Nova and the Comanche series backgroud

NovaLogic and the Comanche game series background
Information sourced from the NovaLogic Corporate page, Wikipedia and varous
game news sources, then re-edited by Reaper.

About Novalogic:
NovaLogic Inc was founded in 1985, as a privately owned company by CEO John Garcia as a developer and global publisher of
computer games for PC, PlayStation® and PlayStation® 2 game consoles, NINTENDO GAMECUBE and Xbox™ video game system.
While remaining a privately owned company in 1995 Electronic Arts become a minority shareholder in NovaLogic.

Base of operations were located in Calabasas, California till 2008 when they relocated to Agoura Hills, California.

1999 : NovaLogic Systems Inc (NLS) was established to provide the company's software technologies to military and civilian training communities, NLS worked with several US Army commands, notably as provider of training software for the Land Warrior soldier system and worked on a variety of projects for U.S. and international customers. Under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Army Research Institute NLS was involved in creating a PC-based image generator and database for use as a desktop trainer for helicopter crews and as a mission rehearsal aid for Army aviators.

2005 : Reports came out that The Business Software Alliance issued a fine of $153,500 to NovaLogic, for using unlicensed software in the construction of its video games, BSA found unlicensed copies of software from Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, FileMaker, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec on NovaLogic employee computers. Nova addressed the reports and asked that the reports be clarified/amended to show the violations took place more than three years earlier and immediate action was taken by NovaLogic to bring the company into full compliance with all software licenses at that time.

2007 : Nova fans leaned the company had purchased an Impulse motion capture system for use on game development projects. The new technology would help create more realistic in-game character motion. To date Nova has not released any game that used the technology.

2008 : A Delta Force Angel Falls teaser splash screen came up on the NovaLogic website showing what many expected was the next game to be released. A search of registered trade marks showed Nova had trade marked the name. This was followed by a press release stating Nova had terminated its license agreement with MTR Soft of Prague, Czech Republic for the European rights to Delta Force : Angel Falls. DFAF was unannounced at the time and MTR was accused of releasing some screen shots and other information.. Nova claimed MTR never paid them, while it collected money from at least one sub licensee on the game.

Hints from nova soon followed that Nova was coding a new game engine that would compare in graphics to the latest games on the market. Followed by a budget title (Delta Force Xtreme 2 released in 2009) to hold players over till the new game was released, and many believed was released to fund Nova so they could finish the game. Over all sales on Delta Force Xtreme 2 were dismal in part do to a incredibly sloppy release with no advertisement and little support.

3 years have past since players first saw the DFAF teaser and information about the new game or any other games under construction have not been released. The trademark deadline for Nova to release Delta Force Angel Falls under the trademark is running out and all communication from Nova via their forum is completely non existent.

Games Released:

First person shooters :
Delta Force released 1998
Delta Force 2 released 1999
Delta Force Land Warrior released 2000
Delta Force Task Force Dagger released 2002
Delta Force Urban Warfare released 2002
Delta Force Black Hawk Down released 2003
Delta Force Black Hawk Down Team Sabre released 2004

First person shooters with player operator style vehicles :
Joint Operations Typhoon Rising released 2004
Joint Operations Escalation 2004
Delta Force Xtreme released 2005
Delta Force Xtreme 2 released 2009

Combat Flight Sims :
F-22 Lightning II released 1996
F-22 Raptor released 199
F-16 Multirole Fighter released 1998
MiG-29 Fulcrum released 1998
F-22 Lightning 3 released 1999

Combat Tank Sims :
Armored Fist released 1995
Armored Fist 2 released 1997
Armored Fist released 1999

Space Combat shooter:
Tachyon The Fringe released 2000

The Comanche series :
see the Comanche game series background below.

Comanche game series background:
The Comanche game series was based on the Comanche RAH-66 Army reconnaissance and attack helicopter program under development by Boeing and Sikorsky for the US Army from 1991, till the program was cancelled in February of 2004. The game series was created using new voxel technology, the Voxel Space engine created in house by NovaLogic. Nova was awarded a patent for the unique 3-D graphics engine.

Titles in the series included, Comanche Maximum Overkill released in 1992, Comanche Global Challenge released in 1993, Comanche Over the Edge released in 1993, Comanche 2 released in 1995, Comanche 2 Werewolf vs Comanche released in 1996, Comanche 3 released in 1997 and Comanche Gold released in May 1998 and Comanche 4 released in 2001.

Comanche 5 was in development, however when the RAH-66 program was cancelled so was Comanche 5. With the cancellation of the Comanche RAH-66 program in 2004 and over 10 years since a new Comanche game has been released, there is little hope there will ever be another Comanche game for PC.

NovaLogic from a Comanche 4 fans perspective:
While this site is about C4 a little discussion about Nova is pertinent.
NovaLogic games make up a very small percent of the PC game market and to the average gamer Novalogic is not near as well known as larger game developers such as Electronic Arts, Activision, Ubisoft, ect. To many Nova game fans single player has always been considered sub-par with online multiplayer the reason they play the games. Still the company has a small but loyal fan base. Of that fan base Comanche 4 players make up a relatively small percent.

Many of the development team members that created those games are no longer at Nova. I remember a communication from a nova developer posted at the Nova forums years ago where he talked about how fast they brought games from development to release in such a short time span using such as small development team. At one time Nova averaged releasing a new game every 2 years. That is very fast for a small developer like Nova.

Many Nova fans have a love, hate relationship with the company. Nova released games unlike most other game developers. The big wide open terrains and the short learning curve in the case of C4 made for a very unique gaming experience. Many Nova fans would rank a nova game as their favorite of all time. However lack of support, anti cheat and general disinterest in communicating with their customer fan base is frustrating. A good example of this was the petition for a new Comanche game posted and signed by many of the C4 fans at the Nova World forums. The petition is long gone since Nova moved it’s base of operations and reset the forum. But it was never answered or addressed by the powers that be at Nova anyway.

As a fan of Comanche 4, if you read between the lines here you should get the idea that first Nova is a very small game developer, next that Nova was selling the US ARMY training software that played a monetary part in the Comanche game series. It is very likely Nova made more with the training software than from the game. After the RAH-66 program was cancelled many believe so was any chance of another Comanche. In the 9 years since C4 was released, PC gaming has taken a down turn, with game consoles positioning themselves to take the lions share of the gaming market, most of the C4 original development team no longer works for NovaLogic and there is little chance NovaLogic is going to do anything for the Comanche 4 Community.

Return to Legacy Home Page