5 ms·

I spent tons of hours as a kid playing Comanche on our old 486!

hyperbovine 2y ago
The voxel-based graphics and resulting frame rate were one of those distinct “wow” moments I had while gaming as a kid. Up there with playing Doom or Flight Simulator for the first time.
vFunct 2y ago
My game of choice was Gunship on the Commodore 64, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter simulator from Microprose. Spent YEARS playing that. Best part was the instruction manual that came with it that was basically a guide of all the military equipment of the Soviet Union that you could target in the game.
- xbar 2y ago
  Thank you for mentioning it. It was a revelation.
- the_af 2y ago
  Gunship 2000 here! I loved that it had a dynamic campaign where the frontline moved according to how well you did. Before that, I also enjoyed LHX. > Best part was the instruction manual that came with it that was basically a guide of all the military equipment of the Soviet Union that you could target in the game. Do you remember what the copy protection was for MicroProse's F-19 Stealth Fighter? It was the silhouettes of US and Soviet fighters and bombers from the Cold War era: "identify this aircraft". Somehow they thought my teenage self, obsessed as I was with Cold War military tech, wouldn't learn the shapes. It's how I learned the shapes of most fighter jets. Yes, I had a pirated copy. We all did back then, legal games were unheard of.
  - alisonatwork 2y ago
    If you remember LHX fondly, there's a new game out with similar aesthetic: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1906230/Thunder_Helix/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1906230/Thunder_Helix/ Still EA for now, but it looks promising.
    - debo_ 2y ago
      Wow, it looks almost exactly like LHX. You weren't kidding. But can I watch from the viewpoint of my TOW missile camera, I wonder... Thanks for the link.
      - keyle 2y ago
        That guy has been very active on twitter since the start of the development of the game. I don't have his account anymore since I stopped caring about twitter but ... he's probably still there journaling! -- edit: I don't like half assed comments so I went and dig him up https://x.com/HiddenAsbestos https://x.com/HiddenAsbestos
  - pferde 2y ago
    I only learned like 4-5 of those shapes, and kept restarting the game until I got one of those. :)
- CoastalCoder 2y ago
  Me too! And in retrospect, it's amazing what they managed to pull off with the C64's limited hardware.
debo_ 2y ago
Comanche, LHX Attack Chopper, Gunboat and Wolfpack. A handful of military sims meant hundreds of pages of specs to sift through -- best copy protection I ever had to deal with. I probably spent more time reading the manuals than I did playing the games.
- mdaniel 2y ago
  Same fond memories about LHX and F117A. While searching, I was shocked how much my recollection of that experience vastly differed from its actual graphics: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/lhx-attack-chopper-xo#screentabs https://www.myabandonware.com/game/lhx-attack-chopper-xo#scr... I don't recall having played Comanche in order to compare the two. The other game I spent innumerable hours in was F117A [1] - partially because -- again, my recollection -- one had to damn near real-time fly from the base to the target and then back, all the while in stealth mode, which usually meant going slow and terrain hugging 1: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/f-117a-nighthawk-stealth-fighter-2-0-185#screentabs https://www.myabandonware.com/game/f-117a-nighthawk-stealth-...
  - debo_ 2y ago
    Yes, I also played a ton of F117A. The terrible graphics were actually what let me run it and LHX, I had an anemic 386. I only got to play Comanche at my uncle's house. LHX actually looks exactly as I remember it. I remember those blocky polygons very fondly.
  - animal531 2y ago
    I played F-117A, but my favourite by far was definitely F15 Strike Eagle II: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/f-15-strike-eagle-ii-n6 https://www.myabandonware.com/game/f-15-strike-eagle-ii-n6 Around the time of F-117A I discovered Jetfighter II which felt a lot smoother handling wise, it was great to just fly around doing stunts to be honest. I spent a lot of time just doing carrier take-offs with an immediate 360 and back into landing. https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jetfighter-ii-advanced-tactical-fighter-12r https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jetfighter-ii-advanced-ta...
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
rjurney 2y ago
Flying down canyons was so much fun, like a trench run.
animal531 2y ago
Today its graphics look so outdated, but back then it was amazing how you could fly through valleys to get to targets. There were a few games like Comanche, X-Wing, Magic Carpet and Descent that felt like they really pushed the technology while trying to show how we could utilize 3d in a different way from the other titles of the time (which were usually all FPS games).
- navbaker 2y ago
  Oh yes, I found Comanche after playing Tie Fighter to death!

The voxel-based graphics and resulting frame rate were one of those distinct “wow” moments I had while gaming as a kid. Up there with playing Doom or Flight Simulator for the first time.

vFunct 2y ago

My game of choice was Gunship on the Commodore 64, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter simulator from Microprose. Spent YEARS playing that. Best part was the instruction manual that came with it that was basically a guide of all the military equipment of the Soviet Union that you could target in the game.

xbar 2y ago
Thank you for mentioning it. It was a revelation.
the_af 2y ago
Gunship 2000 here! I loved that it had a dynamic campaign where the frontline moved according to how well you did. Before that, I also enjoyed LHX. > Best part was the instruction manual that came with it that was basically a guide of all the military equipment of the Soviet Union that you could target in the game. Do you remember what the copy protection was for MicroProse's F-19 Stealth Fighter? It was the silhouettes of US and Soviet fighters and bombers from the Cold War era: "identify this aircraft". Somehow they thought my teenage self, obsessed as I was with Cold War military tech, wouldn't learn the shapes. It's how I learned the shapes of most fighter jets. Yes, I had a pirated copy. We all did back then, legal games were unheard of.
- alisonatwork 2y ago
  If you remember LHX fondly, there's a new game out with similar aesthetic: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1906230/Thunder_Helix/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1906230/Thunder_Helix/ Still EA for now, but it looks promising.
  - debo_ 2y ago
    Wow, it looks almost exactly like LHX. You weren't kidding. But can I watch from the viewpoint of my TOW missile camera, I wonder... Thanks for the link.
    - keyle 2y ago
      That guy has been very active on twitter since the start of the development of the game. I don't have his account anymore since I stopped caring about twitter but ... he's probably still there journaling! -- edit: I don't like half assed comments so I went and dig him up https://x.com/HiddenAsbestos https://x.com/HiddenAsbestos
- pferde 2y ago
  I only learned like 4-5 of those shapes, and kept restarting the game until I got one of those. :)
CoastalCoder 2y ago
Me too! And in retrospect, it's amazing what they managed to pull off with the C64's limited hardware.

debo_ 2y ago

Comanche, LHX Attack Chopper, Gunboat and Wolfpack. A handful of military sims meant hundreds of pages of specs to sift through -- best copy protection I ever had to deal with. I probably spent more time reading the manuals than I did playing the games.

mdaniel 2y ago
Same fond memories about LHX and F117A. While searching, I was shocked how much my recollection of that experience vastly differed from its actual graphics: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/lhx-attack-chopper-xo#screentabs https://www.myabandonware.com/game/lhx-attack-chopper-xo#scr... I don't recall having played Comanche in order to compare the two. The other game I spent innumerable hours in was F117A [1] - partially because -- again, my recollection -- one had to damn near real-time fly from the base to the target and then back, all the while in stealth mode, which usually meant going slow and terrain hugging 1: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/f-117a-nighthawk-stealth-fighter-2-0-185#screentabs https://www.myabandonware.com/game/f-117a-nighthawk-stealth-...
- debo_ 2y ago
  Yes, I also played a ton of F117A. The terrible graphics were actually what let me run it and LHX, I had an anemic 386. I only got to play Comanche at my uncle's house. LHX actually looks exactly as I remember it. I remember those blocky polygons very fondly.
- animal531 2y ago
  I played F-117A, but my favourite by far was definitely F15 Strike Eagle II: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/f-15-strike-eagle-ii-n6 https://www.myabandonware.com/game/f-15-strike-eagle-ii-n6 Around the time of F-117A I discovered Jetfighter II which felt a lot smoother handling wise, it was great to just fly around doing stunts to be honest. I spent a lot of time just doing carrier take-offs with an immediate 360 and back into landing. https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jetfighter-ii-advanced-tactical-fighter-12r https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jetfighter-ii-advanced-ta...
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago

rjurney 2y ago

Flying down canyons was so much fun, like a trench run.

animal531 2y ago

Today its graphics look so outdated, but back then it was amazing how you could fly through valleys to get to targets. There were a few games like Comanche, X-Wing, Magic Carpet and Descent that felt like they really pushed the technology while trying to show how we could utilize 3d in a different way from the other titles of the time (which were usually all FPS games).

navbaker 2y ago
Oh yes, I found Comanche after playing Tie Fighter to death!