| 04/02/2002 | This site is moving
to a new home at Flightsimmers.net! I will not be updating this Angelfire site,
however it will remain as a partial mirror site. Please bookmark the new URL: http://flightsimmers.net/helipad/gunship/
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| 03/01/2002 | Click here for updates on the
GUNSHIP! Vietnam project
Many new pics added! |
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| 02/21/2002 | On
March 1 2002, an exciting and ambitious new GUNSHIP! project will be announced. Pretzel, the renowned sim enhancement wizard, will be working with Jim Trapp, myself and others to develop a new add-on pack that will bring this great sim into a new era. Recently, there have been some significant advances in our understanding of how GUNSHIP! works, and that will make many remarkable things possible. The winter terrain project may be delayed somewhat, because superior results are now possible due to recent break-throughs. Major updates will be posted here, and at the SimHQ Helosim forum. |
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| Much to my
embarrassment, I discovered 4 new custom missions that Jim Trapp sent me 3 months ago.
It's tempting to blame the delay in posting them on remodeling the house and remodeling
Gunship, but the truth is: I'm an idiot. Sorry, Jim. These exciting, well crafted missions are on the CUSTOM MISSIONS page. Check them out. Jim has also just sent me another package of missions. However since I just realized they are on another PC, they'll have to wait till the next update. |
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| A clever fellow named Ulf Muckel has begun developing some very sophisticated fuzzy-logic programming for Thrustmaster controllers, and he has made a profile for Gunship. Unfortunately I don't have one, so I can't speak from experience, but these look amazing! Link on the MODS AND ADD-ONS page. Let me know what you think. | ||||||
| 01/30/2002 | This will be a very brief update, due to the choking clouds of plaster dust in the air here at the Helipad. The home remodeling is now at it's worst phase, but should be done in another month. Then I can get back to working on important things, such as: | |||||
| - One or more Winter Terrain packs: | ||||||
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| - New cockpits for the alternate aircraft (like the Cobra or Hind): | ||||||
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| - Custom skins for various countries (for example: Spain's Eurocopter Tiger), or units like 1BHS: | ||||||
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| PLUS: Jim Trapp has reworked a number of the original Gunship missions (single and campaign), to reduce the problems caused by 12km SAMS whacking you without warning, due to your 6km RAWS. This is very helpful in desert and future arctic terrains where there is less cover. I'll try to get these up shortly, plus four new custom missions of Jim's, too. | ||||||
| If you have Windows XP or ME, and have had a problem using the DOS batch file in HeloSwapper or the Desert Terrain set, I think the fix is here. | ||||||
I am migrating to a new email address, so please update your address books. The new address will be: |
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| That's all for now! *cough cough*.... | ||||||
| 01/01/2002 | Thanks to a clever SimHQ Helosim forum member named dcs, we now have a complete list of the files referenced in gunship.exe. Interesting stuff. It's a big page, (345kb), so browse patiently:. File List page Or download the Excel spreadsheet here. | |||||
| 12/07/2001 | We have
finally finished the Desert Terrain Set! (well, we finished version 1
anyway ;) ) Get it at the mods/add-ons page . It includes an entirely new map, with rougher terrain. |
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| We have a new version of Jim Trapp's cool CP/G Sound pack. Now with snazzy installer... | ||||||
| Lots more updates shortly, including MANY new custom missions... | ||||||
| 10/25/2001 | More info about the newly-available graphics files (skins/tiles) over at the Workshop . | |||||
| The complete (?) set of 84 original Gunship terrain tiles is now available, so if you want to make your own snow, jungle, autumn or ? worlds, use these as templates. | ||||||
| Larry Hookins' Terrain Height editor is now available here. Now you can make molehills into mountains... | ||||||
| Added some controller profiles, including a clever one by Tim Huntington for flying as CP/G | ||||||
| The UK version of the Gunship manual in PDF format has been donated anonymously. This has been hard to come by, apparently, and since I have received no response from Infogrames concerning posting material like this, I offer it as a public service here. | ||||||
| 10/07/2001 | I've finally figured out how to add new snow, sand, mountain terrain, new aircraft skins w/ new paint schemes, even entire new objects like new cockpits, (if we learn the art techniques and 3DZ editing developed by the European Air Wars fans). We don't need to crack images.cat to add or edit skins and terrain tiles! |
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| Here are a few early examples (note the ugly hangars and snowy airport): | ||||||
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| The technique is amazingly simple: Terrain tiles are 256 x 256 256 color .pcx files. Just name them using the same names GS uses for existing tiles, (see a sample list of tile names in Gunship!\Data\World\Czech\tiles.txt), and just drop them into gunship/data/tiles/. No compression! For 3d object skins, use the same format PCX file. Just make new directory named gunship/data/textures/, drop in a new PCX with the same name as the original (use see3dzpcx.exe to find the file name. See my workshop area.), and away you go! No compression! More later when I update the workshop page. But essentially, GS is now capable of being enhanced into nearly anything we want! Get creative! Any volunteer artists for an Afghanistan map? Who wants to design a Huey? |
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| 09/21/2001 | NEW
MODS!
And on a general note: I will be involved in a major home renovation for a few months, and while I will be available via email, updates to this site may slow down a bit. If you come up with any new mods, drop me a note and I'll try to get it posted. But if you like puzzles, spend some time in the Workshop, and use what's there to see what sort of Gunship enhancements you can come up with! Maybe some more new terrain mods.... |
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| 09/04/2001 | Added some nifty new links | |||||
| 08/31/2001 | Expanded The Workshop to include everything we've learned about the contents, function and format of Gunship Files, including a surprising discovery about the holy grail of mod files: images(1).cat ! I have been hunting and pecking like nobody's business... | |||||
| 08/29/2001 | Added a new area called The Workshop. This will be a clearinghouse of what we've learned about how Gunship works, and ways to enhance it. Corrections and contributions welcome! | |||||
| Fixed translation links, (I think...) | ||||||
| 08/24/2001 | A set of three new background pictures for the "Loading" screen are available. The installer, and the instructions for how to make your own, are here. | |||||
| 08/23/2001 | New
terrain and sound enhancements by Jim Trapp are
available. Very cool. And you can even try your hand at making new ones with my new catalogue of 3D objects. |
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| A new mission by JT is also available. |
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| We've
been having some success cracking the way Gunship terrain is designed and rendered. Looks
like it will be possible to build entirely new maps, (if anyone wants to spend the time),
or just add mountains to the old ones. The snazzy terrain editor built by Larry
Hookins for M1Tank Platoon 2 can edit Gunship terrain heights. (Hint: the GS files are
read only. Change that, and your on your way to your own personal Matterhorn...) Here are
some teasers... |
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| 08/08/2001 | Web page redesign. Please report any errors. | |||||
| 08/04/2001 | Several people have reported sporadic download problems with the files on these pages. It seems to be a problem with my webhost AngelFire. Email me directly if you can't download the files you want. |
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| 08/04/2001 | The GunTool Mission editor has been moved to the mods & add-ons page. |
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| 08/03/2001 | Gunship's current owner is game giant InfoGrames. They have resumed limited support for Gunship, including some troubleshooting help. Not AbandonWare yet, I guess... |
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| 07/16/2001 | PDF copies of the keyboard guide are now available in the Downloads/Utilities area |
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HeloSwapper Version 4.2 (which enables 9 more flyable aircraft (with individual flight models), plus two scenery enhancements is NOW AVAILABLE. |
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PLUS! A clever new add-on by James Trapp which greatly improves the Copilot/Gunner voice comms. |
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Project notes are available at SimHQ.com Message Boards |
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| Some early results...(click to view) |  |
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SHARE YOUR BEST CUSTOM MISSIONS
If you would like to share your best custom missions, Arcane Hints,
screencaps of memorable moments,or links send them to me at:
Please send missions as .zip or .txt files only. Try to keep screencap images under 200KB. Briefings, descriptions and screencaps are encouraged.
Site policy on custom missions: All missions posted here are the exclusive property of their authors, (where known), and should only be posted elsewhere with their permission. Missions which are modifications or enhancments of another author's work should explicitly acknowledge the original author.
| 06/24/2001 from fng2k |
I've learned the format of the cool .bik movie files in shown in the Gunship intros and campaigns. It's a system called Bink Video, and a free player/converter (1.3MB) is available from http://www.radgametools.com/ . You can convert them to .avi's, too. |
| 06/10/2001 from fng2k |
You can insert 3 Blue Helicopters and give them independent waypoint routes by using the AH-64D from the training missions, (PLATOON: 142) Unfortunately, there are no individual Red helos. |
| 11/01/2000 from fng2k |
The last mission Gunship executed is always copied to your GUNSHIP\DATA\ directory as "battle.txt". It is overwritten each time you begin a new mission. When playing multiplayer games, you can save a copy of the Host's mission to play later by copying "battle.txt" before starting a new mission, then renaming it with a new name like "authordate.txt", and saving it in your GUNSHIP\DATA\BATTLES\PLAYER directory. |
| 04/15/2001 from Pretzel |
The graphics for the V-22 Osprey and Kiowa Warrior helos shown at Pretzelworks are included in GUNSHIP, but they do not have "Platoon" numbers like the other aircraft (for example, the Blackhawk is coded as 108). To use them, you must "swap skins" with another aircraft by manipulating their *.3d? files. Which is where HeloSwapper comes in! |
Fun with screencaps and 3DZ files! ( thanks for the tips, Pretzel )
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The first is a leaked photo of a new EU special-ops group. They are rumored to be operating using heavily camouflaged CH53 Sea Stallions. They are known as the Barn Stormers. |
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Pretzel bends space and time... |
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I always suspected my geography teacher was lying.... |
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Woodstock Camoflage... |
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A few rarely seen box art examples... |
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AirCav Barbie |
| The UK version of the Gunship manual in PDF format has been donated anonymously. This has been hard to come by, apparently. Since I have received no response from Infogrames after repeated requests concerning their policy about my posting material like this, I offer it as a public service here. (It is about 98% the same as US versions.) | GSManUK.pdf 1.7MB PDF file |
| Several people
have asked me if the keyboard layout guide was available anywhere. Apparently,
Hasbro/Infogrames no longer has any, so here they are in zipped Adobe .pdf format. Sorry for the large file size. They were detailed, multicolored 7MB .bmp images, so I changed them to black and white, and shrunk them a bit to fit an 8.5"x11" page. These are from the US edition, but European versions are nearly identical. Enjoy! |
NEW!
7/16/2001 Side 1 US Keyboard layout 489kb zip Side 2 US Keyboard shortcuts 441kb zip |
| The GUNSHIP! Primer on Custom Mission building. This 17 page document clearly explains the syntax used in Gunship/M1 Tank Platoon 2 mission files. A must-have by FrankD, Gonzo, Spoons, Rudi et. al. (45kb needs Adobe Acrobat reader) | GSMissionedit.PDF |
| If you are
wondering what the fuss is about, a GUNSHIP! Demo is available, try it out. Like most
sims, the final version with patch is vastly better. The demo does not have multiplayer support, and lacks various regions, weather conditions and vehicles. The patch will not work on the demo, unfortunately, since the new gunship.exe in the patch requires the CD to function. |
The Gunship demo, (and
many others), are available at SimHQ self-extracting zip 19.5MB |
| THE GUNSHIP PATCH from MicroProse includes flight model tweaker, and lets you correct the wacky reversed collective. Required for online multiplayer. A must have. | gsusptch.exe US
468kb gsukptch.exe UK 498kb GSfrptch.exe FR 505kb GSGERPTCH.exe DE 1.68MB exe's are self-extracting zips |
| If you would like to examine some M1 Tank Platoon mission info, here is the last patch from Microprose. It includes several M1TP2 battles, but most require WORLDS not shipped with GUNSHIP!. Not playable, but interesting. Self extracting zip archive. | m1tp2v12.exe patch |
| Roger Wilco uses voice over IP so you can voice chat while playing. Free, but be aware the newer versions come with Gator, which some consider spyware. It can be worked around. More here. | This link goes to Resounding Products |
in apathetical order
| This was an interesting discussion of Gunship's qualities, and addreses some of the common misconceptions about Gunship. | Thread at SimHQ |
| This is a fantastic site devoted to Vietnam-era helicopters and pilots. Worth a long browse. | A Crew Chiefs View Of Vietnam Era Attack Helicopter Gunships |
| Naval
Warfare Net is a terrfic site. They specialize in naval warfare sims, (oddly
enough), but have great areas for all sorts of land and air sims, too. And if you are ever looking to buy sim software, they have got everything, including lots of hard-to-find titles. Helpful, straight-shooters. |
Naval Warfare Net |
| If you have downloaded any of the add-ons or mods, you may have noticed that some of them use a nifty zip installer/setup tool. It's a freeware app called CR Self-Extractor, built by a clever lad named David Cross. Very handy. 959KB download | info/download page at CNET.COM |
| Well after a long lull, Gunship! has a place on the web page of it's current owner InfoGrames. They have also resumed limited support for Gunship, including some troubleshooting help. | NEW! 8/03/2001 |
| The most active GUNSHIP! Player site on the web! Multiplay, discussion, downloads, links. Home of the dreaded 1st Bear Hunter Squadron. Players from Europe, UK, Canada, US and more. Fun. | http://gunshiplink.homestead.com/ |
| An excellent Germany-based site for many more high-quality custom GUNSHIP! missions. | http://members.tripod.de/gunship/ |
| Great info on exploiting undocumented vehicles and aircraft in GUNSHIP! Offline indefinately as of 9/2001 | Pretzelworks |
| Compendious
info about how to edit battle files, as discovered by some very clever indeed M1 Tank
Platoon enthusiasts (Link goes to it's host site at SimHQ) |
M1 Tank Platoon 2 Editing page |
| SIMHQ Combat Helo area. News, a great forum, lots of serious simmer expertise | SimHQ - combat helo |
| The HeloSim site by LionPride - home of the Rotor Club | http://www.helosim.com/ |
| If you want to try GUNSHIP! using on-line multiplay, Microsoft has an area in The Zone here. (be sure to check all the lobbies) | GUNSHIP! at ZONE.com |
| And Games.com has an area here | GUNSHIP! at Games.com |
| CombatSim is a great site for all sort of simulations. Some areas subscription only. | http://www.combatsim.com/ |
| Here is another nice combatsim site based in Canada. Worth a browse. | http://combatcanada.homestead.com/ |
