Pocket Tanks

The "Roman Candle", one of the 15 weapons in the Meteor expansion pack.

Pocket Tanks is a 1-2 player computer game, created by Blitwise Productions (the same creator of Super DX-Ball). Adapted from Michael Welch's earlier Amiga game Scorched Tanks, this newer version features better physics, dozens of weapons ranging from simple explosive shells to homing missiles, and the ability to move the tank. It supports several expansion packs. At the moment, players can have up to 185 different weapons total.

Developments

Version 1.2 was released April 2007. It contains many bug fixes, including the randomness error, a slightly improved AI and a fix that prevented modifications, such as black, white and shining tanks.

Expansions

There are "weapons packs" available which give the player more weapons choices during gameplay. However, these expansion packs are only available to those who own "Pocket Tanks Deluxe." All packs that include 5 weapons are free, while those with 15 have to be purchased. Here is a list of current Expansion Packs:

Snowball Pack - 5 weapons
Gold Pack - 15 weapons
Gravity Pack - 5 weapons
Fireworks Pack - 15 weapons
Super Pack - 15 weapons
Chaos Pack - 5 weapons
Power Pack - 15 weapons
Flamethrower Pack - 5 weapons
Meteor Pack - 15 weapons
Nuke Pack - 5 weapons
Ambush Pack - 15 weapons
Fuzz Pack - 5 weapons
Tornado Pack - 15 weapons (only for V1.2, an engine improvement, for effects in this pack, has been done)

(185 weapons total including 30 from the Demo and 30 from the Deluxe Version)

Online Potential

Currently, the online feature of playing Pocket Tanks over a network or the internet is currently being developed. As of now there is no online play in V1.2 or lower of Pocket Tanks. However, the next update most likely will contain online play.

Tournament Play

The Camden chapter of The Rutgers University Honors College hosts bi-annual Pocket Tanks Tournaments. "P*Tankers" as the combatants are called compete for cash and prizes. The Pocket Tank Tourney has been going on for three years starting in 2004. Past winners are Randy W. Ford of randywford.com (2004), Black Andy Bilarczyk (2005), Eric Wetzel (Spring 2006, as the first two tournaments were not yet bi-annual events), and Shaun "C.K." Morris (Fall 2006), with the Spring 2007 coming in late October of this year. All past champions are returning to the upcoming event as well as an unprecedented amount of hopefuls.