Game:

Strike Commander (1993)

Duration: 48:38

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Cult classic from Chris Roberts scheduled for release in 1991 but postponed to 1993 (on April 23rd it will have its 25th anniversary!). It raised a bar in flight sim genre with astonishing graphics (at the time) and Wing Commander style storytelling which immersed the player in near alternate future (well now the past) that depicted the struggle for resources with global political situation in disarray.

Included as a manual - "Sudden Death" immersed the player in this world even further by providing several articles, ads and such that depicted the reality of the world portrayed in game. And since the installation could take around on hour back in the day, it was nice to have something to read in the meantime.

You are a part of mercenary outfit - the Wildcats which is headed by James Stern, who despite the grim global situation is still idealistic and *spoiler alert* at one point dies because of that leaving you as the commander. From which point you must take his role, manage budget, order supplies, earn bucks by completing missions, but most importantly keep your man alive. The plot has some twists, including treachery and revenge.

It was one of the first flight games (if not THE first) that incorporated fully textured virtual cockpit. I remember seeing the screenshot in a magazine of a panned view from this cockpit while the jet was flying over a city with textured 3d buildings - I was in awe. But that was nothing compared to seeing it in action at a friends house (I still had Amiga 500 back then). I got to play a skirmish with 3 Mirages on head-on pass. I targeted one of the bogeys and tracked it while he and his 2 buddies flew right past my canopy. The camera followed the enemy plane in this outstanding 3d textured cockpit. At that point I was blown away!

Anyway here's the first 3 missions of the base game played on Ace difficulty. There is also expansion available titled Tactical Operations. I'm running the floppy version (which came on 8 disks) with Speech Pack (another 3 disks) while emulating Roland MT-32/LAPC-I with Munt.

You can get Strike Commander on GOG which is a CD version that adds General Midi support, rudder pedals support, has the expansion included and also adds speech to all the dialogue betwen missions. Unfortunately it introduces some bugs tied to CPU timing, like inreased AI countermeasures reaction which makes your AIM-9J's basically useless. You can read all about it and possible solutions on GOG forums.

Small trivia (which I can proudly say I discovered myself long time ago): the girl from the barrack's poster (8:50) is modelled after Pamela Anderson (still young and natural mind you) - you can check out the inspiration photo for comparison here *nudity alert*: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dnV8Dw1WpZdBOIjoUQY_f5ErSgeeiFgQ

Another one that I don't think was mentioned anywhere else AFAIK is that if you played US Navy Fighters (released in 1994 by EA) you might noticed that some of the 3d models of aircraft found in USNF are quite familiar to those seen before in SC. Some of them even use the same textures if you investigate further. Take a look at this comparison shot I hastly made: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fNZA269dI0d05_HNhTnnppzQmFq4lMau
How was this possible? Did they stole their models? Well, no. Origin was acquired by EA in 1992, and the team behind USNF probably was allowed to reuse models made by Paul Steed (RIP) for Strike Commander in their upcoming title.

Also if you're interested in getting your Track IR working with Strike Commander check out this vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny36ZHznX84

TOC:
0:00 Intro
2:10 Object Viewer
4:25 Starting New Game
7:25 Virgil's Office
8:45 Barracks (and some nice posters)
9:08 Going to Mauritania
10:42 Mission 1 - Briefing
11:53 Mission 1 - Take Off
22:00 Back at Strike Base
23:41 Mission 2 - Briefing
24:36 Mission 2 - Take Off
33:38 Back at Strike Base
35:14 Mission 3 - Briefing
36:18 Mission 3 - Take Off
47:40 Back at Strike Base

#RetroFlightSims

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