Commando (NTSC)
Commando (戦場の狼, Senjō no Ōkami, lit. "Wolf of the Battlefield") is a run and gun, vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released in 1985. Its influence can be seen in various later games in the genre, including Gun.Smoke, Who Dares Wins, Ikari Warriors, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Jackal, Heavy Barrel, Trax, and others.
It was released for several platforms, including the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Amiga, Nintendo Entertainment System, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro and PC. Versions of the game also appear on Capcom Classics Collection for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PlayStation Portable, Activision Anthology for the PlayStation 2, and on the Wii Virtual Console Arcade.
The player takes control of a soldier named Super Joe, who starts by being dropped off in a jungle by a helicopter, and has to fight his way out singlehandedly, fending off a massive assault of enemy soldiers.
Super Joe is armed with a sub-machine gun (which has unlimited ammunition) as well as a limited supply of hand grenades. While Joe can fire his gun in any of the eight directions that he faces, his grenades can only be thrown vertically towards the top of the screen, irrespective of the direction Joe is facing. Unlike his SMG bullets, grenades can be thrown to clear obstacles, and explosions from well placed grenades can kill several enemies at once.
At the end of each level, the screen stops, and the player must fight several soldiers streaming from a gate or fortress. They are ordered out by a cowardly officer, who immediately runs away, although shooting him in the back awards the player bonus points. Along the way, one can attempt to free prisoners of war as they are transported across the screen by the enemy.
In the NES version, there is a more powerful machine gun upgrade, as well as "glasses" to let the player view all the hidden bunkers and an unlimited grenade upgrade (the player will lose these upgrades after losing a life).
It was released for several platforms, including the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Amiga, Nintendo Entertainment System, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro and PC. Versions of the game also appear on Capcom Classics Collection for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PlayStation Portable, Activision Anthology for the PlayStation 2, and on the Wii Virtual Console Arcade.
The player takes control of a soldier named Super Joe, who starts by being dropped off in a jungle by a helicopter, and has to fight his way out singlehandedly, fending off a massive assault of enemy soldiers.
Super Joe is armed with a sub-machine gun (which has unlimited ammunition) as well as a limited supply of hand grenades. While Joe can fire his gun in any of the eight directions that he faces, his grenades can only be thrown vertically towards the top of the screen, irrespective of the direction Joe is facing. Unlike his SMG bullets, grenades can be thrown to clear obstacles, and explosions from well placed grenades can kill several enemies at once.
At the end of each level, the screen stops, and the player must fight several soldiers streaming from a gate or fortress. They are ordered out by a cowardly officer, who immediately runs away, although shooting him in the back awards the player bonus points. Along the way, one can attempt to free prisoners of war as they are transported across the screen by the enemy.
In the NES version, there is a more powerful machine gun upgrade, as well as "glasses" to let the player view all the hidden bunkers and an unlimited grenade upgrade (the player will lose these upgrades after losing a life).
Commando (NTSC)
Technical
CPU
- maincpu M6502 (@ 1 Mhz)
- pokey POKEY (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- TIA (@ 0 Mhz)
- POKEY (@ 1 Mhz)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 225
- Frequency 60 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 2
- Kind of controler joy (8 ways)
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Commando (NTSC) Screenshots
Clones of Commando (NTSC)
Ports and their developers
It is notoriously difficult to find information about developers of early games, so this list is incomplete:
The BBC Micro version was developed under contract by Catalyst Coders for Elite by:
The Acorn Electron version was created from a direct port from the BBC Micro version. Since the BBC Micro had a faster processor, the port on the Acorn appeared much slower:
The Amiga version was developed at Elite by:
The Amstrad CPC version was developed at Elite by:
The Atari 2600 version was developed at Activision by:
The Atari ST version was developed at Elite by:
The well received Commodore 64 version was developed at Elite in a very tight schedule (2 months), by:
The cracking group Lurid Tricycle considered the Commodore version so easy that they added an un-trainer, to make the game harder.
The ZX Spectrum version was developed at Elite by:
The Intellivision version was developed for INTV Corporation by :
Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando was released on the Virtual Console Arcade in Japan on October 5, 2010, in North America on December 6, 2010 and in the PAL region on December 17, 2010.
The Atari 8-bit version was created by Sculptured Software in 1989, and was intended to be released by Atari Corporation for the XE Game System. However, although the game appeared in Atari catalogs of the time, it never reached the market in spite of being completed. In the 2000s the game's prototype cartridge was found.
BBC Micro
The BBC Micro version was developed under contract by Catalyst Coders for Elite by:
- Developer: Trevor Harwood
- Graphics: John Nixon
- Sound: Unknown
Acorn Electron
The Acorn Electron version was created from a direct port from the BBC Micro version. Since the BBC Micro had a faster processor, the port on the Acorn appeared much slower:
- Developer: Trevor Harwood
- Graphics: John Nixon
- Sound: N/A (the limitations of the machine meant very basic sound which will have been added by the developer)
Amiga
The Amiga version was developed at Elite by:
- Developer: Neil Latarche and Martin Ward
- Graphics: Steve Beverley
- Sound: Mark Cooksey
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version was developed at Elite by:
- Developers: Simon Freeman, Keith Burkhill and Nigel Alderton
- Graphics: "Jon"
- Sound: Unknown
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 version was developed at Activision by:
- Developer: Mike Reidel [1]
Atari ST
The Atari ST version was developed at Elite by:
- Developer: Neil Latarche and Martin Ward
- Graphics: Steve Beverley
- Sound: Mark Cooksey
Commodore 64
The well received Commodore 64 version was developed at Elite in a very tight schedule (2 months), by:
- Developer: Chris Butler
- Graphics: Rory Green and Chris Harvey
- Sound: Rob Hubbard
The cracking group Lurid Tricycle considered the Commodore version so easy that they added an un-trainer, to make the game harder.
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version was developed at Elite by:
- Developers: Keith Burkhill, Nigel Alderton
- Graphics: Rory Green and "Karen"
- Sound: František Fuka (added later as a "bootleg")
Intellivision
The Intellivision version was developed for INTV Corporation by :
- Developer: John Tomlinson
- Graphics: Connie Goldman
- Sound: David Warhol
Virtual Console
Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando was released on the Virtual Console Arcade in Japan on October 5, 2010, in North America on December 6, 2010 and in the PAL region on December 17, 2010.
Unreleased versions
The Atari 8-bit version was created by Sculptured Software in 1989, and was intended to be released by Atari Corporation for the XE Game System. However, although the game appeared in Atari catalogs of the time, it never reached the market in spite of being completed. In the 2000s the game's prototype cartridge was found.
Legacy
Commando was followed by a sequel titled Mercs in 1989, which was known as Senjō no Ōkami II in Japan. A second sequel, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 was released as a downloadable title for the Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network in 2008.
The arcade version of Bionic Commando was marketed as a sequel to Commando and the main character, a nameless soldier in the game, is identified as "Super Joe" in an American brochure for the game. Super Joe would appear as an actual supporting character in the later versions of Bionic Commando for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy, as well as in Bionic Commando: Elite Forces. In the 2009 version of Bionic Commando for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the character of Super Joe is identified as Joseph Gibson, one of the three player characters in Mercs.
The game Duet by Elite Systems Ltd was also called first "Commando '86" then "Commando '87".
The game won the award for best shooting game of the year according to the readers of Crash magazine. It was also voted best arcade-style game of the year at the Golden Joystick Awards.
The arcade version of Bionic Commando was marketed as a sequel to Commando and the main character, a nameless soldier in the game, is identified as "Super Joe" in an American brochure for the game. Super Joe would appear as an actual supporting character in the later versions of Bionic Commando for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy, as well as in Bionic Commando: Elite Forces. In the 2009 version of Bionic Commando for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the character of Super Joe is identified as Joseph Gibson, one of the three player characters in Mercs.
The game Duet by Elite Systems Ltd was also called first "Commando '86" then "Commando '87".
The game won the award for best shooting game of the year according to the readers of Crash magazine. It was also voted best arcade-style game of the year at the Golden Joystick Awards.
| Preceded by "Monty on the Run" | UK number-one Spectrum game March 1986 | Succeeded by "Winter Games" |
Bibliography
- Zzap!64
