This game was donated to the museum by Samantha Lawson and Simon Linzell. It was owned by Samantha (b. 08/01/1978) and her brother when she was seven years old. Harrier Attack is a computer game for the Amstrad CPC released in 1983 by Durell Software. The player controls a Sea Harrier fighter, looking sideways onto a right-to-left scrolling seascape and landscape. The aim of the game is to take off from a carrier, attack ships and land targets, avoid the odd missile and enemy fighter, then land back on the carrier again. Although the game was a work of fiction, it was inspired by the 1982 Falklands War, in which the Sea Harrier had played a major role.
One interesting little quirk to the game was that it was possible to bomb your own ship as you took off from it. If you did this, when you returned it would no longer be there and being unable to land on it your plane would just continue flying until it ran out of fuel and crashed.