North & South is a strategy action game released in 1989 for the Amiga, and Atari ST and ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Amstrad CPC, MSX, MS-DOS, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.
North & South is an offshoot of the Belgian comic series Les Tuniques Bleues (by Raoul Cauvin and Louis Salverius/Willy Lambillotte, from Dupuis) which is based on the American Civil War.
North & South contains humorous elements, such as parodies of national anthems, which are accessible when the player selects one of the different languages supported by the game: (English, French, Spanish, German or Italian).
By turning on an option at the main menu the player controlling the state of North Carolina will get periodic reinforcements by ship.
However, there is an option on the main menu where the player can turn off in-game missions and battles so that game-play is as in a board game.
Each player starts on opposite sides of the screen and controls an army consisting of infantry, cavalry and artillery.
It is to note that Cavalry, once movement has started, will not stop moving forwards unless the player actively pulls the horse reigns by pushing backwards with the control method of choice.
In the middle of the battle map, there may be a river or a chasm, in which case a bridge serves as a choke point where the fighters are likely to meet.
If the option on the main menu is turned on, there will be two non-player sides that pose a threat to the player's armies.
A Native American who lives to the west of the territory might hurl a giant tomahawk randomly at one of the westernmost states (Kansas or Nebraska), destroying the army unfortunate enough to be garrisoned there.
Similarly, a sombrero-clad Mexican living to the southwest might suddenly wake up from his siesta and toss a bomb into Texas, result being the same.
Computer Gaming World gave North & South one-plus stars out of five for wargamers and three out of five for arcade gamers.
[4] In June 2012, Microïds (Anuman Interactive’s adventure game label) released The Bluecoats: North vs South,[5] a remake for iOS and Android compatible devices[6] and for Windows.