Blast from the Past: Strike Commander

In a letter included in the game’s manual, Chris Roberts famously called Strike Commander the “Apocalypse Now” of computer games. At the time, Strike Commander was far over budget and a year overdue. Getting the game out had been a Herculean task, taking far more blood, sweat and treasure than anyone had ever imagined. But what a game the finished product was! Strike Commander took the original Wing Commander’s promise that you were living a movie and turned it up to eleven.

The game used every trick in the book to allow the limited personal computers at the time to play a Hollywood-style blockbuster with you as the lead character. Patterned after the great military action movies of the 1980s, Strike Commander tells the story of mercenary jet fighter pilots living in the then-future year 2011. Players battled in the skies flying F-16s against other familiar modern aircraft. And the story was full of Hollywood hallmarks: a father figure to avenge, a beautiful seductress with a hidden agenda… and rendered cutscenes that strove for the proper atmosphere as much as they did high tech polish.

One of Strike Commander’s innovations was the inclusion of a ‘virtual cockpit’ where the player’s head and the environment could be controlled separately. You could adjust your view in any direction rather than just left, right, forward and backwards. The only problem was that while Strike Commander featured an unprecedented amount of detail in its graphics it was also a faithful F-16 simulator… which meant that most battles were fought with long range missiles and so the lush graphics representing the enemy planes often went overlooked!

Remember to submit your questions for Chris Roberts!

In einem Brief, der im Handbuch des Spiels enthalten ist, nannte Chris Roberts den Strike Commander bekanntlich den "Apocalypse Now" der Computerspiele. Damals war der Strike Commander weit über dem Budget und ein Jahr überfällig. Das Spiel herauszubekommen, war eine Herkulesaufgabe gewesen und nahm weitaus mehr Blut, Schweiß und Schätze mit, als man sich je erträumt hatte. Aber was für ein Spiel war das fertige Produkt! Strike Commander nahm das ursprüngliche Versprechen des Wing Commander, dass du einen Film lebst, und drehte ihn auf elf.

Das Spiel nutzte jeden Trick des Buches, um den damals begrenzten PCs zu erlauben, einen Blockbuster im Hollywood-Stil mit Ihnen als Hauptfigur zu spielen. Nach dem Vorbild der großen Militäraktionsfilme der 1980er Jahre erzählt Strike Commander die Geschichte von Söldner-Jet-Kampfpiloten, die im damaligen und zukünftigen Jahr 2011 leben. Die Spieler kämpften am Himmel und flogen F-16s gegen andere bekannte moderne Flugzeuge. Und die Geschichte war voller Hollywood-Merkmale: eine Vaterfigur zum Rachen, eine schöne Verführerin mit versteckter Agenda.... und gerenderte Zwischensequenzen, die nach der richtigen Atmosphäre strebten, ebenso wie High-Tech-Politur.

Eine der Innovationen von Strike Commander war die Integration eines "virtuellen Cockpits", in dem der Kopf des Spielers und die Umgebung separat gesteuert werden können. Sie können Ihre Ansicht in jede Richtung anpassen und nicht nur nach links, rechts, vorwärts und rückwärts. Das einzige Problem war, dass Strike Commander zwar eine beispiellose Detailtreue in der Grafik zeigte, aber auch ein treuer F-16-Simulator.... was bedeutete, dass die meisten Kämpfe mit Langstreckenraketen ausgetragen wurden und so die üppige Grafik, die die feindlichen Flugzeuge darstellt, oft übersehen wurde!

Vergiss nicht, deine Fragen an Chris Roberts zu richten!

In a letter included in the game’s manual, Chris Roberts famously called Strike Commander the “Apocalypse Now” of computer games. At the time, Strike Commander was far over budget and a year overdue. Getting the game out had been a Herculean task, taking far more blood, sweat and treasure than anyone had ever imagined. But what a game the finished product was! Strike Commander took the original Wing Commander’s promise that you were living a movie and turned it up to eleven.

The game used every trick in the book to allow the limited personal computers at the time to play a Hollywood-style blockbuster with you as the lead character. Patterned after the great military action movies of the 1980s, Strike Commander tells the story of mercenary jet fighter pilots living in the then-future year 2011. Players battled in the skies flying F-16s against other familiar modern aircraft. And the story was full of Hollywood hallmarks: a father figure to avenge, a beautiful seductress with a hidden agenda… and rendered cutscenes that strove for the proper atmosphere as much as they did high tech polish.

One of Strike Commander’s innovations was the inclusion of a ‘virtual cockpit’ where the player’s head and the environment could be controlled separately. You could adjust your view in any direction rather than just left, right, forward and backwards. The only problem was that while Strike Commander featured an unprecedented amount of detail in its graphics it was also a faithful F-16 simulator… which meant that most battles were fought with long range missiles and so the lush graphics representing the enemy planes often went overlooked!

Remember to submit your questions for Chris Roberts!