9 year old me got my first "hacking" experience out of this game. With the shareware version, you could not select the ultra tank that could shoot 3 bullets for a human, but you COULD if it were the computer player.

The "hack": -start a game with a normal tank VS ultra computer player as p2. -save the game (as a file). -open the game file. -read the ASCII text and just flip which player has which text.

Now, I had my ultra tank.

Mother of all games. Played so much SE when I was younger, one of my all time favs.

This version is ok but I prefer the original which is easy enough to run via dos-box, emulators of similar ilk or even online in a few places:

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Scorched_Earth_1991

https://dos.zone/scorched-earth/

https://www.playdosgames.com/play/scorched-earth

I loved turning the explosion to the max and launching Nukes or Death Head MIRVs and watching the whole screen be annihilated. Despite many clones I've never found one that really captured the feel and fun of the original. I'd love to see a faithful remake that had a larger playing area though.

Scorched Earth taught me the concept of software versions. It was the first program that I ever knowingly interacted with more than one point-release of. I had version 1.0, but a friend had version 1.2. My very young mind was boggled by the concept of software being updated.

I played the hell out of the original DOS game during high school in 1992 (or thereabouts, it's been a while.)

In my first job after graduation in a small company I was talking to the VP of engineering, and he mentioned offhand: "yeah, I wrote Scorch when I was in college". Mind blown.

for the 25th anniversary (approximately) I vibecoded what i wanted to do for years -- port of the original remake (yes) to JavaScript. Alive again.

Oh man, we played this in computer lab in high school to pass time after we were done with our assignments. I believe it was a java/flash version though (year 2000/2001)

There exists 3D version:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_3D

http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/

No way! I played the original (too much) while doing computer science at uni in the early 1990s. My friends were either playing the Dune RTS or mmorpgs, depending on their leaning. A lot of the limited available computing power went into playtime in those days :)

Ooh, and it's fully playable!

Last time I tried this game, I think I had managed to get a hold of the original executable or something: the rate of turn for the turret was tied to CPU cycles. Paying it on a computer about a decade younger than the game made it quite impossible to aim, as the turret would spin several laps if you so much as looked at the arrow key

Pocket Tanks was my ultimate childhood game that I played with my classmates during our computer lab lessons. I believe Scorched Earth was it's inspiration

I wasted most of my high school years on the OG (1991) version. I love how such a simple concept can make for such a great game

OMG. One of my favorite games. It was fun to explore all the weapons and utilities with my brother.

Holy... the nostalgia, I played the hell out of this game in computer class back in school 25 years ago, time flies.

I did not realize Pocket Tanks was a derivative work.

We used to play the DOS version in AP Computers in HS back in 1994.

Wow! Curious how you did multiplayer over the web? What stack did you use?

A related page:

Scorched Earth: The Mother of All Games

http://www.whicken.com/scorch/

(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32092060)

This bring me back so many good memories! Thank you!

What was the game like this with apes throwing bananas?

omg, 286 with B/W CRT display

Thank you for this blast from the past.

NO. WAY.

This made my whole day. Thank you.

OH GOD! MY NOSTALGIA!!!!

Hoooooly hell I totally forgot about this. Talk about dredging up some memories. I don’t think I have thought about this game in literally 20 years.

Man, I used to play this game a ton.... and the throw the banana game that was written in basic and came with DOS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyBD0X81tjk

Didn't realize that in 2026 people still ran an http only websites

original Scorched Earth is only 4 years older than Worms

Hard to understand for me why would anyone play this when they can play much funnier Worms. I mean I played Scorched Earth with my cousin before Worms existed, but once they released Worms why would we play it?

I am still playing Worms Armageddon in 2026 with my kids on PS3 at least once or twice a week (the original graphics didn't age very well for 4K TVs), though not retro levels, they are way too small, dunno why they didn't scale them up for higher resolution.

I remember the original Scorched Earth being one of the few games that could actually do SVGA graphics at the time.

Most games of the era where 320x240 8 bit 256 colors, I had a 286 with 800x600 SVGA monitor and that game could actually use it although it was only 4 bit 16 color, don't think I ever played the 256 color in the last version.

LOL nostalgic

[dead]

[dead]

[dead]