
Reverse Engineering Strike Commander - signa11
http://fabiensanglard.net/reverse_engineering_strike_commander/index.php
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chm
Maybe it's too late but I thought this was a job title.

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sebastianconcpt
Impressive.

But I'm more impressed about another post there about "Out of This World" that
game has a huge storytelling and a VM kind of architecture.

[http://fabiensanglard.net/anotherWorld_code_review/index.php](http://fabiensanglard.net/anotherWorld_code_review/index.php)

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rtpg
Considering all the design aspects are already in place, wouldn't it be
quicker to just rewrite the game? I'm not sure how complex this game actually
is, but making something that looks approximately the same with today's tools
is probably a lot easier

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berkut
It wouldn't be _that_ difficult to re-write the main 3D Game engine using
OpenGL. If you had the assets (textures, models) in modern formats, one person
could probably do it in a couple of weeks. Using another game engine would be
quicker still.

But then there's the crucial gameplay, flight-sim physics, hooking into
achieving objectives, the narrative, cutscreens, etc.

Even then, would it have the same feel as the original...

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chb
"Game comes on 11 x 1.44MB floppy disks."

Thanks for rekindling my appreciation for optical media.

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ComSubVie
Very interesting read. I loved the game.

I wonder if it wouldn't be a lot easier to rewrite the game from scratch using
a modern engine - it shouldn't be too complicated to reach a similar state as
the original game with modern tools.

Or maybe just extend an existing (free) flight simulator like FlightGear.

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outworlder
The game engine, yes. The game itself? Not a chance.

I think you are seriously underestimating the complexity of a game. This would
be possible, but as a major open-source project.

Replacing the game engine would be a big undertaking, but it's doable. People
did just that with Frontier: First Encounters
([http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/glffe.html](http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/glffe.html)).
The game binaries is run as is, but modified to hook into the new engine.

Using FlightGear is not the same thing. It would be difficult, if not
impossible, to get the same feel of the original game. However, this would be
perfect for a remake, where the original experience is not expected.

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Associat0r
Contrary to what the article states, what Falcon 3.0 focused on wasn't the
flight model, but a relatively realistic and more involved representation of a
dynamic battlefield, avionics and combat tactics, one of the reasons I still
played it during the mid to late 90's.

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s-macke
Nice Project. As someone who already did some reverse engineering of such old
games I know the amount of work to be done, but also the fun when it finally
works. I also think it would be great to play some old games with the Oculus,
starting from Elite.

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aaronem
I don't know about playing the original Elite with a 3D HMD, but if you don't
mind a more modern sort of game, you would appear to have several options. For
one, there's an open source Elite remake, somewhat infelicitously called
Oolite [1], which could probably be extended to support the Oculus Rift.

There's also something called "Elite: Dangerous", which is a massively
multiplayer Elite-style game-to-be, and which appears already to offer Oculus
Rift support in its current combat alpha [2].

And, of course, there's Star Citizen [3], helmed by Chris Roberts of _Wing
Commander_ fame; in essence, he came to the Internet two years ago and said
"Here's what I always wanted to build. How much is it worth to you to play
it?" The answer to that question has turned out to be "thirty-eight million
dollars and counting", and the full alpha release is projected for late this
year, with increasingly large bits of functionality releasing between now and
then; I don't know specifically when Oculus Rift support is planned for
addition, but I'd be astonished if they weren't looking into adding it.

[1] [http://www.oolite.org/](http://www.oolite.org/)

[2] [http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/12/23/not-so-massively-
eli...](http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/12/23/not-so-massively-elites-
oculus-rift-support-star-citizen-dela/)

[3] [https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-
game](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-game)

(PS: As an old space sim player who's been displeased by the decade-and-more
drought of new titles in the genre, I'm delighted to see such a profusion of
new titles. Perhaps space railroading time has come around again.)

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s-macke
Of course I know all these projects. But it would be nice to play with the old
wireframe graphics and try if docking becomes easier :)

Just for fun of course. But to implement it in oolite would be indeed easier.

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JanezStupar
Strike Commander was awesome.

I am really puzzled as to why the * Commander genre didn't get more
clones/imitators.

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Associat0r
Strike Commander was technically a very impressive achievement for its time
and I'm very sad that flight and race sims don't get the recognition they
deserve for pioneering technology as opposed to Doom/Quake etc.

Anyway, those kind of Commander-like flight games have limited replay value,
because of the lack of a dynamic campaign and a hollywood hero story doesn't
sit well with most flight sim fans, so we ended up with dumbed down arcade
shooters like Ace Combat.

There was a Strike Commander like flightsim back in 1999 called "F-16
aggressor", which had a very impressive flight model and cockpit, but sadly
wasted on an even more forgettable hollywood hero story thing.

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squozzer
I loved the game but my favorite was the "Gule, Gule" story in Sudden Death,
especially the line, "their high school guidance counselors had steered them
into a very deadly profession."

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Eyes2design
Holy shit, I still have that GAME down stairs.

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robodale
I picture you going "downstairs", your wooden steps creaking as you go down,
past the various two-decade old metal cans of cleaning/household lubricating
products on a shelf, into your computer room, with the wood paneling on the
walls, the small basement window with the hand-crank, the slight smell of
mildew and dryer sheets...

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billyhoffman
How are you in my house right now?

