Desert Strike & Jungle Strike - ADG Episode 286

[@LGR]

Annnnnnd ordered a boxed combo pack of both PC ports, heh. Never knew these came to DOS PCs! Looks like they were exclusive to UK/Europe, so the Gremlin publishing makes sense. I only ever saw Nuclear Strike for PC back in the day, and it was one of my favorites to show off my Voodoo card capabilities. Loved playing _Desert_ and _Jungle_ on the Genesis though, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this video pop up. Thanks Kris!

[@Pixelmusement]

Hunh... that's VERY interesting... I just looked into this now and yes, the individual games only came out for DOS in Europe, BUT the combo disc I have with both games on it was absolutely released in the USA as it was distributed by Front Street Publishing out of California! :O

[@Rando1975]

I thought for sure that I picked up both games separately back in the day (and I'm in Canada). But it may have been a 2 in 1. Loved the Strike series. And I hated that night mission in Jungle Strike. I just cranked up the brightness on my monitor. And the hovercraft glitch explains a lot. I could be in it and barely tap the pickup and bounce off it.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@Rando1975 It's not impossible. The gaming market in Canada is somewhat different than in the USA and we occasionally do get stuff the USA doesn't and vice versa. :B

[@weirdproq]

@@Pixelmusement Yeah, back in the 2000's I'd sometimes find a PC game in the Walmart bargain bin here in Canada with the PEGI rating, like a Sherlock Holmes game I think. No ESRB. It was surreal to me seeing a UK game being sold new out here in a big box store. I also distinctly remember seeing Asterix at the Olympic Games for PC at a Giant Tiger here in Canada despite having only a PEGI rating, and only being listed online as having come out in the UK. It's a rare occurrence though.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@weirdproq It was a much more common thing here in Canada with console games compared to PC games. A great example is with how our Genesis games often had UK-format artwork and manuals, despite having the Genesis logo instead of the Mega Drive logo! :B

[@psycthom]

Man I remember when these game out - hard to believe the ads at the time being like "the most cutting edge exciting game ever" when you look back at them :)

[@Pixelmusement]

Pretty much half of the gaming ads out there at the time made claims like that. :P

[@fisk0]

I remember Byte magazine putting a screenshot of Quake on the front page back in 1996 stating that video games had gotten so realistic you couldn't tell them apart from photographs anymore.

[@joshuadramsey]

Another crazy one from this same time that used the same kind of hyperbole was Cyberbykes. I remember my friend getting it for Christmas in 1995, freaking out about the graphics modes, which I recall actually being impressive. Of course, after playing it, that was the only thing impressive about it. Cyberbykes was horrible! At least the Strike games were enjoyable to play, regardless of how overblown the hype was.

[@psycthom]

@@Pixelmusement Its wierd to think that they were cutting edge at the time!

[@psycthom]

@@fisk0 That;s hilarious - I remember Quake II having sooo much hype around its graphics but I never got to play it until recently :/

[@thepirategamerboy12]

Glad to see these being covered. Many don't seem to even realize these got PC ports, sadly a case with quite a few console games that got them.

[@ericvenneker]

The consoles even got the third game: urban strike. I always liked these game, but I was never able to finish them (or even a level)

[@crabman3144]

The Strike games are interesting. I have Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, and its sequel, Urban Strike on the Genesis. I'm still trying to find copies of Soviet Strike and Nuclear Strike to round out the collection.

[@weirdproq]

Thanks for reviewing this. It's interesting learning about the release info in both the video, and reading the updated description.

[@TheMightyAtomNL]

It's bitter sweet to finally see these games covered on ADG. As a kid I played the crap out of the Desert Strike and then later Jungle Strike. At first my computer couldn't run JS due to insufficient expanded memory, so my uncle, may he Rest In Peace, made a special boot floppy disk to help free as much memory as possible to run the game, and it worked! But man these games are relentless. Some enemies take you down in seconds. Remember those Sheridan tank in Desert Strike? Yeah you do, stay away, avoid! My frustration levels peaked a lot of times during these missions. I've only played the first two games, as these were released for DOS. The third game, Urban Strike, was never released for DOS so I never played that one. Then there's also Nuclear Strike. I've played that as well but good lord is it a hard game. I also wasn't really a big fan of the switch to 3D. I wouldn't mind to see a modern day re-release, remake, remaster, what have you of Desert, Jungle and Urban Strike. I like the DOS games era pixelated look of these old games, so hopefully they stick to that if a developer picks these game up for a remaster.

[@bluvetro6524]

286...like my first Computer! Keep up the good work. OMF 2097, Tyrian, and others I miss. Especially would have liked to mod them. ;)

[@LusRetroSource]

Never played any of the Strike games but always wanted to. You're video just reminded me of them. Really good overview of the game you made.

[@fisk0]

Love the Strike series (including Future Cop LAPD which was originally supposed to be Future Strike). Never played the PC versions, but own the Genesis and PS1 titles. Really wish we'd see more games like this, a handful of games have been made over the last 20 years evoking it, but all of them have been far more linear and with some really frustrating elements, like Fair Strike requiring you to follow mission markers throughout the mission, and even devoiding slightly from them results in "You're leaving the combat zone, return in 5 seconds or be executed", while the enemies you have to destroy actively fly out of the mission area. Brigador is probably the best one I've played, but it's closer to Future Cop (or what Future Strike would've been) than these aircraft oriented games, as you're limited to piloting a mech on the ground, with little variety aside from unlocking different mechs with different weapon ranges and movement speeds.

[@downscale]

286 you say?

[@TheOneRobUK]

Still got my CD version of Desert and Jungle Strike, both with an extra mission and Jungle with the hilariously bad that its good Full Motion Video briefings! Enjoy the games but I've never been a fan of constantly hunting for fuel. Wish this series continued post the first Playstation games or were remastered.

[@wraithcadmus]

One of my prouder gaming achievements to be finishing the Amiga version of Jungle Strike, which used the animated style seen in the Desert Strike footage here.

[@Pixelmusement]

The DOS floppy disk version of Jungle Strike doesn't have the FMVs either as the FMVs take up over 250 MB of space; not fitting THOSE on floppy disks! ;)

[@singletona082]

Had desert strike on the genesis,so the is gonna be interesting to see.

[@shdon]

The title giving impressions of intergalactic combat and birds? I can think of three titles, just one of which is a game on its own. Have been looking forward to seeing that one show up on ADG, so I hope I'm guessing correctly. And Jungle Strike and Desert Strike always looked really cool in de games magazines I read in the 1990s. Pity I never had a copy, though I don't think I would have gotten very far given my general lack of gameplay skills.

[@Darkstar2342]

3:25 is the tearing an artefact of the recording or is that in the engine? I remember playing the first game a bit back then but I don't remember the graphics tearing that much ...

[@Pixelmusement]

Someone else in the comments confirmed it happens on real hardware too. Although I do recall when testing cycles counts that if the framerate drops below its capped maximum the tearing goes away. :P

[@Chipsticks93]

Nuclear Strike and Soviet Strike on PS1 were amazing

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I'd only played Jungle Strike before (at least on PC), and it's a shame neither Urban or Soviet got releases there. Really dig them, even if the challenge is a bit off (at least from the repair and refuel angle). The series of a great demonstration (which is something you highlight) of being an action game which offers extra layers to it. Something which I think I dug back then, but I find myself rather excited to discover new games which go down that route these days…

[@cd-lf8xm]

For some reason I liked Jungle Strike a bit more back in the day. I remember a magazine i had contained a demo of JS which had the interlaced video :-)

[@Christopher-N]

I have _Desert Strike_ for the Sega Genesis. I think the game's difficulty has a steep curve. Antiaircraft weapons can be outmaneuvered (if you can attack them from the opposite direction they're facing), but I find fuel consumption is usually the biggest constraint. If you can't find a fuel pickup nearby, then it's a long flight back to a distant pickup, and I often don't make it (or use them up). Definitely a challenging game.

[@AlexeiVoronin]

Whiel the games are indeed similar, they also have some pretty big differences, the msot notable being that Jungle Strike has a great variety of terrains and conditions (including a nocturnal level), while alll missions Desert Strike seem to take place over variations of the same desert coastline. Yeah, the games are fun. It's a pity the third one, Urban Strike, didn't get a DOS port.

[@GoodPunk]

I still love those graphics. Would be cool if they did a modern, maybe less difficult / more polished Pixel Art sequel. :D

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

I had the trilogy, Desert, Jungle and Urban Strike for genesis. Played the hell ou of those on my genesis.

[@TheMoogleMaster]

The only one I ever played was Desert Strike on the Sega Genesis.

[@downscale]

I loved Jungle Strike on PC

[@Balc0ra]

Honestly never played the dos versions, but now I gotta give them a go. I still have my original copies of both games on the SNES, and that's the only version of them I've played. Still have the boxed copy of Nuklear strike for PC tho.

[@mobiusraptor7]

They made a GBA version. And it was censoring to make it a little kid-friendly (the prisoner in the intro is put in a cell instead of put into hot boiling water)

[@jasonblalock4429]

6:10 Ugh, I hated those couple years where PC devs though they "had" to include high-res or high-color FMVs, even though that meant wrecking the video to get it streaming smoothly off of CD-ROMs (and/or compressing it to fit.) I honestly preferred the look of regular VGA, at least until full-screen 640p video became possible.

[@negirno]

I've liked those 'interlaced' videos when we had a slow machine. Of course I couldn't watch them for long because it made my eyes hurt, and I didn't miss them once true high res (or at least interpolated) video became viable.

[@bluekewne]

Yeah I have fond memories of this game on Genesis; I remember it's an EA game cause the cartridge is different. Definitely gonna check the DOS version out.

[@WayOutGaming]

I never played these two on dos, but I have played Nuclear strike for windows, and Jungle Strike on Genesis. Interesting games, though I find them really hard.

[@TeraunceFoaloke]

Weird. This game reminds me of the Army Men Air Combat game. Seriously It twigged so hard I had to check to make sure they weren't related.

[@aaronmarko]

Ah it looks like Kris is finally getting around to covering Xtreme Space Falconer.

[@StanislaoMoulinsky79]

Oh man, I had PC Desert Strike back in the day, but never finished it. I wonder if somewhere I still have the box.

[@spartonberry]

I have to wonder if part of the reason for not making this series more common, had to do with being unable to release the final game in the trilogy, Urban Strike easily. I have heard Urban Strike was made/involved a Tim Langdall who became a trademark troll claiming he owned the word "Edge" until EA shut him down after he tried his legal routine after EA published Mirror's Edge. That, and also that I heard Urban Strike had 9/11 as a fictional scenario, and of course EA wouldn't want to deal with explaining the game existed seven years earlier. I do believe Genesis was the original console for Jungle Strike, in 1993. The SNES port was released two years later, in 1995. I'm guessing the reason that version is fairly common is that Majesco re-released a lot of SNES (and Genesis) games in the late '90s (stealth reprints without their own name on them). As I recall, for collecting (and verification) of the first print SNES releases of both Jungle and Urban Strike, the only label difference I recall was the EA prints (on Nintendo PCBs) were "MADE IN MEXICO" while the Majesco prints were "ASSEMBLED IN MEXICO".

[@Lachlant1984]

Desert Strike was also released in the Atari Lynx, though I don't think it was a licenced game, either that or my copy of the game is a bootleg, as the game card does not have the official Atari Lynx logo on it. Was this also the case with the Mega Drive/Super Nintendo versions?

[@Pixelmusement]

Dunno, but it wouldn't surprise me as EA was notorious for trying to reduce/eliminate the logos of the hardware they were making games for while still staying legit. Looking at the Lynx version in particular, the Atari logos only appear on the box. :P

[@Lachlant1984]

@@Pixelmusement I also thought that back then EA didn't have a partnership with Nintendo, I know they had one with Sega, but I didn't think they released games on the NES/SNES.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@Lachlant1984 EA only ever published ONE game on the NES... The Immortal. They did however do dev work on the NES-based Skate or Die series of games. With the Genesis, Sega wasn't quite as uptight as Nintendo about who manufactured the actual carts, so EA was allowed to make their own with the taller form factor and little yellow tabs. :B

[@rifleman101]

Nuclear Strike!

[@dorpth]

All the Strike series games (Desert, Jungle, and Mech Commander) frustrated me so much. There was a fun idea there, but it was buried under ludicrous difficulty. You had JUST enough fuel and ammo scattered around the map to beat it, and couldn't afford to waste any time or a single shot. Then you had to memorize the exact order to do objectives in, and the exact path to take to pick up all the supplies and exactly the right moments. Anything less and you were fucked.

[@XanthinZarda]

Pretty sure I've seen one of these either on a rom pit/gong show or in a rom set. Saw some screen tearing. Is the game running at an odd refresh rate?

[@Pixelmusement]

I saw that tearing too as I was playing. Given that the tear line wasn't moving I suspect it's an issue with the game itself, either through emulation or it may even occur on real hardware. I didn't comment on it because I had no idea what was up and no way to really know. :P

[@stefanocrespi5424]

@@Pixelmusement plain dos on a 386 shows the same effect.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@stefanocrespi5424 OK, so that confirms it's the fault of how the game is handling vertical sync and not an emulation thing. Thanks for checking! :)

[@Darxide23]

The biggest difference between the DOS/Amiga/Genesis/SNES ports is the sound. They all have vastly different sound qualities. I prefer the music from the Genesis version, but the SFX of the SNES or DOS versions. Overall, my preferred version is the Genesis version. The Amiga version did have some graphical changes over the other versions that are technically of a higher quality, but I don't like the new graphic style. It's most noticeable in the explosions and fire graphics. Higher quality and more frames of animation, but not very fitting artistically. They seem like they belong to another game. These games have aged extremely well and are still some of the most fun you can have on a 16-bit console.

[@VulpesHilarianus]

I used to play Jungle Strike all the time when I was three or four just to blow up the buildings. I still have the original box the SNES cart came in when we bought it new.

[@turtlecatpurrz]

Hoping next one is StarGoose it’s such a weird game.

[@TheWoblinGoblin]

I only ever played nuclear strike, and I can't because of lacl of hardware... one of those rare retro games that won't emulate

[@Maggerama]

And they ask why people don't go to libraries these days.

[@MarianoDevourment]

ahh those times when EA actually made good games... I played those on the sega genesis and loved them... but the one I played the most was Urban Strike.

[@lucidexistance1]

Apparently I'm the only one who played this on the SNES? Genesis sucks. Lol. (I used to argue with my best friend about that. But who went to who's house more often to play games? Especially when MKII came out. He had me on the first one, but couldn't argue about the second)

[@Pixelmusement]

The Genesis and SNES both had their merits and pros/cons, but generally speaking, if a game was available on BOTH it often ended up better on the SNES, though there are notable exceptions like Raiden Trad which is much better on the Genesis. :B

[@Alianger]

Various games are actually better on MD/GEN due to less slowdown and higher horizontal resolution. Sometimes extra content as well such as in The Lost Vikings. Others like Phantom 2040 have a lot of minor differences and end up being a mixed bag.

[@AlexTaradov]

I played a lot of jungle strike, but I only liked the first map.

[@lilwyvern4]

>The difficulty isn't too unreasonable >Shows gameplay footage of player dying

[@Pixelmusement]

I edited that section so I could have one long uncut run where the mission completed right as I was done speaking. Suffice to say, that was a coincidence. ;)