Comanche series

Comanche is a helicopter flight simulation for the PC by NovaLogic, which represents the U.S. combat helicopter, RAH -66 Comanche in the center. So far, four regular parts are published in the series.

Outstanding is the use of a voxel -based graphics engine, the 386 processors provided a surprisingly good 3D simulation already in the first versions.

The focus of the game but is not the flying control of the aircraft, which is largely done by an automatic, but the fight against opponents with weapons provided.

The parts

Comanche: Operation White Lightning

The first part (English Original Title: Comanche: Maximum Overkill ) appeared at the end of 1992 for MS -DOS. The simulation began the first of its kind at that time a revolutionary voxel technology, which allowed for a realistic representation of landscapes at all times of the day. In contrast to the three-dimensional environment objects, however, were still represented as bitmaps.

The game itself was very action- stressed and let the players with its helicopters and occasionally take a wingman against the Kamov Ka-50 helicopters and battle tanks of an international drug cartel.

For the first part of two expansion disks with the titles published in 1993 Global Challenge ( Original title: Mission Disk 1) and Over the Edge. In addition, there were 1994 CD version, which contained the main program, the two mission disks and ten bonus missions.

Comanche 2/Werewolf

The second part was published early in 1995, offered a playful but in general, little innovation. At best graphics and scenarios have been modernized. However, were new to the multiplayer mode via Local Area Network and the publication policy: The game was released in two versions: Comanche 2 and Werewolf, each edition to one of its two helicopters Counterparty Comanche or Kamov Ka-50 was fixed and corresponding emissions bot. In network mode, finally, players of both versions were fighting each other.

Comanche Gold 3.0/Comanche

Comanche 3.0 was released in 1997 and used the new version 2.0 of the voxelspace engine. In this way, the graphics were significantly modernized and also offered VGA quality at resolutions up to 640 × 480 pixels. In addition, this version of the game also offered for the first time 3D objects with which decked the landscapes and opponents were represented.

In technical terms, simulation was version 3.0 is a big step forward. The game offered a realistic flight model as well as realistic mission profiles, which now also included some friendly units.

Appeared in 1998 with a new edition of Comanche Gold Comanche 3.0, which expanded the main program to a range of exclusive, designed by former helicopter pilot gold missions. The game was also ported to Windows now (originally Comanche 3.0 was still a DOS game ).

Comanche 4

The fourth part was published in early 2002 and began one of the first, the graphics interface DirectX 8.1, so revolutionary visual effects such as realistic representation of water were given at that time. In a playful sense sat the fourth part, however, again more on action scenarios, which were first highlighted by cutscenes. In addition, the game was also controllable in the first place with the mouse. This retrogression in contrast to Comanche 3 with respect to the realism of the flight behavior, as well as the situation of having to control a helicopter instead of a joystick as a joystick with keyboard and mouse repelled many flight simulation fans.

A mission editor with at installation. You could create your own missions with it, but the action is so complex that it needs more instructions, as the included manual. There are at least in the German Internet also no internally generated scenes for download.

The revised game engine later found in Delta Force: Black Hawk Down and Joint Operations reuse.