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Chopper Commando Revisited

blog.loadzero.com

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Re: Chopper Commando Revisited

#11

Post by kbenson »

loadzero wrote: post #2

Author here. I used to play this 2D flick-screen CGA DOS helicopter game as a kid, and I remember enjoying the simple presentation combined with what would now be called sandbox elements. I thought it was really cool that you could eject from the helicopter and still run around and do things as a little sprite dude, and then get back in and fly off. When I saw that the source was available, and had a poke around, I d…

I loved this game as a kid. I think I only ever had a demo, because I don't remember being able to play different missions, but I played that simple demo a lot, and revisited it over the years. It had just enough free control and different actions to make screwing around rewarding and fun.

Thanks for porting it!

Re: Chopper Commando Revisited

#12

Post by ZiiS »

loadzero wrote: post #9
olliej wrote: post #5

I always liked the wonderful game “sopwith” which I believe has been rewritten/updated over the years

I have not played it, but it does look to likely be an early inspiration for Chopper Commando. It would be nice if someone made a web version of 'Sopwith', too.

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Sopwith_1985

Re: Chopper Commando Revisited

#13

Post by mark_currie »

loadzero wrote: post #9
olliej wrote: post #5

I always liked the wonderful game “sopwith” which I believe has been rewritten/updated over the years

I have not played it, but it does look to likely be an early inspiration for Chopper Commando. It would be nice if someone made a web version of 'Sopwith', too.

Yes Sopwith was an inspiration so was F-15 Strike Eagle and F-19 Stealth Fighter by Microprose.

Re: Chopper Commando Revisited

#14

Post by pjmlp »

loadzero wrote: post #2

Author here. I used to play this 2D flick-screen CGA DOS helicopter game as a kid, and I remember enjoying the simple presentation combined with what would now be called sandbox elements. I thought it was really cool that you could eject from the helicopter and still run around and do things as a little sprite dude, and then get back in and fly off. When I saw that the source was available, and had a poke around, I d…

Why not FreePascal? That would have been my approach.

Re: Chopper Commando Revisited

#15

Post by sbuttgereit »

I never played this one... but the article did take me back to a game I greatly loved: Choplifter, which I played on the c64.

I remember being impressed that the helicopter in the game could pitch and yaw and such... at the time it seemed so polished.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choplifter

Re: Chopper Commando Revisited

#16

Post by loadzero »

mark_currie wrote: post #13
loadzero wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not played it, but it does look to likely be an early inspiration for Chopper Commando. It would be nice if someone made a web version of 'Sopwith', too.

Yes Sopwith was an inspiration so was F-15 Strike Eagle and F-19 Stealth Fighter by Microprose.

Ah, it does have a Microprose feel with the campaign, mission structure, and ejecting.

Thanks for giving me permission to publish the port, and cheers for writing a game that has given people some fun memories.

It's great also to see that you're still making games, 30 years on from this.

Re: Chopper Commando Revisited

#17

Post by loadzero »

pjmlp wrote: post #14
loadzero wrote: post #2

Author here. I used to play this 2D flick-screen CGA DOS helicopter game as a kid, and I remember enjoying the simple presentation combined with what would now be called sandbox elements. I thought it was really cool that you could eject from the helicopter and still run around and do things as a little sprite dude, and then get back in and fly off. When I saw that the source was available, and had a poke around, I d…

Why not FreePascal? That would have been my approach.

See below.

Re: Chopper Commando Revisited

#18

Post by pjmlp »

loadzero wrote: post #7
fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not use something like freepascal with SDL bindings?

With these restoration projects, I am usually looking to maximise code portability and minimise dependencies, which for me means C. Sticking with Pascal would have been more authentic to the original source code, but I think that would have been more painful for me to deal with, and come with a lot of unknown unknowns. I would likely also have been sacrificing my ability to port it onto the web and other interesting…

FreePascal WebAssembly is almost fully there and FPC already has plenty of supported targets, basically almost any CPU that matters.

However it is your project, your decisions.

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