Operation Hormuz

Operation Hormuz is an aerial shoot-em-up from 1989, developed by Durell Software and published under the Again Again label. Its premise came straight from the evening news: in the late eighties tankers really were coming under attack in the Strait of Hormuz, and the game sends you out over the Persian Gulf in a combat aircraft to destroy enemy ships and other targets. On other platforms the same title appeared as Harrier 7 — and the pedigree shows, since Durell was the studio behind the famous Harrier Attack back in 1983.

At its core this is a typical action flying game of its day: take off, weave through anti-aircraft fire, hit as many targets as you can and make it back in one piece. The Spectrum release you will find here shipped with both 48K and 128K versions on one tape — with AY sound on the bigger machine — and supports a Kempston joystick as well as redefinable keys, the mark of solid, workmanlike production at the time.

The press, however, was not impressed. Reviews ranged from 34% in Crash up to 71% in Sinclair User, and the average of around 55% says it precisely: a technically competent but unsurprising shooter, released in a year when the Spectrum competition offered more. Telling, too, is that Alternative Software reissued it in 1991 as a cheap budget title — at that price its straightforward action made much better sense.

Today Operation Hormuz is interesting mostly as a curiosity: a game that turned an ongoing real-world conflict into entertainment without blinking, and one of the last examples of Durell's 8-bit output. Do not expect a revelation, but for half an hour of brisk flying and shooting it still holds up.

You can launch the Spectrum version on oldgame.cz right in your browser, no installation needed.