Systemless game library

Bolo

Drive, fight and build across an island battlefield designed for shifting alliances between networked tank commanders.

Stuart Cheshire, 1992

Download Bolo

The official 0.99.7 package

This is Stuart Cheshire's complete electronic distribution: Bolo itself, its sound file, the Standard Autopilot brain and the manuals and technical notes that travelled with the game. It remains in the original BinHex wrapper submitted to Info-Mac. The bundled shareware notice permits free, noncommercial electronic redistribution of this complete, unmodified package; it asks players to pay the shareware fee after a one-month evaluation. No registered copy or key is included.

Tank country

Bolo's islands are working landscapes rather than fixed arenas. A tank can cut through forest, lay roads, repair bridges, place mines and move pillboxes while trying to capture refuelling bases. Limited sight makes every patch of trees a possible ambush, and the alliance system leaves room for cooperation, betrayal and long territorial campaigns.

The included tutorial teaches the terrain and construction tools without a network. The larger game was made for groups: up to sixteen commanders sharing a map, with optional programmable “brains” assisting their tanks.

Systemless reaches the local Tutorial, paints its water and terrain, and responds to the boat's forward control. The optimized browser preview also passed through the opening lessons into the unobstructed map.