CHINA: CHINESE COMPUTER COMPANY DEVELOPS A COMPUTER GAME WHICH RE-ENACTS THE KOREAN WAR

Record ID: 649351

  • Title: CHINA: CHINESE COMPUTER COMPANY DEVELOPS A COMPUTER GAME WHICH RE-ENACTS THE KOREAN WAR
  • Date: 1st August 1996
  • Summary: CU COMPUTER SCREEN SHOWING U.S. WAR PLANE BLOWING UP 2.50 Initials S3/2 P3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 16th August 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIJING, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Politics,Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVAO95USE4HB5DM9KUK4JJSGN5Q
  • Story Text: China has developed a new computer game that offers Chinese players a rematch between U.S. and Chinese fighter planes in the Korean War (1950-53).
    One of China's most politically-correct software companies has come up with a new computer game, enabling players to restage aerial dogfights between U.S. and Chinese planes during the Korean War.
    Beijing's Golden Disc Limited is continuing where it left off whith its hugely succesful Opium War game, which allowed players to re-enact an 18th Century war between China and Britain.
    The company has attributed the success of their Opium War game to an insatiable appetite amongst young Chinese for games with a nationalistic flavour.
    To start the game, players choose roles as one of a selection of Chinese Korean War veterans.
    During the game the player has to shoot down U.S. aircraft and also has to protect ground targets from U.S. attacks.
    "The planes from both sides can only fire when they are within a 145 metres distance," said Yang Nanzheng, the manager of the company's game department, explaining that during the war, fighter pilots only had recourse to guns as air-to-air missiles had not yet been developed.
    The game, which is called "The Fighting Eagles of August 1", refers to the date on which today's Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) was founded. August 1 is now a public holiday in China and the company plans to release the game to the public on Friday (August 1).
    The game was developed from a "Sinocentric" point of view, providing China's viewpoint of the 1950-53 war between South Korea, aided by the U.S. and United Nations soldiers, and communist North Korea, unofficially aided by China.
    The game gives China victory in the aerial combat zone of the war, attributing 231 aircraft losses to the Chinese and 330 to the U.S. - a kill ratio, the game makes clear, of 3:2.
    Yang, who is expecting the game to knock up high sales figures on its first day of release, explained the allure of the game.
    "While entering the 21st century, China will try to become more prosperous and stronger, during that process the Chinese people will need more of these cultural products, they strengten their self-confidence and improve the understanding of their own history," he said.
    One of the pilots whose role players can choose to play in the game is Wang Tianbao, a hero of the Korean War, who is attributed with four U.S. kills in a single dogfight. Chinese records show he was involved in a fight with seven U.S. F-86 jet fighters. Wang was flying a propellor plane.
    At a preview of the game for middle-school students in Beijing, Wang relived the experience.
    "First we had not noticed anything, but as soon as we crossed the river a large amount of planes came flying towards us." But he also said that besides the pretence of a war game, there were some very real differences between his experiences and the game.
    "Well, of course (the game) is not the same as a real war. At that time it was very stressful and there was not so much time to think. This game gives you enough time to think," he explained to awe-struck students.
    Golden Disc is continuing to produce computer games with a "Sinocentric" view point and their next game is likely to be one on the Long March, which communist forces undertook during China's civil war.
    The company's Opium War game was a best seller in China with 6,000 copies sold in the first month.
    "The Fighting Eagles of August 1", which took a year to develop at a cost of 250,000 yuan (30,120 U.S. dollars) will retail at 81 yuan (10 U.S. dollars) a copy.
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