D-Day Operation Overlord

SO MANY KEYSTROKES . . . SO LITTLE TIME

A Review of D-Day Operation Overlord

This flight simulator will appeal mostly to those simmers who have an

interest in war history and are not afraid to enter the world of boot up

disks and related system files. Virgin claims that this WW II

flight simulator is the “most historically accurate of D-DAY available.”

You will not be involved with the ground forces nor the paratrooper landing,

but your job is just as vital. Your purpose is to prepare the ground for

invasion by means of aerial missions targeting important enemy land assets.

But I should warn you from the start that Virgin’s other claim of

“Heart-Pounding” fell way short as this sim did not alter my heart rate one

beat. Actually, my heart did beat a little faster but it was from

disappointment and frustration.

I was frustrated during the video driver installation. D-Day can be played

in regular VGA mode (320 x 200) or SVGA mode (640 x 480). Unless you are

lucky enough (unlike me) to already own one of the seven supported graphic

cards you MUST tweak your config.sys to accommodate the provided slow

universal graphic driver. Be prepared to spend some time doing it and

don’t say that I did not warn you. In order to run in SVGA mode, D-Day

requires 622 KB of free RAM plus 3 Mb of expanded memory, and running

memmaker will not do. More than likely you will have to install the entire

game to your HD and make a dedicated bootup disk for D-Day. Don’t panic,

you will not have to copy 600 Mb to your already cramped HD, the entire

program and related files are only 22 Mb.

Even though Operation Overlord is distributed in CD-ROM format, don’t

assume that this is a multimedia title. It is not. In times when SVGA

graphics, CD storage capacity, video, spoken dialog and stereo sound

effects are the gaming standards this title leaves a lot to be desired.

Just remember: CD-ROM does not equal multimedia (it is just cheaper to

produce in mass quantities !!). The basic sound effects (machine gun fire,

explosions, engines, etc.) are there but they lack “heart pounding” quality

and there is no spoken dialog whatsoever. The music lacks theme and

variation. You will hear the same tune over and over… No animation,

no historical video. The manual helped to remind me why I hate reading

them: Too many details and no substance. Even after reading it you are

left with a thousand questions and starring at a long distance telephone

number. The black and white pictures from the photo archives of the

Smithsonian Institute and the National Air and Space Museum help to set the

ambiance during briefings but when you start seeing the same pictures over

and over again you start to wonder why most of the cities look the same.

The briefings and mission assignment will change depending on the type of

airplane you are flying.

You can choose from three planes: Mustang P-51B, Spitfire IX and the

Typhoon 1B to battle against German enemies flying planes such as the

Focke-Wulf FW 190A and the Messerschmitt ME 109G. The allied base SVGA

graphics are nice and appealing but in order to take to the skies in SVGA

you’ll need a Pentium 90 or better (my Pentium 60 was really struggling).

My frame rate during SVGA flying was very poor so I spent most of my time

flying in VGA mode with SVGA during the base ground scenes. The ground

action happens in rendered rooms that act as visual menus for the sim’s

options: Planning Room (Flight control options), CO’s Office (Medals and

Punishments), Bedroom (Diary and sleep), Gate House (game options),

Dispersal (Pilot roster, assignments, etc.), Tower (scramble mission), Ops

room (Briefings) and the Flight field (Fly). The VGA graphics during

flying (airborne and land based) are rough polygons that pop in and out of

view depending on your distance. It reminded me of Microprose’s F-117 and

had me checking my calendar just to make sure that I was really living in

1995. If you are flying in SVGA mode, however, you will be treated to a

very nice and “accurately” detailed rendering of the airplane’s

instrumentation. A good overall visual reference for this title is to

imagine Red Baron with a WW II theme. Control response in VGA mode is

quick and smooth but flying WW II planes will take a little getting used

to (Where is jet propulsion when you need it ?) For those of you who

worship freedom of choice and have a photographic memory: 121 different

keystrokes to learn and choose from !!! The different internal and

external view points are too many to mention but I found most of them to be

useless during actual combat flight. The ability to record a video of your

flight is a good idea that has now become a standard.

All in all, if you have thirty bucks to spare, the time to mess with

installation, a Pentium 90Mhz + and a supported graphics card then I guess

it’ll do. But, if you are a serious flight simulator fan who has been

waiting for a “heart pounding” WW II sim then the undocumented uninstall

option may come in handy (it did for me).

Copyright © 1995 Istvan Urcuyo for infoMedia. All rights reserved worldwide.

DOS 5.0 or greater
386SX 33Mhz
4MB RAM
3-22MB HD
CD-ROM