Achieved at : 2026-08-01
Rank : 1
(world record)
Lups : 100
Approved :
Yes
Voting completed : 2026-08-30
| General Rules: |
Play with default settings unless otherwise specified. No use of trainers, cheats, saved game files, auto-fire (when not default present in-game), emulator save states, or other emulator advantages. No use of code modifications that give the player an advantage over other players. 1 player only. No continues. It is discouraged and may lead to voters not accepting your score to - excessively point farm - use glitches or other game exploits |
| Specific Rules: | Play the game in 1 player mode, selecting Skill Level 1. |
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TGP
Beach-Head is an amphibious invasion game released in 1984 by US Gold. The original game by Access Software was released for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers in 1983, with this later BBC port being programmed by the very capable Peter Johnson. Peter has a large collection of excellent BBC games and ports to his name, including Impossible Mission and Arkanoid.
Beach-Head takes the form of a number of mini-games that together complete the invasion of your enemy's stronghold. Your first decision is to decide whether to launch a direct assault on the beach, or to guide your fleet of ships through the risky secret passage. The secret passage is protected by mines and torpedoes, but should you negotiate it, you will meet less planes in the next stage.
This stage has you fending on waves of aircraft that drop bombs on your fleet. If you took the secret passage, there will be less to shoot down as your enemy has not had much time to rally their pilots and prepare the aircraft to attack you. Try to shoot down the planes with your anti-aircraft gun and make sure you take careful aim as it takes valuable time to reload. Should you survive this, you are then engaged in a naval bombardment with the enemy fleet. Here, you have to move your gun to the correct angle to hit the enemy ship firing back at you. Your lookout feeds back to you the information on whether your shots are too long or too short so you can change the angle and try again. Take too long and one of you ships will be sunk.
If any of your fleet survive the naval battle, you will land your tanks on the beach-head itself. Now, your tanks move forward, threading their way through the enemy defences and taking out gun emplacements. It is quite a maze and not easy to get the angle right to move through some of the spaces. Any tanks that make it through get a chance to destroy the Citadel, the final objective. Vulnerable sections of the Citadel light up and you need to hit them with your tank's cannon. All the while, the gun on the top of the Citadel is turning towards you and one shot will destroy your tank. Destroy all the lit targets and you've done it! The Citadel is destroyed and the invasion is a success.
Beach-Head is a classic 8-bit game, and as a series of minigames it was quite fun back in the day. There was a real sense of a large scale mission going on and the minigames are well crafted to match scenes reminiscent of the Pacific War of the 1940s. Controls were never a problem and the graphics are smooth and well suited for each level, at least by BBC standards. Gameplay works very well on the Beeb, and the desire to keep hold of all your ships and tanks as much as possible is strong because they give you more chance of completing the mission. There is a real sense of loss when a ship goes down or a tank is destroyed before reaching the Citadel. Good fun, even today.
This run was made on the 1st August 2026 using the Pantheon emulator on PC. Skill level 1 (easiest) was selected and the final score reached was 38,600 points. There are few keys registered during play as I switched to joystick - it was easier to control.
Time stamps:
00:30 Skill Level selection. 1 chosen - seen onscreen keyboard display.
00:33 Game start.
01:26 First ship makes it through.
01:49 First ship sunk.
02:00 Second ship sunk.
02:06 Third ship sunk.
02:30 Fourth ship sunk.
03:14 Fifth ship sunk.
03:30 Incoming aircraft.
04:31 Aircraft attack survived without losing a ship. The naval bombardment begins.
04:41 First enemy ship destroyed.
04:53 Enemy carrier sunk, but they also sink one of my ships.
05:05 Third enemy ship sunk.
05:16 Fourth enemy ship sunk.
05:22 Another one of my ships is sunk.
05:29 Final enemy ship sunk. On to the Beach-Head itself.
05:57 First tank destroyed.
06:20 Second tank destroyed.
06:42 Third tank destroyed.
07:03 Fourth tank destroyed.
07:33 Fifth tank destroyed.
08:07 Sixth tank destroyed. Game Over! Final score 38,600 points.
08:12 Initials entry and High Score table.
Beach-Head takes the form of a number of mini-games that together complete the invasion of your enemy's stronghold. Your first decision is to decide whether to launch a direct assault on the beach, or to guide your fleet of ships through the risky secret passage. The secret passage is protected by mines and torpedoes, but should you negotiate it, you will meet less planes in the next stage.
This stage has you fending on waves of aircraft that drop bombs on your fleet. If you took the secret passage, there will be less to shoot down as your enemy has not had much time to rally their pilots and prepare the aircraft to attack you. Try to shoot down the planes with your anti-aircraft gun and make sure you take careful aim as it takes valuable time to reload. Should you survive this, you are then engaged in a naval bombardment with the enemy fleet. Here, you have to move your gun to the correct angle to hit the enemy ship firing back at you. Your lookout feeds back to you the information on whether your shots are too long or too short so you can change the angle and try again. Take too long and one of you ships will be sunk.
If any of your fleet survive the naval battle, you will land your tanks on the beach-head itself. Now, your tanks move forward, threading their way through the enemy defences and taking out gun emplacements. It is quite a maze and not easy to get the angle right to move through some of the spaces. Any tanks that make it through get a chance to destroy the Citadel, the final objective. Vulnerable sections of the Citadel light up and you need to hit them with your tank's cannon. All the while, the gun on the top of the Citadel is turning towards you and one shot will destroy your tank. Destroy all the lit targets and you've done it! The Citadel is destroyed and the invasion is a success.
Beach-Head is a classic 8-bit game, and as a series of minigames it was quite fun back in the day. There was a real sense of a large scale mission going on and the minigames are well crafted to match scenes reminiscent of the Pacific War of the 1940s. Controls were never a problem and the graphics are smooth and well suited for each level, at least by BBC standards. Gameplay works very well on the Beeb, and the desire to keep hold of all your ships and tanks as much as possible is strong because they give you more chance of completing the mission. There is a real sense of loss when a ship goes down or a tank is destroyed before reaching the Citadel. Good fun, even today.
This run was made on the 1st August 2026 using the Pantheon emulator on PC. Skill level 1 (easiest) was selected and the final score reached was 38,600 points. There are few keys registered during play as I switched to joystick - it was easier to control.
Time stamps:
00:30 Skill Level selection. 1 chosen - seen onscreen keyboard display.
00:33 Game start.
01:26 First ship makes it through.
01:49 First ship sunk.
02:00 Second ship sunk.
02:06 Third ship sunk.
02:30 Fourth ship sunk.
03:14 Fifth ship sunk.
03:30 Incoming aircraft.
04:31 Aircraft attack survived without losing a ship. The naval bombardment begins.
04:41 First enemy ship destroyed.
04:53 Enemy carrier sunk, but they also sink one of my ships.
05:05 Third enemy ship sunk.
05:16 Fourth enemy ship sunk.
05:22 Another one of my ships is sunk.
05:29 Final enemy ship sunk. On to the Beach-Head itself.
05:57 First tank destroyed.
06:20 Second tank destroyed.
06:42 Third tank destroyed.
07:03 Fourth tank destroyed.
07:33 Fifth tank destroyed.
08:07 Sixth tank destroyed. Game Over! Final score 38,600 points.
08:12 Initials entry and High Score table.