Platoon

I remember that cover with the soldier in the jungle and the Ocean Software logo. 1987, Oliver Stone's film was barely a year old, and this licensed adaptation came out fast — maybe too fast.

Platoon throws you into the Vietnamese jungle and demands what most action games of the era did: survive. The game loosely draws from the film's themes — patrols, jungle, villages — but don't expect a faithful retelling. It's a series of distinct action sequences spread across several phases, each playing a bit differently. Sometimes you move from a side view, sometimes through the environment from above. Ocean loved this approach with their licenses, and the results were always mixed.

And here's where I get to the heart of it. Keyboard controls are unpleasant. On C64 or Amstrad you could plug in a joystick and tolerate the pain — on the 1987 PC version you were stuck at the keyboard hunting for logic in a key layout that simply didn't exist. The character movement feels clunky, and you wade through the jungle more by patience than reflexes. Enemies spawn with a precision that feels more like punishment than challenge. This wasn't nostalgia talking; it was a real problem even back then.

Still, I remember Platoon. Not because it was exceptionally good, but because it was part of the wave of licensed games that squeezed everything they could from movie blockbusters — and Ocean was the most aggressively coastal about it. The PC version's graphics weren't anything to convince you to upgrade from the C64, but the sound design carries a weight that suits the game. That digitized version of Barber's Adagio for Strings as the main theme — for the hardware at the time, that was small miracle in itself.

Today Platoon mainly appeals to those who want to remember what licensed game culture looked like at the turn of the '80s — quick productions, uneven quality, but occasionally a flash of inspiration. If you're expecting a smooth action experience, you'll be disappointed. If you know what you're getting into and love a glimpse into game archaeology, you'll spend half an hour here without regret. A gamepad or USB joystick is in every drawer these days — this time, plug it in.