Re: CRAP Poll # (Infinity - 6): Bring It Back!

On Mon, 9 Jun 2025 15:52:15 -0000 (UTC), vallor <vallor@cultnix.org>
wrote:

I don't remember which Comanche I played (or if there was more
than one), but thought that was quite a bit of fun.  Sneaky
helicopters seem pretty bad-a**ed to me.

All the Comanche gamess were fun! Although these days I think, if
you're going back to play them, you're best chosing "Comanche 3". It's
got the best mix of DOS-goodness, arcade action and visuals. The older
games are just too blocky, and "Comanche 4" drops the franchise's
voxel awesomeness for a rather blah polygon- base rendering engine.

The games aren't in any way sims though; they're arcade blast-a-thons.
You fly about in a helicopter armed with dozens of missiles that can
take multiple missile hits in return. Not that there's anything wrong
with that... it's just that a lot of players often mistook it for a
sim and were sadly disappointed by the game's unrealism.

The helicopters in the game aren't really stealth. Well, I guess
technically the real Comanche did utilize some low-radar-observability
stealth features, but those don't really come into play in the game.
However, its voxel engine did allow players to utilize the terrain to
mask their approach; you'd fly in low in a valley or behind a ridge,
then pop up, swat a few targets, then duck down again behind cover.
This doesn't seem that impressive today, but in 1992 -when most flight
sims still used billboard-flat terrain (with maybe a few polygonal
mountains sitting on top) this was ground-breaking technology. And
amazingly fun too.

Alas, the old Comanche games (other than "Comanche 4", and the
absolutely attrocious 2021 reboot) are no longer available for sale
for some reason. Seems like a lost opportunity.