Comanche 3

Comanche 3 was released for MS-DOS in 1997 by simulation game developer Novalogic. It's an action focused light simulation game and is relatively easy to start playing with basic flight controls. It is however, more complex than an arcade game masked as simulation and as a heli-sim noob, took me a while to get proper hang of advanced controls. Heavy consultation of the manual is not required, but for example advanced flight instructions and targeting modes are recommended sections for reading. Comanche Gold is an "updated" Win95 version of C3 released the following year. It ads some new features such as possibility to give orders to team mates, configuring weapon loadouts and 5 extra (gold) campaigns. I felt uncertain about finishing a game I never played before so decided to record C3 instead of Gold, because it's less than half the length. I'd recommend playing Gold instead of C3 if you can get it to run properly.

Briefings give some background information about each mission. Many missions are part of a larger operation and have several different allied units on the map doing their own thing. I found allied heli squads and the team mate pilot mostly useless. They are usually left behind quickly when racing toward the objective and just seem to go their own way, getting killed and leaving me to take care of everything by myself. Navigation points usually highlight a safe route to objectives. I sometimes ignore nav points when those are not on the fastest flight path possible to get through without being shot down. I found the missions entertaining with enough variation to keep me hooked to the end. It's a good solid game, although probably not as good as the best light simulation games I have played, such as Mechwarrior 4 and Freespace 2. Not sure if I'd want to go through the gold campaigns as well, instead of playing something else.

This is easily the most resource heavy DOS game I have played. It requires very high cycle speeds in DOSBox to run on decent framerate with max details compared to other SVGA-games I have played. About 20 times the number of cycles required to run for example Wolf3D with max framerate was used. The framerate could be better if I had used even higher cycle settings, but that would make the game stutter a lot and barely playable during recording. C3 doesn't have full CD sountrack and I had to use Soundblaster audio for capturing with DOSBox codec, instead of better quality MIDI options to avoid occasional stuttering and other problems caused by very high cycle speeds. These would show in video if I had used an external program to record.

Operation: Gallant Venture

00:03:38 Mission 1: Haystack
00:05:54 Mission 2: Triple Play
00:08:40 Mission 3: Hamel Lane
00:11:49 Mission 4: Showdown
00:14:44 Mission 5: Saving Grace
00:18:10 Mission 6: Nightwing
00:22:36 Mission 7: Onslaught
00:26:38 Mission 8: Checkmate

Operation: Frozen Friendship

00:31:53 Mission 1: Ambush Alley
00:35:12 Mission 2: Stormfront
00:38:30 Mission 3: Ice Box
00:41:28 Mission 4: Ghost Train
00:48:16 Mission 5: Scalpel
00:53:32 Mission 6: Spetsnaz
00:58:11 Mission 7: Cold Warriors
01:06:56 Mission 8: Tunnel Vision

Operation: Firm Resolve

01:11:43 Mission 1: Bastion
01:19:00 Mission 2: Zunami
01:24:33 Mission 3: Vanguard
01:31:24 Mission 4: Easy Money
01:36:14 Mission 5: Making the Grade
01:43:10 Mission 6: Sucker Punch
01:48:40 Mission 7: Boys Night Out
01:53:08 Mission 8: Red Tide

Operation: Desert Endeavor

01:59:54 Mission 1: Guidelines
02:02:48 Mission 2: Blackout
02:06:44 Mission 3: Icarus
02:10:51 Mission 4: Interstate
02:13:48 Mission 5: Bloodhound
02:17:39 Mission 6: NBC Express
02:24:05 Mission 7: Big Al's Place
02:27:58 Mission 8: Hail Mary
02:35:18 Credits