| Red Lightning | |
| Designer: | Norm Koger |
| Publisher: | Strategic Simulations |
| Released: | 1989 1990 (Amiga) |
| Genre: | Wargame |
| Modes: | Single-player |
| Platforms: | Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS |
Red Lightning is a wargame created by Norm Koger and published by Strategic Simulations for the Atari ST and MS-DOS in 1989. An Amiga conversion followed a year later. The game is set in Europe and hypothesizes a Soviet invasion of Western Europe.
The Box Art for Red Lightning was created by illustrator Marc Ericksen, and features Soviet T-80 tanks, with Mig-29s flying air cover, advancing under heavy weather.
In the November 1989 edition of Games International (Issue 10), John Inglis noted that the menu driven system "can be a little tedious, as it takes you many keystrokes to move you from one part to the next." However, he concluded by giving the game above average ratings of 4 out of 5 for both game play and graphics, saying, "I would [...] recommend it to traditional wargamers."[1]
In the January 1994 edition of Computer Gaming World, M. Evan Brooks stated that Red Lightnings user interface had "serious flaws". While the Atari ST version's mouse-driven user interface was not as flawed, Brooks concluded that "the overall ease of use is sorely lacking in what is supposed to be computer entertainment", and gave the game a poor rating of only 2 out of 5.[2] [3]