Comanche: Maximum Overkill
Released: 1992
Published by: NovaLogic
Developed by: NovaLogic
Author(s): Kyle Freeman, John A Garcia, Lou Gerrard Rod Parong, Jerod M Bennett, Stewart Perkins, Gary S Wilens, Patrick McMenamin
Introduction
Featuring NovaLogic's Voxel Space engine, Comanche: Maximum Overkill was a rather arcade-like helicopter flight simulator with amazingly realistic ground terrain graphics for its time. Novalogic said at the time, "Rather than burdening the player with all the trivialities of managing a complex machine, we have concentrated on re-creating the “combat envelope” of the RAH-66."
An expansion entitled Comanche Global Challenge was released a year later, adding 3 new campaigns, each with 10 missions. The new campaigns are called Operation Overload, Operation Restore Peace, and Operation Clean Sweep. In the same year a second expansion called Comanche Over the Edge arrived with 4 new campaigns.
Comanche CD arrived in 1994 which bundled the original game, the two expansion packs and 10 additional bonus missions.
Comanche was followed by three more titles to make up the series: Comanche 2 (1995), Comanche 3 (1997), and Comanche 4 (2001)
System Requirements
| System Requirements | Intel 80386SX CPU (486 recommended), 4 MB RAM (500 KB of conventional memory free). Graphics support for VGA only. Audio support for Ad Lib, Sound Blaster and Roland MT-32. Keyboard and Mouse supported. |
|---|---|
| Original Media | Three 3.5" high-density (DS/HD) floppy disks |
| Installed Size (MB) | 12 MB for installation, 8 MB after. |
From where can it be run?
The game must be installed to your hard disk. It requires XMS memory - it will not work with an Expanded Memory Manager, e.g. EMM386.SYS.
Game Audio/Video
|
Demo mode |
Copy Protection
Comanche: Maximum Overkill does not have any copy protection.
How to Setup
Insert Disk 1 ("INSTALL") and run INSTALL.BAT to begin the installation process:
Once the installer has completed getting all the files, it decompresses them into your game subdirectory.
As soon as this has finished, the audio setup utility, SOUNDSET.EXE is run, starting with the digital audio choice:
... followed by the music card choice:
You can re-run SOUNDSET.EXE at any time to reconfigure your audio options for the game.
Problems
Symptom: My PC reboots when I attempt to start the game.
Cause: You are probably running it on a machine that is too fast.
Resolution: There is a patch called CMOM3H.ZIP. Unzip this into your Comanche game directory, overwriting existing files when prompted, and retry running the game. The patch allows Comanche Maximum Overkill
and Comanche CD to be run inside of Windows 95, or in DOS without a boot disk.
It also removes the memory restrictions on the game and includes
a "Top Speed Lock" option in the detail sub-menu for fast 486 and Pentium computers. Re-run SOUNDSET after unzipping these files, as your audio options will no longer be set correctly.
Symptom: Horizontal lines appear during gameplay.
Cause: The is a known problem when running the game in a system with a Headland Video 7 VRAM card, if it is not set to PURE VGA mode.
Resolution: Your video card came with a utility called RADIUS. Run this to put the card into PURE VGA mode.
Symptom: Vertical stripes or incorrect colours in the menu.
Cause: This is a known problem with third-party ET4000-based graphics cards on systems like 486 or higher with faster I/O capability.
Ths card is missing some I/O commands being sent to it.
Resolution: Adjust your BIOS settings to add I/O wait states if possible, or change your video card to a non-ET4000 one.
Keys
Flight Controls E = Up (Increase Collective) Weapons and Defenses Z = Cannon ; = Chaff (for radar-guided missiles) |
Views 1- Forward cockpit view Simulation Controls ESC = Menu You can alternatively use the numeric keypad:
|
To Quit the Game
Press Alt-Q at any time to return to DOS.
Supporting Documents
- Comanche CD User Manual (relevant for original floppy release also)
Save Games
.
Versions of the game known to exist
| Version | Date | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | November 1992 | Initial public release. |
| Expansion | 1993 | Comanche: Maximum Overkill Expansion Pack with 3 new campaigns: Operation Overload, Operation Restore Peace, and Operation Clean Sweep, 10 missions in each. |
| 1994 | Comanche CD released. This compilation bundled the original game, the two expansion packs and 10 additional bonus missions. |
Original Floppy Disk Contents
The three floppy disks have the same volume label: "COMANCHE". Here are each disk's contents:
Installed Directory Contents
Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:
Full Install chosen..
Directory of C:\GAMES\COMANCHE CONFIG XMS 61 11-24-92 3:23p |