Strike Commander and Dos v6.0
Gregory Nouch
Whenever I install it, it sais "Not enough Expanded, Extended Memory". Do I
have to switch back to dos 5.0? Well I would appreaciate anyones comments
about this problem I am having. Thanks ...
Gregory Nouch
Beke
If you don't have enough free memory, how could situation change when
you switch back earlier version of OS? I think that you should have
about 3 MB free high memory to install SC. So you have to have at least
4 MB memory in your machine.
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Eushuk Hong
>In article <23...@mindlink.bc.ca> Gregor...@mindlink.bc.ca (Gregory Nouch) writes:
>
> I give up, how the hell do you get Strike Commander to work with dos 6.0?
> Whenever I install it, it sais "Not enough Expanded, Extended Memory". Do I
> have to switch back to dos 5.0? Well I would appreaciate anyones comments
> about this problem I am having. Thanks ...
>
If you're running Smartdrv, be sure to note that the default cache is 1meg
for DOS programs. If you've got 4megs of RAM like I do, that takes up too
much extended/expanded memory, so setting smartdrive at 512k seems to work
just fine.
Hope this helps,
Eushuk
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Paul Griffiths
#include standard {I'm a flight nut, who loves F3-OFT (version 4.1.1)
I bought SC on Friday at Noon! I had been calling places all
morning and after having discovered the full delivery schedule for
UPS service to all bay area computer stores, I finally hooked up
with an EB that had ample copies of SC in stock. (I was on the
reserve list at every other store.) Now that I found a store with
SC, I immediately went to my boss and explained that I'd just been
hit with bouts of nausea, fever and the "runs". I punctuated my
remarks with dry heaving, flatulence and the cup of water I'd
previously poured over my head was dripping nicely down my brow.
My boss quite familiar with my personal life, was convinced I'd
finally succombed to some rare tropical disease, suggested I
go home and make a doctors appointment. I stopped the heaving and
limped out of his office and into the parking lot. By the time the
smoke had settled into my two black skid marks I was well on my
way to EB. I had my amex out and snabbed the first copy I saw
and charged to the counter. Mr Store Clerk before he started
ringing me up began his little gloaty speech about did I
read the recommendations...did I know this game was two
years late...do I have 50Mb's of disk space available..did I
want the speech pack, which came out a week earlier? I told
him politely that I did know all this, and would he be so
kind as to shut the fuck up and hurry up. Perhaps it was my
twitching eyelid, or balled up fists, whatever it was he
hastily ran my card through and I signed off another $60 on
my amex. I bolted out the shop and charged home. I hid the
SC box under my jacket and strolled into the house. A quick
look around showed my wife and kids were out..I gained courage,
whipped out the box and began the install process.
Installation:
All I can say here is that the little quip on the
machine that appears while the install process should be
changed from "now's a good time to fill out the registration
card" to "Now's a good time to read War & Peace". I teased
myself by installing the speech pack before running the game.
Total time of install was about thirty five minutes. In this
time I was able to scan through and pick out all the good
bits from the well presented manual. At last the beep came.
hit 'sc to play.
cd \sc
sc
Ah...the opening to sc..a fun sequence. I'd seen most of it
before via demo's, videos and magazines, but knowing it was
now resident on my system made it that much better. The
music was good, the graphics nice, and the sequence quite
entertaining. (the first two times I started the game, now
I just esc through the damn thing!) Ah. Joystick calibration
time. Easy enough. Hmm..funny says it failed. After a few
tries I began to realize no amount of force on my joystick
would convince sc that I really did have my joystick all the
way up and to the left..down to the right..centre..etc.
COMMENCE SWEARING!!!! #@$%@ ORIGIN!!! I took a deep breath
and wondered how I was going to get past this obstacle.
No way in hell I'm playing with the keyboard. AH..I happen
to have a Kraft Game Card...perhaps if I dicked with the
dip switch settings I could get this game to play. I switched
it from 486/35(?) to 486/25.. BANG!!! I passed the !@#$ joystick
test the first time over.. YEEEEHAWWW!!! I quickly forgot about
this annoying glitch and started in on the game.
*I should note here that I have a 486/33DX with a Video7 (1Mb) vid
card. It used to be a great system..now it's "ok".
Tiny bit o background:
Your basically Stern's second in command. It's pretty obvious
that Stern is gonna bite the big one, and it's just a matter of time
before you take over the wildcats. The one factor that separates
the Wildcats from other merc. squads. is that Stern is full of moral
fibre...he doesn't take missions that would involve innocent parties..
(this is a real pisser). Morality is the key to his command...when
I take over I'd like to change this..but from what I've seen of the
plot..this isn't a wise decision. Initially the decision making is
minimal..as time goes on you get a little more leeway and decisions
to make. What weapons to buy..what jobs to take..who to fly with..
As with Wing Commander though..it's hard to make a decision with
complete confidence when there are wrong/right paths to go down.
My gut feeling is that it's still pretty linear, with clearcut choices...
Needless to say saving is a must as in WC.
Other details would spoil the plot...so onward and upward.
Takeoff:
The cockpit layout is nice. You can toggle how close you sit
to the hud with the f1 key. One puts you in what I would believe to
be the true perspective..that is you can see your feet and hand on
the stick... The other one seems to be from the position of pressing
your face really hard up against the hud display. With the "normal"
setting you get a wider view of the outside, the hud is cluttered and
the text not too sharp, but the need to see as much out front as possible
in dogfighting is a pressing one. I'm sure I could get used to the 'face
smashed against the hud' view..but well sir, I don't like it. (assume
role of horse in Ren and Stimpy). Looking outside into the world of
SC, the first thing that stands out is the runway. With full detail on
it's really nicely done. Rubber skid marks blacken the runway just above
the numbers, the asphalt looks like asphalt. (though in my opinion they
need to make runways look like the road does in World Circuit with Texture
on). I flog the throttle..(have to use keys..unless you got thrustmaster)
and rotate out at 135kts...pull into a 25 degree bank and settled down to
watch the world go by.
The World:
I like the graphics in SC. It took a bit of adjustment to
understand the perspective...but I've found that at a certain altitude
approx 200 ft, around 700 kts. The world really does look right. It's
certainly better than F-15III, and I'd put it a notch above Falcon3 terrain.
About the only thing I've seen done better is the world of Stunt Isl...
There are times when the treeline just below the mountain looks like a
mish mash of brown and green, but these times are rare... most of the
time I find myself admiring the scenery as I flog by. The graphics are
not trying to show individual trees, but rather a group of trees. It
seems the perspective is done from a 45 degree look down perpespective.
It's kinda hard to describe, but I'd say it's certainly some of the
best ground renditioning I've seen. It's certainly not flat green land,
with lurking green pyramids slapped haphazardly inbetween. When you
get down on the deck, you find the ground rolls and flows, it's certainly
not flat, and flying NOE is a lot of fun. (Especially in Alaska).
I've read some reviews which state that the ground graphics are terrible
I'm not sure what they're comparing them to, but I'd like to have the
game they are comparing it to. I'd definitely give a thumbs up on ground
here.
The Haze:
This is worthy of it's own category. The haze is not so
much haze as a huge cloud bank that sits about ten miles off the
nose of your aircraft. Those people from the bay area or London
can appreciate what a huge bank of Cumulus Nimbus floating off
the water towards the city looks like. It's sorta like when in
an adventure game, when you're stuck in the inevitable maze with
only a lantern to light your way. It's a five/ten mile circle of
visibility. IT DOESNT APPLY TO THE AIR, just the ground. It's
a little claustraphobic at first, but after some 40 hours of flying
I hardly notice it. Probaly the best place for this 'haze' is in
Alaska... Naturally the reason for the 'haze' is to keep the CPU
down below boiling point...I suspect if it was taken away then
even I'd have to start bitching about the speed.
Navigation:
Minimal nav skills are needed. You can't/don't set your waypoints
for each mission. This is done automatically. This didn't suprise me at
all. It's the standard Mark I, fly the ^ to waypoint x. You could if
needed fly using pilotage to navigate around the world..but an inflight
map provides all the information necessary. There is an autopilot that
will kick in when enemies are NOT around. Autopilot brings up a screen
of you and any wingpeople blasting along to the next point of action.
I've had no problem using this...unlike Aces of the Pacific.. It's
simple to navigate and move around this world.
Wingpeople:
Well these are some good wingies to have on your side. They
show initiative..(sometimes too much). and will warn of impending
doom. They each have different characteristics which you grow
to know after a short time. You can tell them to do a number of
things...well four actually. 1) help 2) rtb 3) kill target 4) request status
They handle themselves well in a dogfight, and will do all they can to
cover your back door. The one bitch I do have about wingies is their
reluctance to help me out when it comes to ground attacks. If you
have mavericks or GBU's you target something and tell them to attack
it...but usually if you can target it yourself..it's easier for you to
take it out. Overall the Intelligence of these wingies are good.
Enemy:
The AI of the enemies is,in my feeble mind, some of the best I've
seen in a long time. Their planes are depicted well, it's easy to tell
which way they're turning, where their nose is, what type of plane etc.
All are drawn with little or no jagged edges that are found in other sims.
These guys will work hard to shake you off their tails, I've gone from
10k agl down to riding the dunes with some of these bandits. Having to
close in for Gun kills is pretty novel for me in a jet sim. To be honest
I've had much better luck at this with SC than Falcon3... If I was command-
ing these bad guys, my words of advice would be to use missles more! I've
taken a few hits from guns and had helluva time shaking off some bandits..
Hell even my wingies have said.."This guys a toughie, real good". Naturally
I went over to help him and after a quick gang-bang took care of his six.
I've found the ground forces are no slumps either, in fact, these
guys can be real bastards. Most of my deaths have come from either screwing
up and flying into the ground, or having my plane shot to shart with AAA/Sam
fire. It's rare when you can take out a whole tank column in one pass...and
once you've overflown the targets they do take notice. Nothing wrong with
enemy AI as far as I'm concerned.
Nifty Features/Points of interest:
I noticed some things in the simulator which are nice touches
indeed. For instance when you drop a bomb, it does blow up nicely and
leaves a crater. Not just the standard black circle, but an actual
hole with a mound of dirt thrown up on all sides. You can see how the
ground is distorted from the air...and a close up amplifies the effect.
A good example of the 'realism' in this is that when ever a plane crashes,
or a bomb drops in the snows of Alaska...the snow gets melted from the
heat and you can see the ground below. It's really an impressive effect
and a really nice touch.
The head view. When flying in SC I have my head controlled by
my trac ball. It's very nice to be able to have full control of one's
head, seperate from flight controls. It took me a bit of practise, but
I can fly figure eights and turn on a point, keeping my head locked on
a target on the ground. (I used the pyramid in egypt to practise.)
Granted F15III has a similiar option, but it's pretty clear that Origin
put more time and effort into making it a nice usable feature. You
can really snap your head in all directions..the only limitation being
the modelled human neck.
The victim cam. This can be toggled on/off during flight. It
basically will take you to an external view of the target you have just
hit. It's a great way to confirm kills. It can be a little annoying at
times. (Read: When flogging along 50ft of the deck, seconds from letting
off another maverick, when suddenly you're looking at the external view
of the enemy hq you've just hit.) As mentioned though this can be
turned on/off to suit preferences, and or flying styles. (The screams,
shouts and sounds are neat also).
The weapon cam. It didn't take too long for me to turn this
one off...but initially it was kinda neat to follow your sidewinder
as it hurtled through the sky heading towards your bogey...Again
cockpit duties demand constant attention and monitoring so turning
this off came pretty quickly for me.
Damage! It's no secret that I love a game that lets me
fly a wounded crate home. SC doesn't let me down. I've had all
sorts of chances at flying crippled birds. From losing all
roll control to just plain engine crapouts, with everything
in between. I always liked the 'second chance' theory, and
enjoy trying to land a f16 with no gear.
Summary:
I like Strike Commander! I've read all the posts about
piss poor frame rate...jerky controls..crappy performance...demonic
graphics...bugs...freezes what have you. Having played this game
all weekend, advanced through 25 missions, collected over 55 kills
in the air..(this doesn't include the 100's I fragged before crashing)
the same on the ground...I still like it. My machine is no whirlwind,
and I keep almost everything turned on..(except for music) I found the
controls took a bit of time to gauge and get used to. Frankly though
I don't see what all the fuss is about. Sure it's not real time, and
I occasionally get a slight I/O pause, even with the disk cache on.
However I have no problem chasing down, and staying on the tails of
bogies. I roll, loop, yoyo, hit spd brks, punch the throttle and do
all I can to stay in the saddle. Any frame rate #'s, control response,
falls by the way side. I find the jet does what I want, when I want.
I don't know, perhaps it's the many hours I've put into
flying Air Warrior on GEnie that have left me with a different
perspective on what a lousy frame rate really is. Perhaps all
the GEnie flight time has changed my mind and comp. flying skills
to adjust to the situations subconciously. I'm not saying that
it couldn't be faster, (even though it's only a 486) but it
certainly hasn't taken any enjoyment out of the game for me.
Was it worth the two year wait?! Yes, I think so! Hell, I've
had a lot of fun so far playing this game. It's challenging,
intriguing and a fine programming effort.
I think perhaps it comes down to the fact that Origin should
maybe have added one more requirement to the sticker on the
box.
"A little imagination required".
As usual..sorry this is so bloody long.. I tend to ramble.
-Paul
William R. Sauerwald <wrsauerw>
>
> I give up, how the hell do you get Strike Commander to work with dos 6.0?
> Whenever I install it, it sais "Not enough Expanded, Extended Memory". Do I
> have to switch back to dos 5.0? Well I would appreaciate anyones comments
> about this problem I am having. Thanks ...
>
>If you don't have enough free memory, how could situation change when
>you switch back earlier version of OS? I think that you should have
>about 3 MB free high memory to install SC. So you have to have at least
>4 MB memory in your machine.
Check the supplement that came with the game. It shows you the EMM386
statement needed to allocate the Extended mem (Assuming you have 4 Meg on
your machine). I also needed the "ram" switch on it to allocate upper
memory.
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