Thursday, 26 December 2019

Missionforce Cyberstorm.....


Cyberstorm or Missionforce Cybersorm to give it it's full name; Was always plain ol'Cyberstorm to me. A big box game in the 90's that I had hummed and hawed over in a shop till I bit the bullet and bought it.


It's been a game I then played for a long time back then, not out of being a difficulty game(which is there) but for the joy of tweaking mechs(technically HERC's).

Side note on the top splash banner, it's the banner from GoG which I edited. I like everything about the GoG banner except the dude in the middle. I don't recall him being in any way association with 'my' memory of the games promotion even back in the 90's. Even so I don't like the look so I changed it to the box art 'dude and mech'. Much better imho.

The original GoG banner(shudder)....


Even as a separate franchise I can't help but call them mech's. The game is strategic management against marauding a.i. Balancing weapons, armour and a plethora of parts is enjoyable. I really get a kick from taking an under-powered or 'disposable' force against the odds through a mission successfully. Then there's the repair and maintenance afterwards. Another aspect of the game that I liked. Pilots. The cloned pilots(bioderms) need management as well; Health, training or disposal. Clones have a limited lifespan, to be used or squandered.


In current gaming context it's a game akin to Battletech(2019); I think that's a fair comparison. Not to take away from MechCommander, Battletech or other Earthsiege games back then in comparison. I loved the Battletech/Mechwarrior games in the 90's(and since), one franchise was good, more 'mecha' is always better. Then and now. Just need to keep an eye on the good ones. Cyberstorm is a good one!

I'd tried the game with various iterations of Windows but as time passed the likelihood of getting it running faded. Some of the game community kept it alive with workarounds but I always had problems getting it to run consistently. GoG was a hope and I'd seen the game listed but with so few other players also requesting it, well; GoG seemed a distant saviour. So I stopped trying to make it work.

Then along comes the current winter sale on GoG and I see Missionforce Cyberstorm!!  What a gifted surprise!

It runs perfectly. I had thought there were better resolution options but it runs so I'll take it.

Way back when I'd used the below bitmap image as the shortcut icon(renamed the file type from .bmp to .ico); Which I've done on this new version and I'm even more nostalgic!


I also recall running Winamp and some 'tunes' in the background as the combat music in game was only about 6 minutes long. That gets repetitive fast.

Here's my first spin out in the newly reinstalled game. Pre-messing with the preferences. The campaign I loaded up was an original save from the 90's. The 'best' campaign which I'd prolonged to maximize OP 'fun'..... So I was very happy with that. Some minor re-acquaintance with u.i. and tactics but it felt like I was straight back at home. I'm looking forward to spending more time in this game.

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