ARMY MOVES
THE GAME THAT TOOK DINAMIC TO THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET

► THE GAME THAT CONQUERED BRITAIN

In late 1986, Dinamic Software had already been making noise in the Spanish market for a few years, but Army Moves was something different: it was the game that crossed the English Channel. British distributors Imagine Software — part of the Ocean group — took notice and decided to distribute it in the UK, commissioning their own versions for C64, Amiga and Atari ST. It was the first time a Spanish company had achieved that level of penetration in the British market, and it was no coincidence.

The original Spectrum and Amstrad version was made by Víctor Ruiz himself — the man who designed, programmed and often also did the graphics. The cover illustration was by Alfonso Azpiri, the Madrid illustrator whose covers had already become a hallmark of Dinamic — that style combining American comics and science fiction that made games look bigger than they were.

► SCREENSHOT GALLERY

📷 See real screenshots at Lemon64 and MobyGames (links below)

► GAMEPLAY: SEVEN LEVELS, TWO WORLDS

Army Moves split the experience into two clearly distinct parts, a Dinamic trademark. The first put you behind the wheel of a military jeep dodging enemy vehicles and surviving helicopter fire, then had you climb aboard one of those helicopters to face planes, submarines and anti-aircraft fire. The second part completely changed register: Freddy — yes, the soldier had no official name but was the same spirit as Freddy Hardest — went on foot and had to infiltrate the enemy base on the ground, jumping over rocks, dodging toucans and eliminating soldiers to recover secret documents.

The variety was genuine and appreciated, but the game had a problem that its fans and detractors have debated for decades: the difficulty was brutal. Not difficult in the sense of challenging and rewarding, but difficult in the sense of unfair. Enemies appeared in patterns requiring near-perfect memorisation, the margin for error was minimal and dying was constant. Many players never saw the second part.

One detail few people knew: the spacebar activated secondary fire in the first part. Whoever discovered this had an enormous advantage over those who didn't. The manual didn't explain it clearly enough, and in the pre-internet era, that kind of secret circulated by word of mouth in school playgrounds.

► GRAPHICS: AZPIRI ON THE BOX, SOLDIERS ON SCREEN

The C64 version of Army Moves was developed by an English programmer hired by Imagine, and graphically it had its own characteristics compared to the original Spanish version. The environments were colourful and recognisable — jungle, military base, sky filled with aerial enemies — and the sprites had the solidity characteristic of Imagine productions. Not spectacular, but they did the job.

Where it did stand out was the original cover: Alfonso Azpiri's illustration was an explosion of action with helicopters, soldiers and explosions that promised a far more epic experience than the hardware could deliver. It was first-class cover art, the kind that made you buy the game in the shop without ever having played it.

► SOUND: FRED GRAY AT THE SID CONTROLS

The C64 music was composed by Fred Gray, one of the most prolific SID chip composers, with a catalogue that included titles from Imagine and Ocean. The result was solid: a martial soundtrack that fitted the military theme perfectly, with that unmistakable SID sound that made even the most frustrating games have a musical backing that invited you to keep trying.

The original Spectrum music, composed by Manuel Cubedo, had its own character, but in audio terms the C64 won without argument. It was one of those occasions where Commodore's hardware had a clear advantage over the competition.

► DINAMIC'S INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT

Army Moves was the turning point. Before it, Dinamic was a Spanish company known in Spain. Afterwards, it was a Spanish company known across Europe. Having Ocean and Imagine bet on distributing their games in the British market was a validation that few domestic studios had achieved. Navy Moves arrived in 1988 as a direct sequel, and the Moves franchise became one of the most recognisable in Spanish software of the 1980s.

Curiously, the C64 version was made entirely by English programmers hired by Imagine — Dinamic barely had a presence in the Commodore world at the time, since in Spain the C64 never had the weight it had on the Spectrum. That explains why the C64 version has a slightly different flavour from the original: same essence, different hands.