MEGA COMMANDO

DISCLAIMER AND CREDITS

This game is an unauthorized fan-made conversion of Capcom’s arcade game Commando and must be distributed free of charge.

The C64 music tracks listed in the Sound Test as “COMMANDO”, “CLEAR”, and “HI SCORE” are based on Rob Hubbard’s original compositions.

The Commando trademark and all assets derived from the original arcade game are the property of Capcom.

DEVELOPMENT

Most of the game was developed and programmed manually by MXRetroDev, including:

• Core gameplay mechanics (player movement, shooting, physics, etc.).
• Conversion of the original arcade stages and all sprites.
• Base AI behavior for all enemy types.
• Gameplay and structural changes from the arcade original, including two-player support, object and enemy placement, additional game modes, and gameplay adjustments.
• Menu systems.

AI ASSISTANCE

Claude Opus 5.5 was used as a development assistant for the following tasks:

• Creating additional enemy behaviors based on existing manually programmed implementations, using arcade gameplay videos as references.
• Analyzing the placement of certain items and enemies in the original arcade stages. However, these placements are not identical, as the stages were manually modified.
• Converting music from the C64 and ZX Spectrum versions, and creating additional tracks that simulate the SID and AY-3-8192 sound chips.
• Converting the original arcade music.
• General collision detection optimizations.
• Testing, debugging, and bug fixes.

No reverse engineering of the original game’s code was performed at any stage of development.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The high score table and the options are saved to SRAM. Without SRAM, MAIN OPTIONS shows NO SRAM DETECTED and its SRAM options (SAVE OPTIONS ON SRAM, SET OPTIONS TO DEFAULT and RESET HIGH SCORE) are greyed out.

The game is intended to run on original Sega Mega Drive / Genesis hardware using a flash cartridge, or through a compatible emulator. However, compatibility with every hardware configuration, flash cartridge, or emulator is not guaranteed.

Do not expect gameplay to be identical to the original arcade version. This is not a 1:1 port, nor was it ever intended to be.

The game was programmed from scratch by studying the behavior of the arcade original, with several gameplay adjustments and design changes made at the developer’s discretion.

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

TITLE SCREEN

Press START on the title screen to open the menu:

• 1 PLAYER: Starts a one-player game.
• 2 PLAYERS: Starts a two-player game.
• OPTIONS: Opens the MAIN OPTIONS menu.

UP / DOWN choose an item; START or C confirms it.

MAIN OPTIONS

The name of the menu is shown at the top of the screen. In every options menu, UP / DOWN choose a line, and LEFT / RIGHT change its value. A, C or START open a submenu, and BACK returns to the previous menu.

The MAIN OPTIONS menu has, in this order:

1. GAME SETTINGS
2. SOUND SETTINGS
3. CONTROLLER SETTINGS
4. SAVE OPTIONS ON SRAM
5. SET OPTIONS TO DEFAULT
6. RESET HIGH SCORE
7. EXIT: Returns to the title screen.

Without SRAM, NO SRAM DETECTED is shown at the bottom of the screen and the SRAM lines (SAVE OPTIONS ON SRAM, SET OPTIONS TO DEFAULT and RESET HIGH SCORE) are greyed out and skipped by the cursor.

GAME SETTINGS

Opens the game menu, with these options:

DIFFICULTY

• EASY: Slower enemy projectiles, less aggressive enemies, and fewer enemies on screen.
• NORMAL: Standard projectile speed, moderately aggressive enemies, and the default number of enemies.
• HARD: Faster enemy projectiles, more aggressive enemies, and a higher number of enemies.

After Stage 8, the game starts one difficulty level higher, up to HARD.

DEATH MODE

• ARCADE: Traditional arcade-style respawning: the area restarts from the last checkpoint.
• MD: Respawn at the exact location where you died, blinking for a while. Nothing restarts.

1ST LIFE

Sets the score required to earn the first extra life: 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 or NONE.

EVERY LIFE

Sets the number of additional points required to earn each subsequent extra life: 50,000, 60,000, 70,000, 80,000, 100,000 or NONE.

BACK

Returns to MAIN OPTIONS.

SOUND SETTINGS

Opens the sound menu, with these options:

MUSIC TYPE

• ARCADE: Faithful recreations of the original arcade soundtrack.
• C64: Music inspired by the Commodore 64 version, with additional tracks designed to simulate the SID sound chip.
• C64 NON STOP: Same as C64, but the main theme plays continuously throughout regular gameplay. The music is interrupted only by the game over and when a fortress is destroyed (Stages 4 and 8).
• ZX: Music inspired by the ZX Spectrum version, with additional tracks designed to simulate the AY-3-8192 sound chip.
• ZX NON STOP: Same as ZX, but the main theme plays continuously throughout regular gameplay. The music is interrupted only by the game over and when a fortress is destroyed (Stages 4 and 8).

SFX TYPE

• ARCADE: Original arcade-style sound effects.
• MD: More realistic sound effects.

VOICES

• ON: Radio voice messages at the key moments of the game: the helicopter landing and leaving, the arrival at each enemy base, the intermissions, the start of a stage, deaths, getting back into the action, and game over.
• OFF: No voices.

MUSIC TEST

LEFT / RIGHT choose a track, A, C, or START to play it, and B stops it. All music tracks used in the game are available.

SFX TEST

LEFT / RIGHT choose a sound, A, C, or START to play it. All sound effects used in the game are available, and they change according to the SFX TYPE selected above. The voices come after them (names starting with V).

BACK

Returns to MAIN OPTIONS.

CONTROLLER SETTINGS

Opens the controller menu, with these options:

CTRL TYPE

• ARCADE: Classic arcade-style controls, only FIRE and GRANADE (grenades are always thrown up the screen). AUTO FIRE, FAST TURN and STRAFE TYPE are hidden and OFF.
• MD: Grenades are thrown in the direction the player is facing. Shows AUTO FIRE, FAST TURN, and STRAFE TYPE.

BUTTONS (1P / 2P)

Below CTRL TYPE, the button for each action is shown for 1P and 2P side by side. On the line of an action, each player uses their own pad: press the button wanted for that action, or LEFT / RIGHT to go through the buttons (and NONE). The action that had that button takes the old one. ARCADE and MD keep separate button settings.

• FIRE
• STRAFE (only shown with STRAFE TYPE ONE BUTTON)
• GRANADE
• FIRE UP / DOWN / RIGHT / LEFT (shown with arrows, only with STRAFE TYPE 4 BUTTON)

X, Y, Z, and MODE are only available on 6-button pads. A port without a controller shows NO JOY. Controllers can be plugged in or out while the menu is open.

Defaults: ARCADE: A fires, B throws grenades. MD: A fires, B strafes, C throws grenades.

AUTO FIRE (MD only)

• ON: Holding the FIRE button keeps firing.
• OFF: Each press of the FIRE button fires one burst.

FAST TURN (MD only)

• ON: The player instantly turns in any of the eight directions.
• OFF: The player turns step by step.

STRAFE TYPE (MD only)

• OFF: No strafe.
• ONE BUTTON: Holding the STRAFE button locks the player’s aiming direction.
• AT FIRE: Holding the FIRE button locks the player’s aiming direction (no STRAFE button). Only available with AUTO FIRE ON; turning AUTO FIRE OFF sets STRAFE TYPE back to ONE BUTTON.
• 4 BUTTON: Each FIRE UP / DOWN / RIGHT / LEFT button turns the player that way at once and fires, while the D-pad keeps moving the player. Two of them make a diagonal. Only available with a 6-button pad.

BACK

Returns to MAIN OPTIONS.

SAVE OPTIONS ON SRAM

Saves all the options (game, sound, and controller settings, buttons included) to SRAM at once, showing OPTIONS SAVED. They are loaded every time the game is turned on.

SET OPTIONS TO DEFAULT

Sets all the options back to their defaults and saves them to SRAM: NORMAL difficulty, ARCADE music, sound effects, death mode and controls, VOICES OFF, extra lives at 10,000 and every 50,000, and the default buttons.

• Press B + C + START simultaneously to confirm.
• Press A to cancel.

RESET HIGH SCORE

Allows you to reset the high score table stored in SRAM to its default values.

After selecting this option:

• Press B + C + START simultaneously to confirm the reset.
• Press A to cancel.

EXIT

Returns to the title screen.