Blast from the past....

I went through a lot of software/files in a disk/HD tidy up and decided to take a few old games for a nostalgic re-run and a replay of some old saved games.

Three games I tried were:
Close Combat 2 A bridge Too Far.
Star Trek Birth of the Federation.
Star Wars Supremacy.



I'll start in reverse order to the way I tried them.

First off, Star Wars (Supremacy for me and Rebellion for the U.S.), which I wasn't able to get working. Mainly because my version of windows is 64 bit and the patch for a 64 bit install doesn't seem to be available anymore. There is a longer way to get it to work by making the changes manually, but I wasn't that nostalgic. I'd rather get it working again on an older pc I have but that isn't in my own house just yet.


Second is the Star Trek game Birth of the Federation. Which I did spend a lot of time in when it came out first. It installed without any trouble. I was able to do the install, patch and copy my saved game files etc and ran the game perfectly. No additional changes or tweaks needed.

The big thing for me in replaying this game is that the user interface was not as intuitive as I remembered. So there was a re-learning curve.
I also remembered the game map being a lot larger. Even when the map is zoomed out with no exploration done it feels really small. Factor in all the other races on the same map and I felt like I was tripping over them on the first turn. Not a bad thing on lesser difficulty settings but the harder it is the worse the starting position (as you have little to defend yourself with). In saying that the game is better balanced than on the face of it. There are many options for diplomacy etc. The interface is a strong Star Trek feel and really brings the game to life as there are all the usual (Next Generation) sounds and graphics. I really like the voice feedback the game gives.

After reloading some saves and checked things out I didnt' stay with the game for long and uninstalled it after about two or so day's.

Lastly the title of all three that I probably spent most of my gaming time on, Close Combat A Bridge Too Far. I love strategy games and the Close combat series really is a great set of games. I only count the original # 2, 3, 4 and 5 in that comment. But I have seen more online but I've not played them.

On installing the only problem I found was that I couldn't do a full install, as it was unable to see the hard drive properly. I thought I had no disk space at all. It did do the minimum install without any problems. 

A day later I decided to check the reinstall option and was able to reinstall the full setting over the minimal install.

Not running files off the CD did increase the load times as well as the games overall speed.
There is a slowdown of the end game screen where there is a reveal from black to the details screen that reacts slowly (see my gameplay vids below). And the mouse speed is incredibly fast when trying to move the screen around. While I can't do anything about the reveal it really isn't a problem. The movement with the mouse isn't really a problem as well as I use the arrow keys to move about... No problem for me but it may annoy some people. 
All my saves worked well and brought a lot of memories back of the epic battles. The game has a lot of options and can be set as easy or as hard as you like. And if you really like a challenge you can set the enemy to be maxed out with the best troops while you take the weakest of the weak. It can lead to some epic wins and crushing defeats.

I like the way the game is themed, following the battles of each phase/day and comparing your progress to the level of the real historic thing.

Some battles require your side to take a point like a bridge fast before the defending German side blows the bridge and slows your advance on that front.

That can lead to mass slaughter akin to this....

I do like the settings that are more realistic so when fighting an enemy you can get lucky and panic the soldier on the enemy side that is hauling their biggest weapon....

The only gameplay down side I've come across with this replay is that the end of the campaign does delete your saved game on completion. I recall now why I saved and duplicated so many save game files.

I've enjoyed this game so much again I'll be leaving it and will pop back to a game or two when I feel like it. It makes me want to reload the next editions of the games.... I'll have to see about that.

Meanwhile here are two battles from the Grand Campaign from both sides.
My German defence game is a late campaign version and my Allied Attack is an early game version.