Achieved at : 2026-09-29
Rank : 3
(50% worse)
Lups : 131
Approved :
Yes
Voting completed : 2026-10-01
| General Rules: |
Play with default settings unless otherwise specified. No use of trainers, cheats, saved game files, auto-fire (when not default present in-game), emulator save states, or other emulator advantages. No use of code modifications that give the player an advantage over other players. 1 player only. No continues. It is discouraged and may lead to voters not accepting your score to - excessively point farm - use glitches or other game exploits |
| Specific Rules: | Play the game in 1 player mode with default settings |
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TGP
Commando is the BBC Micro port of the 1985 Capcom arcade hit. Released by Elite in 1985, it was written by Trevor Harwood (his only BBC credit as far as I can see), with graphics by John Nixon (who also did the graphics on the BBC version of Gyroscope from Melbourne House).
In this game, you play as Super Joe, a top grade soldier entrusted with a mission to get behind enemy lines and destroy everything. Armed with an unlimited amount of bullets and a very limited supply of grenades, into battle you go. Your enemies are mainly bullet firing soldiers, but there is the odd grenade and mortar fired at you as well, and enemy vehicles appear as you progress further.
The arcade game was obviously richer and more detailed than this home port. Colours are limited to four, as the game uses Mode 5 in order to have enough memory for the game. This heavily restricts the visual appeal of the game as well as making it difficult to see bullets and grenades at times. Sound is limited to bullet and grenade bursts, but that is fine as you will need all the audio cues you can get due to the colour scheme. You character controls well, though the motion of all the games characters is a little jerky, but it does manage to cope ok with quite a few enemies and bullets on screen at the same time. This is particularly important at the end of level soldier swarms.
Overall, this is not a bad port, but it lacks something. Technically it is done well, but the BBC is not well suited to a game like this, lacking both the colour and memory to be able to do enough to capture the original. What we do have is more than passable though. It even scored quite highly in magazine reviews of the day, as such an achievement at the time was impressive. Today though, this lacks the oomph to be considered a great Commando port. It just falls a little flat on the gameplay and overall enjoyment side, but I don't see what more the programmers could have done with what they had and what they knew in 1985, especially as the game would also be expected to run on the Electron with very few changes. Key features that are missing include being dropped off by the helicopter at the start (which is just eye candy anyway, it does nothing for gameplay. Also missing are the hostage rescues you can perform. Although not crucial to overall gameplay, they did offer something else to go for as rescued hostages gave you bonus points.
This run was made on the 29th September 2026. The emulator is Pantheon, running on PC. There are no skill levels and the final score was 28,400 points. Annoyingly, I couldn't tempt the last soldier out of that red shelter (is it a cave? a trench?) and he got me in the end.
Time stamps:
00:30 Title screen.
00:33 Game start.
01:30 First life lost.
02:55 Second life lost.
03:26 Extra life gained for passing 10,000 points.
04:20 First gates reached.
05:00 All gate enemies killed, level 1 complete.
06:33 Third life lost.
06:44 Extra life awarded for passing 20,000 points.
07:27 Fourth life lost.
08:48 One enemy left, but where is he?
10:13 He got me. Fifth life lost. Game Over! Final score 28,400 points.
10:20 Initials entry and High Score table.
In this game, you play as Super Joe, a top grade soldier entrusted with a mission to get behind enemy lines and destroy everything. Armed with an unlimited amount of bullets and a very limited supply of grenades, into battle you go. Your enemies are mainly bullet firing soldiers, but there is the odd grenade and mortar fired at you as well, and enemy vehicles appear as you progress further.
The arcade game was obviously richer and more detailed than this home port. Colours are limited to four, as the game uses Mode 5 in order to have enough memory for the game. This heavily restricts the visual appeal of the game as well as making it difficult to see bullets and grenades at times. Sound is limited to bullet and grenade bursts, but that is fine as you will need all the audio cues you can get due to the colour scheme. You character controls well, though the motion of all the games characters is a little jerky, but it does manage to cope ok with quite a few enemies and bullets on screen at the same time. This is particularly important at the end of level soldier swarms.
Overall, this is not a bad port, but it lacks something. Technically it is done well, but the BBC is not well suited to a game like this, lacking both the colour and memory to be able to do enough to capture the original. What we do have is more than passable though. It even scored quite highly in magazine reviews of the day, as such an achievement at the time was impressive. Today though, this lacks the oomph to be considered a great Commando port. It just falls a little flat on the gameplay and overall enjoyment side, but I don't see what more the programmers could have done with what they had and what they knew in 1985, especially as the game would also be expected to run on the Electron with very few changes. Key features that are missing include being dropped off by the helicopter at the start (which is just eye candy anyway, it does nothing for gameplay. Also missing are the hostage rescues you can perform. Although not crucial to overall gameplay, they did offer something else to go for as rescued hostages gave you bonus points.
This run was made on the 29th September 2026. The emulator is Pantheon, running on PC. There are no skill levels and the final score was 28,400 points. Annoyingly, I couldn't tempt the last soldier out of that red shelter (is it a cave? a trench?) and he got me in the end.
Time stamps:
00:30 Title screen.
00:33 Game start.
01:30 First life lost.
02:55 Second life lost.
03:26 Extra life gained for passing 10,000 points.
04:20 First gates reached.
05:00 All gate enemies killed, level 1 complete.
06:33 Third life lost.
06:44 Extra life awarded for passing 20,000 points.
07:27 Fourth life lost.
08:48 One enemy left, but where is he?
10:13 He got me. Fifth life lost. Game Over! Final score 28,400 points.
10:20 Initials entry and High Score table.