NAM-1975

NAM-1975 is a 1990 war-themed action shooting game released by SNK. It was the first game released for Neo Geo arcade and home platform, and the only title to not feature the Neo Geo logo in its attract mode.

"The roar of the helicopters overhead snaps us back into reality. We will never forget the nightmare of that summer..." these were the phrases that started the story of Silver & Brown (the names used to describe the two available players).

The game is set in a very fictional account of the final months of the Vietnam War. The story begins with the two soldiers entering the war to rescue Dr. R. Muckly, an ex-scientist of the American Army, who has been kidnapped by Northside Terrorists. Nancy Muckly, Dr. Muckly's daughter has also been kidnapped and is presumed imprisoned in the NAM interior.

However, as the game progresses, the armies learn that Dr. R. Muckly is a madman who is building a gigantic laser cannon to take over the world himself (the final boss battle was infamous for disallowing continues, except by modifying the DIP switch).

There are many references to many famous Vietnam War films in the game, such as Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket: the attract sequence showing one of the characters firing off an M60 machine gun is clearly ported from the shot of Animal Mother firing on the VC sniper in the latter film.

NAM featured two types of weapons:

Shooting weapons

Standard Machine Gun
Balcan: a more powerful machine gun.
Missile: a missile launcher that explodes, clearing enemies within its range.
Fire: a flamethrower that scorches enemies within its path.
Throwing weapons

Grenade: defeats enemies with a concussive blast.
Spark Bomb: a more powerful grenade that triggers other explosions.
Napalm Bomb: a grenade that clears all enemies from the area.
Techniques:

Walk: Press Left or Right
Run: Press Left or Right + Button
Flip (Parry): Diagonal-Left or Diagonal-Right + Button
In addition, by saving a hostage, the hostage will help you by shooting at enemies.

Source: Wikipedia, "NAM-1975", available under the CC-BY-SA License.