Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials is a stand-alone expansion pack of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear. It was developed by Magic Lantern Playware as an educational training simulator on real-life counter-terrorism history and tactics. After the simulator was repurposed as an expansion pack, Red Storm Entertainment developed three campaign missions while Zombie Studios developed six multiplayer maps. Published by Red Storm Entertainment, it was released on September 28, 2000.
Features[]
Missions[]
- Lucky Snare / Jungle - Northern Bolivia - 01.17.2004 / 14:30 Hours
- Arctic Zebra / Ice Base - Arctic Circle - 02.02.2004 / 11:00 Hours
- Brazen Heart / Missile Silo - North Dakota - 04.15.2004 / 18:50 Hours
Maps[]
- Jungle - Northern Bolivia - 01.17.2004 / 14:30 Hours
- Ice Base - Arctic Circle - 02.02.2004 / 11:00 Hours
- Missile Silo - North Dakota - 04.15.2004 / 18:50 Hours
- Trailer Park - Hereford, England - 08.21.2003 / 19:30 Hours
- Junkyard - Hereford, England - 08.21.2003 / 19:30 Hours
- Store Front - Hereford, England - 08.21.2003 / 19:30 Hours
- Store Back - Hereford, England - 08.21.2003 / 19:30 Hours
- Emergency Room - Hereford, England - 08.21.2003 / 19:30 Hours
- Hospital - Hereford, England - 08.21.2003 / 19:30 Hours
Development[]
The Covert Ops Essentials Training Simulator was a stand-alone tutorial program. In actuality, it was a robust Computer Based Trainer developed by Magic Lantern Playware called "ShowTech". It featured an engaging rotational global menu, which allowed students to easily navigate to any lesson. Students would "register" with their user name and then would be awarded points based on their scores during the testing phase following each module.
Numerous real-world technical advisors were featured in video interviews throughout the program who provided insight to law enforcement and military tactical operations. One such expert was SWAT Team Leader Sergeant Tony Levatino from the Santa Ana Police Department (CA). As a private computer simulation consultant, Levatino provided technical materials for the reference material portion of the program. Additionally, he was featured in over 30 videos wherein he described the various nomenclature, specifications and uses of sub-machineguns, machineguns, sniper rifles, pistols, silencers, and diversionary devices.
With the success of the educational product, and the fact that it showed promise as a real-life training system, Levatino in partnership with Magic Lantern were able to secure the rights to the source code to Rainbow Six. He lectured extensively on the use of computer simulation in law enforcement at numerous law professional organiation conferences and was featured in several magazine articles discussing the advantages of simulation. Unfortunately, the concept of using computer simulation in a desk-top trainer to inhance cognitive skills development was ahead of its time, and the partners ultimately were unable to secure funding to continue the project.
Interestingly enough, his experience with tactical simulators lead him to become a consultant to Dynamic Animation Systems a manufacturer of a multi-million dollar military simulators named the Virtual Interactive Combat Environment (VICE System ). Levatino approached the company with the proposal to convert the simulator to a law enforcement version. For the past 8 years he has been a consultant for the system which has seen deployment worldwide.
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