Gear
Sega Master System

Picture Galleries
Coming Soon

Screenshot Galleries
Title
Pick Up
Drop Off
Tanks
Jets
UFOs
Extra

Audio Clip Galleries
Title
Intro
Game
Drop Off
Game Over

Rescue the Hostages, Then Go to the Arcade!

Can a video game still be fun when no one is keeping score? It can when the game is Choplifter. In its original presentation, Choplifter counts the number of hostages you rescue from enemy bunkers, but that's about it. No points are awarded for enemy planes and tanks destroyed, no bonuses are given for how fast or how slow the rescue happens, and no statistics are offered beyond the counts of hostages saved and hostages lost. And yet Choplifter succeeds in being just as addicting and rewarding as any other game, because sometimes rescuing the good guys is all that's important.

Really though, where would the idea for a scoreless action game come from? In this case, it came from a former music student with a fascination for helicopters and a job in computer research. In other words, the idea came from someone who wasn't in the video game industry and didn't actually have a passion for video games. That someone was Dan Gorlin. When the research job ended and Gorlin found himself with a lot of free time and a borrowed Apple II, he decided to create his own virtual helicopter, and a landscape for it to fly around. Then he heard about arcade game Defender and its "little men" who needed defending. A new video game idea was born.

Gorlin took his idea to Broderbund, who at the time were making a name for themselves publishing games and other programs created by independent programmers like Gorlin. Broderbund agreed to publish the game, and soon Choplifter was ready for release. When offered to the public in 1982, the game was an instant hit, even with its novel idea of no scoring. Gorlin became famous among video game developers, but he also proved the Apple II could be a viable gaming platform. Ports quickly followed for other computers and the Atari 5200 game console, further adding to Choplifter's success.

That could have been the end of the story for Choplifter, and it certainly would have been a happy ending. But in 1985, Sega turned Choplifter into an arcade game, offering it to an even wider audience. Sega played it safe in their conversion, adding scoring and even more enemies to shoot at, but the object of the game remained the same: rescue hostages. Arcade Choplifter became a hit just like the original, and spawned even more home versions, this time for late '80s game consoles like the Nintendo Famicom and the Sega Master System. Sequels then followed, with Choplifter II appearing on the Nintendo Game Boy and Choplifter III appearing on the Super Nintendo.

Gorlin hadn't had a whole lot to do with arcade Choplifter or its sequels, but 30 years after his first game, he signed on to help develop and promote Choplifter HD, a 3D-esque remake for the XBox 360 and the PlayStation 3. By then he was an industry veteran, known for several computer games like Airheart and Typhoon Thompson. Even with other titles to his credit, however, he remains best known as the guy behind Choplifter, that little helicopter game that refused to keep score.