Raid on Bungeling Bay

Raid on Bungeling Bay was designed and programmed by Will Wright for the Commodore 64 and first published by Brøderbund in 1984. Ariolasoft published the UK release. It was Wright's first commercial game, several years before he created SimCity.

The player pilots a helicopter from an aircraft carrier and must find and destroy six factories spread across the islands of Bungeling Bay. The factories do not simply wait to be attacked: they produce and strengthen enemy defences, escalating from gun emplacements and fighters to guided missiles and a battleship. Returning to the carrier allows the helicopter to rearm and repair, provided the carrier itself survives.

Its scrolling world and increasingly organised opposition made it more strategic than a conventional shoot-'em-up. Wright's experience building and observing the simulated island environment became an important step towards the ideas he later developed in SimCity.