Comanche Gold

by NovaLogic

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001SVI8
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,044 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #63 in Video Games > PC Games > Simulation > Flight
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The Comanche series of helicopter games has always provided just the right mix of simulation and arcade gameplay to provide huge doses of adrenaline-charged action. Now, with the release of Comanche Gold, players new to the series along with seasoned veterans can pilot the Army's premier attack helicopter through nine campaigns and a variety of single missions. One of these new campaigns is entirely new, and if that's not enough you can use the new mission creator to make your own missions. Other enhancements over Comanche 3 include new graphics that incorporate weather effects, a loadout screen for arming the chopper, and wingmen who react better when the action heats up.

Helicopters are all about down-in-the-weeds flying, and it is here that Comanche Gold really delivers. The terrain modeling is spectacular, capable of rendering lush valleys, rolling hills, jagged mountains, and everything in between. Few gaming experiences compare to ducking into a steep canyon, threading your way through at over 100 mph to shake a pursuing enemy, then suddenly bursting out into a clearing packed with enemy soldiers who send a barrage of tracers crisscrossing past your now exposed chopper. The terrain is somewhat pixelated, but the tradeoff in terms of accurate elevation changes more than makes up for this flaw. Few arcade-oriented simulations of any type can compare to Comanche Gold in terms of pure fun, and the strategy guide included with this package is a nice bonus. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Realistic elevation changes in the terrain are fun to fly through
• Arcadelike flight model is among the best of its kind
• Target-rich environments make for nonstop action

Cons:

• Graphics are showing their age

Product Description

This software is BRAND NEW. Packaging may differ slightly from the stock photo above. Please click on our logo above to see over 15,000 titles in stock.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good all-around helicopter flight sim, December 17, 1999

By 

R. Connon (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Comanche Gold (CD-ROM)

This is a well coded helicopter sim, a very realistic flight model can be selected, or novices can use a "dummied down" version to get their feet wet. There are plenty of missions to fly and includes a head-to-head multiplayer mode, or a scenario-based multiplayer mode. The graphics are very good, some complexity could be added, but all-around very good and very entertaining.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Helo Sim, October 12, 2005

By 

R. L. Hodges (Layton, UT, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Comanche Gold (CD-ROM)

I've been playing the Comanche game series since version 1 in the DOS days. I know these games better than anyone who's written any of these reviews. Comanche Gold is nothing more than Comanche 3, only upgraded to a Windows version and with new missions added. The engine is the same, settings are the same, graphics are the same (but with increased resolution), sound is the same, and wingman and enemy AI is the same (though they claimed it was vastly improved). Now many years old, this game is still fantastic and one of the best helo sims you can get for multiple reasons:

Flight Model: The flight model is as complex or accurate as you want it - or as dumbed down and "Nintendo" as you want it. Many settings are at your disposal. If you have full HOTAS and rudder pedals, you can change the many control settings to be very accurate. Top notch compared to others. I can also run this game on a 133MHz Pentium I pulled out of mothballs or on the latest, greatest P4s with gigabytes of RAM, and the helo flies the same without speeding up or becoming unrealistic. That's how well the engine and flight model were written. I will even dare say that the flight model feels better and more solid than the otherwise vastly superior Comanche 4.

AI: The AI for enemies and wingmen in Comanche 3 (for DOS) was not very realistic, but very adequate for the game. Nova Logic claims to have vastly improved on it for Comanche Gold. I will state that it is much better now, but still not perfect. I will simply call it "adequate" and "average". To this day, however, I still have yet to see ANY game - whatsoever - with a truly realistic enemy AI. They're getting closer, but still have a long way to go.

Compatibility: This version of Comanche can be played on ANY 32-bit Windows box ever built, and on any version of Windows from 95 to 64-bit XP. It's beautiful in it's simplicity in that it doesn't require any special hardware. It even runs great on old laptops. :-)

Graphics: Fantastic for not being 3D accellerated. Nova Logic got lots of mileage out of its Voxel Space graphics engine. It was pure frickin' magic in its day. Comanche 3 had only 640X480 resolution. This versin, however, allows you to use 640X480 or kick it up to 600X800, which noticeably improves the graphics quality and resolution in the game.

Sound: Comanche 3 for DOS was 100% Dolby Surround - not bad for a DOS game from 1996. Comanche Gold's sound, however, is limited only by what kind of sound system you have connected to your PC. Comanche Gold also boasts the most realistic in-game dialog sequences you're gonna hear. In-game dialog is an area where nearly every game I've ever heard fails miserably, with the cheesiest sounding scripts ever written that are read in the dumbest, most unrealistic way possible. That's the NORM in the gaming world. The Comanche series, however - as well as every other Nova Logic game - gets it right.

Environment/Landscape: Nova Logic did something with the Comanche series that nobody else ever did and still have yet to do with a helo sim: TREES. Longbow, Enemy Engaged, etc? Yawn, snore. I couldn't believe Longbow II was so terribly done. Without trees and cool landscape items to hide behind, a helo sim is utterly worthless and completely deafeats the very purpose of being in a helo in the first place. Once again, Noval Logic gets it right. Trees, nooks, crannies, gullies, etc. The best landscape a rotor jockey could ever hope for is found in Comanche Gold. What good is sneaking around and flying nap-of-the-earth if you're still out in the open with no trees and gullies to zig-zag throgh? You are even able to hide behind and between not only trees but BOULDERS in this game. Comanche Gold is untouched by any other rival in this category - with the possible exception of Comanche 4.

Fun factor: One thing Nova Logic has been able to do that nearly no other game manufacturer has ever been able to do on a consistent basis is FUN FACTOR. They have always provided a well-balanced game in terms of simulation complexity vs fun factor. You do not want a sim so realistic that you spend all your time getting shot down because you're fighting controls that are way too complex. You also don't want to feel like you're playing a little kiddie game that has no realism at all. Comanche series has always been the perfect balance of realism, complexity and fun factor. You get to fly a realistic chopper and blow a whole bunch of stuff apart, and with as much or as little complexity as you want. There are reviews in here that say the game is both too hard and too easy. I rest my case.

Multiplayer: I have played this game in multiplayer mode more times than anyone else I know. It is fantastic. It is here that the fun factor truly comes to light. I know the game has passed into history to the extent that you won;t find huge numbers playing it online anymore. Maybe there's folks playing it on Kali still (it truly deserves to be). One thing I'll say is this: multiplayer functionality was always fantastic and worked very well. We never had any problems with it.

Out of the many years that Comanche 3 and Gold have given me in faithful service and countless hours of fun, the least I could do is write up an article that would somehow convey my gratitude for this game. Comanche Gold and Comanche 4 are the two helo sims that I live for to this day.

Please read both of my reviews of Comanche 4 as well, written under both this name here and also "Highwinder", the name I used for the most recent review, both of which are here on Amazon. Just search for Comanche 4.

5 stars for fun factor, 4 stars for adequate but dated technology, and wingman/enemy AI that, though improved and adequate, could have been improved even more.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Chopper Sim, February 20, 2000

By 

Scott (NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comanche Gold (CD-ROM)

ever since I bought USAF I was like great but I need a Sim for a chopper. Comanche Gold suited my needs, this sim has good graphics, runs on most PC's and has over 80 missions. You can contol everything from altitude hold to extending and retracting the Cargo bay doors.

Let me tell you about this chopper, it has the latest stealth techonolegy, the Radar sig. is 600X smaller than the AH-64 Apache. If you hover at 60ft. no one will see you. This isn't bad for $19. When I bought this I was wondering what was the catch... Truth is no catch.