Turn-based hexagonal strategy elimination [Front Lines]

bloodwolf · Post by **bloodwolf** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 8:39 pm

For some reason, this game I don't remember the name of has been in the front of my mind lately.

It might have been a demo or shareware. Trying to think back...I wanna say it was on a "demo CD".

Anyway, game details:

Old. 90s. DOS.

It was a turn-based, top-down view, hexagonal strategy game.
You and the opponent start out with a handful of units, and the goal was to eliminate the opposing forces.
Both sides had the same units.
The units I remember for sure are light tank, heavy tank, light hovercraft, and heavy hovercraft. I want to say there was an artillery unit as well. (There may be a few more)

Pixely graphics, probably sprites. I can still see the units in my head. If I could draw, I would attach some hand-drawn representations, lol.
Everything was a pretty bland brown color.

The map I am remembering was land (a lot of dirt), and some bodies of water the hovercraft could use to circumnavigate tanks.

If anyone can name this game, you'll be my hero.

Post by **MrFlibble** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 3:29 pm

Was it something like The Perfect General or more like Steel Panthers? Or maybe much worse graphics than both of these?

There were actually quite a few hex-grid wargames back in the DOS era, some pretty obscure.

bloodwolf · Post by **bloodwolf** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:39 pm

Thanks for the reply.

I would say the graphics were on par with Steel Panthers, if not a wee bit better. It's irksome I can't even remember which OS it was for. I'm thinking It might've been the era of transition from DOS to Windows 95/98.

It had a sci-fi feel to it, with the whole hovercraft tech. When I Googled hovercraft, it gave me a bunch of swamp-boat looking vehicles, but the ones in the game hovering up off the ground.

It probably is some obscure freeware thing that no one really cared much for. It sticks in my mind because it was the first haxogonal strategy game I played.

Post by **MrFlibble** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:18 pm

bloodwolf wrote: ↑ t had a sci-fi feel to it, with the whole hovercraft tech.

Recently I found a demo of a DOS hex-based wargame with a sci-fi theme called Front Lines. It features a variety of scenarios though, and I'm not sure if there are hovercraft units.

UDP: Here's a screenshot from the demo:

Seems like hovercraft to me.

The demo itself can be downloaded here.

bloodwolf · Post by **bloodwolf** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 3:35 pm

Yes! Holy crap, you are my hero! You win the internet's achievement reward for today. Lol.

Thank you!

bloodwolf · Post by **bloodwolf** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 3:40 pm

Ha, it's funny how my mind couldn't remember colors, but those unit models are unmistakable and exactly how I remember them.

I suck at searching Moby games. I didn't even get close. What keywords did you search?

Post by **MrFlibble** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 5:26 am

This is cool! I mean, it could have indeed been some obscure thing that's completely undocumented on the Internet.

bloodwolf wrote: ↑ suck at searching Moby games. I didn't even get close. What keywords did you search?

I didn't! I found this demo some months ago completely by chance on a magazine coverdisk (was looking for something else). Glad this is the game you were looking for!

bloodwolf · Post by **bloodwolf** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 7:18 pm

MrFlibble wrote: ↑ I didn't! I found this demo some months ago completely by chance on a magazine coverdisk (was looking for something else). Glad this is the game you were looking for!

Wow, that's nuts. Guess truth is stranger than fiction. Thank you again.

Post by **MrFlibble** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:43 pm

There's also a version of the demo with a CGI intro (same demo mission though):
https://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/front-lines/