From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

I always had mixed feelings about the drone battle mechanics. On the
one hand: neat! I liked the conceit behind the battle (although I
always wondered why your ship only used /half/ its drone complement in
the introductory battle before the captain surrendered). It was also a
fun little battle simulator (the secret, I found, was to spam the time-compression mechanic and constantly send your drones back to the mothership for repair and switching to new weapon-types). I could see
that little segment of the game expanded into a completely separate
game.

Sure, it's like a mini-RTS in space and all without the tedious
complication of too many different unit types like some RTS games liked
to do.

I've reached this point now but there seems to be some problem with the
DosBox emulation: the game runs at reasonable speed but mouse clicks on
some UI buttons seem to get interpreted in a rather different time
scale. The shortest tap on a mouse button I can manage still seems to
get interpreted as holding it down for 2-3 seconds. Especially the
"rotate" control in the drone battle is pretty hard to use.

So do you, as the resident emulation and retro guru, have any ideas? I
tried slowing down the emulation speed of the game but it doesn't make a
lot of difference. Messes up sound if going too low though.

Still, it isn't so bad, I managed half of the training missions so far
without losses. I didn't remember the graphics were so crude though.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:45:37 +0200, Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> said this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

I always had mixed feelings about the drone battle mechanics. On the
one hand: neat! I liked the conceit behind the battle (although I
always wondered why your ship only used /half/ its drone complement in
the introductory battle before the captain surrendered). It was also a
fun little battle simulator (the secret, I found, was to spam the
time-compression mechanic and constantly send your drones back to the
mothership for repair and switching to new weapon-types). I could see
that little segment of the game expanded into a completely separate
game.

Sure, it's like a mini-RTS in space and all without the tedious
complication of too many different unit types like some RTS games liked
to do.

I've reached this point now but there seems to be some problem with the >DosBox emulation: the game runs at reasonable speed but mouse clicks on
some UI buttons seem to get interpreted in a rather different time
scale. The shortest tap on a mouse button I can manage still seems to
get interpreted as holding it down for 2-3 seconds. Especially the
"rotate" control in the drone battle is pretty hard to use.

So do you, as the resident emulation and retro guru, have any ideas? I
tried slowing down the emulation speed of the game but it doesn't make a
lot of difference. Messes up sound if going too low though.

Not really (I'm hardly an emulation expert; I just play a lot of old
DOS games ;-). I don't recall any such difficulties... which isn't to
say they weren't there for me, just that I don't remember them. Alas,
I don't have a save-game for the combat sequences so I can't test
directly.

[I just fired up the game --it has a permanent spot on the hdd--
and while I found the mouse a bit sluggish in movement, its
clickiness wasn't a problem for me. For what it's worth, I'm
running on DOSBox v0.74-3 with 100% (max) CPU. I have set the
game to use the GUSMax (which requires tweaking of the DOSBox
config file and installation of the GUS drivers in DOSBox)
and sometimes DOS games reacted poorly to some soundcard
setups. Other than that, I dunno. Sorry.]

Still, it isn't so bad, I managed half of the training missions so far >without losses. I didn't remember the graphics were so crude though.

The training missions aren't really that hard; it's really only the
last two or three story missions where you start to struggle a bit
(and, of course, there's always the difficulty slider). I think at the
very easiest you can even skip the battles? I forget.

But yeah, the tactical combat sequences do use very simplistic
visuals, although I think that's intentional. It reflected what a lot
of sci-fi shows at the time were using, and --in fact-- military
systems also usually use simpler visuals in order to de-clutter the
interface so you can focus on what's actually going on (at the
strategic level, you don't need photo-real visuals). Plus, of course,
Legend was mostly making an adventure game, so who knows how much
effort they actually wanted to put into the RTS mini-game.

By itself, I had no problem with the combat. As I said, expanded a bit
it might have worked as a stand-alone title. But I can understand why
a lot of people hated it included in the adventure.


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

[I just fired up the game --it has a permanent spot on the hdd--
and while I found the mouse a bit sluggish in movement, its
clickiness wasn't a problem for me. For what it's worth, I'm
running on DOSBox v0.74-3 with 100% (max) CPU. I have set the
game to use the GUSMax (which requires tweaking of the DOSBox
config file and installation of the GUS drivers in DOSBox)
and sometimes DOS games reacted poorly to some soundcard
setups. Other than that, I dunno. Sorry.]

Thanks for the effort. I realized you can also rotate the view by
holding the right mouse button down and moving the mouse around on the mini-map. The only other place where I had this issue was the early pipe
puzzle in engineering. I thought there was a bug in the game as the up
and down arrows in the GUI just moved the display of the pipe structure
right to the top or bottom, so acting like home and end keys. So I
couldn't see the middle part of the pipes. But of course, it was this
same emulation bug instead. Arrow keys on the keyboard saved my day
there.

Still, it isn't so bad, I managed half of the training missions so far >>without losses. I didn't remember the graphics were so crude though.

The training missions aren't really that hard; it's really only the
last two or three story missions where you start to struggle a bit
(and, of course, there's always the difficulty slider). I think at the
very easiest you can even skip the battles? I forget.

Yes, I think I did just that back when, let the computer win the real
battles for me. Now that I beat the real battles, I wonder why. Default difficulty and there were only two of them. I hope. Basically my tactics
were simple since the computer doesn't really present a challenge. It
attacks piecemeal with groups of five and that's either five assault
drones or four assault drones and one fighter. So all I needed to do was
send more attack drones (six or five) than the computer had in each
group. The fighters are so weak they don't matter and the computer never
sends bombers. The attack drones are really the all-rounder craft.

Maybe higher difficulty changes something but like this it was basically
a turkey shoot.

I did worry, I lost two drones in the first battle and one more in the
second but it seems that was fine. A third battle with six drones left
would likely be hard to win. Clearly I wasn't fast enough on the
controls to pull out damaged drones out of the engagements to get them
back and repaired before they were destroyed. But good enough.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:21:13 +0200, Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> said this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

[I just fired up the game --it has a permanent spot on the hdd--
and while I found the mouse a bit sluggish in movement, its
clickiness wasn't a problem for me. For what it's worth, I'm
running on DOSBox v0.74-3 with 100% (max) CPU. I have set the
game to use the GUSMax (which requires tweaking of the DOSBox
config file and installation of the GUS drivers in DOSBox)
and sometimes DOS games reacted poorly to some soundcard
setups. Other than that, I dunno. Sorry.]

Thanks for the effort. I realized you can also rotate the view by
holding the right mouse button down and moving the mouse around on the >mini-map. The only other place where I had this issue was the early pipe >puzzle in engineering. I thought there was a bug in the game as the up
and down arrows in the GUI just moved the display of the pipe structure
right to the top or bottom, so acting like home and end keys. So I
couldn't see the middle part of the pipes. But of course, it was this
same emulation bug instead. Arrow keys on the keyboard saved my day
there.

Still, it isn't so bad, I managed half of the training missions so far >>>without losses. I didn't remember the graphics were so crude though.

The training missions aren't really that hard; it's really only the
last two or three story missions where you start to struggle a bit
(and, of course, there's always the difficulty slider). I think at the
very easiest you can even skip the battles? I forget.

Yes, I think I did just that back when, let the computer win the real
battles for me. Now that I beat the real battles, I wonder why. Default >difficulty and there were only two of them. I hope. Basically my tactics
were simple since the computer doesn't really present a challenge. It
attacks piecemeal with groups of five and that's either five assault
drones or four assault drones and one fighter. So all I needed to do was
send more attack drones (six or five) than the computer had in each
group. The fighters are so weak they don't matter and the computer never >sends bombers. The attack drones are really the all-rounder craft.

Maybe higher difficulty changes something but like this it was basically
a turkey shoot.

IIRC, it's only the last two or three 'real' battles that ever present
any real challenge... and even then its because the AI has multiple
carriers, so you have to use your limited resources to defend from
multiple directions at once. Basically, send out fighters to wipe out
one wave, then quickly re-arm and send them off to intercept the
second wave. It's really only difficult the first time you fight the
battle (because that second wave takes you by surprise) but once you
know they are coming it's just a matter of timing.

As I've said, I liked the combat sequences. I'm not sure I felt that
way the first time I played the game --I think my initial reaction was something along the lines of, "what the fuck is this arcade shit in my adventure game?"-- but with time I've come to appreciate it more. It
really plays into the fantasy of being onboard a (relatively) hard
sci-fi battle-cruiser, and it's short enough that it doesn't
interfere too much with the main quest.

Maybe it could have done with a few less missions. I think you do 9
training missions and 9 real missions, and --narratively-- that's
probably a bit much. But they none of them last that long. I really
got the impression that the developers had put all that effort into
creating the combat engine that they tried to get some value for their
dollars from it by extending how long you used it. ;-)


Still, its mostly the ending bits (that chat with the 'aliens' later
on, and the post-game cinematic ending) that I found most memorable
about the game.


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

As I've said, I liked the combat sequences. I'm not sure I felt that
way the first time I played the game --I think my initial reaction was something along the lines of, "what the fuck is this arcade shit in my adventure game?"-- but with time I've come to appreciate it more. It
really plays into the fantasy of being onboard a (relatively) hard
sci-fi battle-cruiser, and it's short enough that it doesn't
interfere too much with the main quest.

In a way the fights divide the story, let's say they're act 2. Act 1 is
all that running around on the ship, solving puzzles to fix, avoid
disasters, find out things and get ready for the fights. Act 3 is a kind
of mixed bag, landing on the planet, few puzzles but lots of
story. Then, last act, time jump and one final fight, or considering
what happens, it's the first fight redone. And an epilogue to round
things out.

Still, its mostly the ending bits (that chat with the 'aliens' later
on, and the post-game cinematic ending) that I found most memorable
about the game.

Yes, I've finished the game again. BTW, Wikipedia mentions there's a
novel, Mission Critical: Death of the Phoenix by Paul Chafe. It's not
really sequel but a related story in the same universe. Have you read
that? Seems a bit hard to find now but archive.org seems to have a
viewable copy.
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