- Joined
- Sep 25, 2019
Laser Squad is a landmark 1988 turn-based tactical combat game originally published for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum computer systems. Essentially a remake of the very old 1984 game Rebelstar, Laser Squad expands dramatically on its primitive ancestor by adding more weapons, better graphics and more dynamic missions. Eventually the game would be remade in 1989 for the Amiga, CPC and Atari ST computers, culminating in its final 1992 release on PC featuring a kickass soundtrack by Matt Furniss, better graphics and a full user interface. The game's head designer, Julian Gollop, would find success and recognition for the game, eventually using it as the basis for XCOM: Enemy Unknown in 1993. Despite being the progenitor of the wildly successful XCOM series, Laser Squad is virtually forgotten today; existing mostly as a footnote in any overview of the XCOM franchise.
Players take control of the titular Laser Squad, a group of elite mercenaries working for a rebel syndicate in opposition to galaxy-spanning corporations that rule over the ruins of a decrepit and vestigial Galactic Empire. The missions follow a very loose storyline as the players assassinate a corrupt corporate lord, raid a corporate installation to destroy data on the rebellion, conduct a rescue operation, defend their stronghold from a corporate assault and finally make their escape from their compromised base with the blueprints for vital starfighter technology that allows the rebels to maintain space superiority over the Empire and corporate forces.
Given its age, Laser Squad is profoundly antiquated. The old ZX Spectrum and Commodore versions are basically unplayable to newbies given they rely on old control schemes that are no longer inherent to modern computers. Fortunately the 1992 DOS version is playable if rather clunky. What you see here is the full extent of the game's settings, I went with ADLIB Midi for the music, which I will be recording using DOSBox and posting all throughout this thread. There are four difficulty levels, and in my personal tradition of generally going only one above the easiest difficulty I'll be going with Level 2.
Q: Where do we come in?
A: Well, like my XCOM LPs, I wanted this one to have some audience participation by naming soldiers after volunteers in the thread, as Laser Squad does have named troops with portraits and I think unique stats as well. Only problem is you can't rename anything in the game; the functionality just doesn't exist. So for awhile I was stumped on what to do.
Ultimately I elected to just use the in-game font to manually craft volunteer names. If I was actually an intelligent human being who understood how to use computers properly I would just extract the letter sprites from the game files, but because I am functionally retarded and do not know how to do this I instead elected to screenshot the soldier names depicted in all five missions and collect the letters by hand. In an amazing stroke of luck, the game features enough names, and enough unconventional names, that I was able to find every single letter of the English alphabet except for one, Q, which I had to improvise. Further, because the game is so primitive, all of the screenshots are stored in non-aliased PNG formats, and I have also determined all of the name letters are only a single pixel apart, which means my hand-edited screenshots will show no signs of tampering whatsoever in the finished product!
People will be added to the game on a first-come, first-serve basis. There is a critical difference this time though, before every mission I will give people the option to select their weapon loadouts, so make sure you check on the thread regularly if you have volunteered so you can customize your inventory! I will only leave this option open for a day or so per mission, so you will have a narrow window to select your equipment!
If you miss the equipment selection window, because you're busy, like say, because the LPer was insane enough to run this shit over a major holiday, I will equip you with middle of the road armor and the L50 or L80 Lasgun by default, which as far as I'm aware is a perfectly serviceable loadout for every mission. No promises though, I'm new to this one myself.
The weapons available for each mission also change somewhat depending on the mission, so made sure to check the Select Arms post before deciding!
Q: How many names do you think you will need?
A: I estimate maybe about30 (maybe more like 20 now) overall. You only control a maximum of 8 units per mission and some missions start you with only 5. That said, I will use fresh names at the start of every mission to give everyone who volunteers a chance to get in on the action, and only re-use names if I come up short. I realized the game carries some characters over from mission to mission so I'm going to carry over anyone who appears in more than one mission and doesn't get killed. I know this system is confusing, I'll open up slots if we get a bunch of volunteers anyway.
Q: What's the victory condition?
A: Depends on the mission. Some require you to kill everything that moves, others end instantly after you've killed a certain target or destroyed a piece of equipment.
Q: Will you be save-scumming?
A: Not this time. If I lose a mission, everyone is considered dead and I'll select fresh names when I try again.
Q: I haven't read any of the other threads, can I still volunteer?/I'm already on the waiting list for the XPiratez thread, can I still volunteer?
A: Certainly. I consider this LP completely separate from the others. This one is gonna be short and sweet though so get in while you can.
Where can I get it?
The MS-DOS version is actually fully embedded and playable on the Internet Archive, no downloads required at all!
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Laser_Squad_1992
If you want to have a local copy for yourself, you can get it here on Abandonia:
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/632/Laser+Squad.html
And DOSBox here:
https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
Discussion Page for XCOM, its derivatives, and hopefully now its ancestors:
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/x-com-xcom-and-their-derivatives.86583/
(Necro this thread it needs some love)
Table of Contents for the Thread:
Resources and Links:
Lasersquad.org: Oldschool web resource for Laser Squad and its predecessor Rebelstar, evidently maintained by a very long time fan. They don't make websites like this one anymore. Features a playable online copy of the ZX Spectrum version, an online scenario editor, and a bunch of downloads.
http://www.lasersquad.org.uk/
Wikipedia's articles on Laser Squad and its ancestor Rebelstar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Squad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebelstar
The game's Manual and a copy of its ADLIB music tracks, plus some extra music links:
Manual
Volunteer and join the rebellion today! LP concluded, see you back in the XPiratez thread!
Players take control of the titular Laser Squad, a group of elite mercenaries working for a rebel syndicate in opposition to galaxy-spanning corporations that rule over the ruins of a decrepit and vestigial Galactic Empire. The missions follow a very loose storyline as the players assassinate a corrupt corporate lord, raid a corporate installation to destroy data on the rebellion, conduct a rescue operation, defend their stronghold from a corporate assault and finally make their escape from their compromised base with the blueprints for vital starfighter technology that allows the rebels to maintain space superiority over the Empire and corporate forces.
Q: Where do we come in?
People will be added to the game on a first-come, first-serve basis. There is a critical difference this time though, before every mission I will give people the option to select their weapon loadouts, so make sure you check on the thread regularly if you have volunteered so you can customize your inventory! I will only leave this option open for a day or so per mission, so you will have a narrow window to select your equipment!
If you miss the equipment selection window, because you're busy, like say, because the LPer was insane enough to run this shit over a major holiday, I will equip you with middle of the road armor and the L50 or L80 Lasgun by default, which as far as I'm aware is a perfectly serviceable loadout for every mission. No promises though, I'm new to this one myself.
The weapons available for each mission also change somewhat depending on the mission, so made sure to check the Select Arms post before deciding!
Q: How many names do you think you will need?
A: I estimate maybe about
Q: What's the victory condition?
A: Depends on the mission. Some require you to kill everything that moves, others end instantly after you've killed a certain target or destroyed a piece of equipment.
Q: Will you be save-scumming?
A: Not this time. If I lose a mission, everyone is considered dead and I'll select fresh names when I try again.
Q: I haven't read any of the other threads, can I still volunteer?/I'm already on the waiting list for the XPiratez thread, can I still volunteer?
A: Certainly. I consider this LP completely separate from the others. This one is gonna be short and sweet though so get in while you can.
Where can I get it?
The MS-DOS version is actually fully embedded and playable on the Internet Archive, no downloads required at all!
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Laser_Squad_1992
If you want to have a local copy for yourself, you can get it here on Abandonia:
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/632/Laser+Squad.html
And DOSBox here:
https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
Discussion Page for XCOM, its derivatives, and hopefully now its ancestors:
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/x-com-xcom-and-their-derivatives.86583/
(Necro this thread it needs some love)
Table of Contents for the Thread:
0. Introduction
1. Mission 1: The Assassins Intro & Select Arms
2. Mission 1: The Assassins
3. Mission 2: Moonbase Assault Intro & Select Arms
4. Mission 2: Moonbase Assault
5. Mission 3: The Mine Rescue Intro & Select Arms
6. Mission 3: The Mine Rescue
7. Mission 4: The Cyber Hordes Intro & Select Arms
8. Mission 4: The Cyber Hordes
Interlude/Bonus: Mr. Velcro Fastener ft. Laser Squad
9. Mission 5: Paradise Valley Intro & Select Arms
10. Mission 10: Paradise Valley
11. Postmortem
1. Mission 1: The Assassins Intro & Select Arms
2. Mission 1: The Assassins
3. Mission 2: Moonbase Assault Intro & Select Arms
4. Mission 2: Moonbase Assault
5. Mission 3: The Mine Rescue Intro & Select Arms
6. Mission 3: The Mine Rescue
7. Mission 4: The Cyber Hordes Intro & Select Arms
8. Mission 4: The Cyber Hordes
Interlude/Bonus: Mr. Velcro Fastener ft. Laser Squad
9. Mission 5: Paradise Valley Intro & Select Arms
10. Mission 10: Paradise Valley
11. Postmortem
Resources and Links:
Lasersquad.org: Oldschool web resource for Laser Squad and its predecessor Rebelstar, evidently maintained by a very long time fan. They don't make websites like this one anymore. Features a playable online copy of the ZX Spectrum version, an online scenario editor, and a bunch of downloads.
http://www.lasersquad.org.uk/
Wikipedia's articles on Laser Squad and its ancestor Rebelstar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Squad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebelstar
The game's Manual and a copy of its ADLIB music tracks, plus some extra music links:
Manual
ADLIB MIDI Music
Some tracks may be a bit slowed down due to the recording method, but the main theme and Select Arms were recorded at emulation speed!
Roland MIDI Music
There are clearly sound effects substituted for instruments on some of these tracks, I'm not sure why this happened on my copy of DOSBox and I'm not sure of how to fix it. At least the main theme is still good.
Miscellaneous Tracks
These are recordings I pulled off Youtube of other MIDI versions or people who had better luck emulating the game in Roland than I did.
Mr. Velcro Fastener ft. Laser Squad - Which Scenario?
Rare 1999 album sold on on a tour that happened that year. To my knowledge, there has never been an official re-release!
Mark Vera - Laser Squad Mission Recalled Amiga Remix
Youtube link to a remix of the Amiga version's Select Arms track.
Spacehawk - Laser Squad
DJ Sadru - Spacehawk - Laser Squad Album Mix
Album Mix Promo Version
Youtube links to Spacehawk's cover of the Laser Squad theme. I'm a little unclear on what the second one is, but it appears to be a set of tracks mixed into one continuous 32 minute progressive album with the Laser Squad theme's general melody being used to tie them all together. The promo version is shortened to an 8 minute track.
Some tracks may be a bit slowed down due to the recording method, but the main theme and Select Arms were recorded at emulation speed!
Roland MIDI Music
There are clearly sound effects substituted for instruments on some of these tracks, I'm not sure why this happened on my copy of DOSBox and I'm not sure of how to fix it. At least the main theme is still good.
Miscellaneous Tracks
These are recordings I pulled off Youtube of other MIDI versions or people who had better luck emulating the game in Roland than I did.
Mr. Velcro Fastener ft. Laser Squad - Which Scenario?
Rare 1999 album sold on on a tour that happened that year. To my knowledge, there has never been an official re-release!
Mark Vera - Laser Squad Mission Recalled Amiga Remix
Youtube link to a remix of the Amiga version's Select Arms track.
Spacehawk - Laser Squad
DJ Sadru - Spacehawk - Laser Squad Album Mix
Album Mix Promo Version
Youtube links to Spacehawk's cover of the Laser Squad theme. I'm a little unclear on what the second one is, but it appears to be a set of tracks mixed into one continuous 32 minute progressive album with the Laser Squad theme's general melody being used to tie them all together. The promo version is shortened to an 8 minute track.
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