Overview

Task Force (or Taskforce) is a turn-based squad shooter game created by Mark Sheeky for the Commodore Amiga. Mark produced a huge number of Amiga games under the Scorpius Software brand between 1991 and 1997, mostly freeware or shareware, before moving on to PC games.

This project

This website is similar to my previous Commodore Amiga game analysis projects, Exploring K240 and Exploring the Dungeons of Avalon.

For Task Force, the in-game instructions hinted at useful stats hidden from the player:

Write to me if you want lists of the standard computer agents equipment. There are 5 types of computer agent. Normal, Big Gun, Elite, Android, and Captain. Each have different equipment specs […]

Write to me if you want the enemy intelligence algorithms, enemy specification, the formats for the mission files, the music modules or specific routines. If you have any suggestions for possible sequels or if you would like to see a full price version, contact me too.

From a 2011 interview we know that a few people actually did write to the game’s author, leading to the games Hilt and Hilt 2. In 2022, he published the source code on the game’s Itch.io page, which will make analysis of this game much easier! It’s released under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (free for non-commercial use), and the game is sold on a “pay what you want” basis.

I encourage other Amiga game developers to release their old games this way on Itch.io, along with source code, if it still survives. You might receive a few tips from nostalgic players of your game from back in the day, or at least you can bless the Amiga community with a piece of history.

Next, see history for an article on the game itself, or see the index for analysis and data.