v0.8.1: difficulty prototype

Still a work in progress: the Amiga sound mixing from v0.8.0 is still being tuned, and the new difficulty system is a first prototype. Feedback is very welcome in Issues.

New: difficulty (Desert Strike, prototype)

Pick it when you start a New Game, or change it any time in Settings → System → Difficulty.

• Remastered (default): full speed and every bullet still on screen, but the damage is rebalanced. Bullets sting less than missiles and rockets, and there's a cap on how much armor you can lose in one second, so flying into a crossfire wears you down in a few seconds rather than killing you in one.
• Recruit: gentler still, for players new to the game.
• Original: exactly as the Genesis shipped it, original damage and the console's slowdown included.

Measured on a tester's save, flying into the middle of the POW camp in campaign 2: on Original your armor is gone in about 1.4 seconds, on Remastered about 4.3, and on Recruit about 7.

Jungle Strike and Urban Strike aren't covered yet.

Fixes and changes

• Hang fixed: the mission-failed screen ("You destroyed too many Scud Commanders!") could freeze forever. The original game has a timing bug there that real hardware recovers from; the remaster now recovers too.
• AA guns and tanks now make a sound when they fire (with the Amiga edition). They were silent on the Genesis; they now use the Amiga's sound for those guns.
• Build HD Pack from the game picker now starts the highlighted game and builds the pack. Before, the button did nothing unless a game was already running.

Download

• StrikeCollectionHD-0.8.1-Setup.exe: the Windows installer.
• StrikeCollectionHD-0.8.1-portable.zip: unzip and run StrikeCollectionHD.exe.

Both need your own Genesis ROMs (checked by SHA-1, see the README). The Amiga edition also needs your own Amiga disks.

v0.8.0: Amiga edition (work in progress)

⚠️ Work in progress: sound and Amiga mixing. This release adds an Amiga edition of Desert Strike that mixes in assets from your own Amiga disks. The Genesis game is unchanged underneath, but which Amiga sound plays for which event is still being tuned, and some sounds may be wrong or missing. Feedback is welcome in Issues. If something sounds off, you can switch any sound back to the Genesis original in the Sound Lab (Settings → Audio), or pick Edition → Genesis for the plain Genesis experience.

New

Amiga edition (Desert Strike, needs your own Amiga .adf disks)

Add them under Settings → Audio → Add Amiga Disks. Nothing from the Amiga version is included in the download.

• Sound effects from the Amiga's own effect bank. Weapons play the sound and pitch the Amiga picks for each one (for example, the Hydra and Hellfire share a sample at different pitches, and each enemy gun has its own sound).
• Rotor: a two-voice Amiga rotor whose pitch follows your speed and turns.
• Rescue calls ("Help!", "Over here!") when you fly near MIAs, plus voice lines for objectives and low fuel.
• Music: the 11 Amiga ProTracker songs, played in place of the Genesis songs.
• Intro: the Amiga title photographs.
• Cutscenes: every Genesis cutscene picture is replaced by its Amiga version. The animated ones (the frigate crew, the refinery flares, the burning wreck at game over, the ending ceremony) run as the original Amiga programs inside a small built-in Amiga emulator. The briefing room shows the officer, the seated pilots and the cigarette smoke animating.
• Edition presets: Genesis, Amiga, Remaster (a mix) or Custom.
• Sound Lab and a standalone sound labeler (tools/amiga/sound_labeler.html) for choosing your own sound for each event.

Also new

• Continue / Load Game / New Game screen when you pick a game.
• Strafe button: hold Y (gamepad) or Left Shift to sidestep without firing a Hellfire.
• Minimap: choose its corner, hide or show it (M, or hold Esc / Back), and optional markers for nearby enemy guns.

More screenshots are in the README.

Known issues

• Sound mapping is still being tuned. Some events may use the wrong Amiga sound, or none.
• The Amiga features apply to Desert Strike only for now. Jungle and Urban Strike are unchanged.
• Some Amiga-only scenes (the base at sunset, the embassy, the cockpit) aren't shown yet, because the Genesis game has no matching scene.

Download

• StrikeCollectionHD-0.8.0-Setup.exe: the Windows installer.
• StrikeCollectionHD-0.8.0-portable.zip: unzip and run StrikeCollectionHD.exe.

Both need your own Genesis ROMs (checked by SHA-1, see the README). The Amiga edition also needs your own Amiga disks.

Strike Remastered Collection HD 0.7.1

A fix-up release for 0.7.0. If you installed 0.7.0, please update.

Fixes

• Missing settings: 0.7.0 hid some options in Settings: Minimap, Minimap Size, Launcher Intros, Dump Graphics, HD Pack Style, Build HD Pack and Open Settings Folder. They're all back.
• Renderer fallback: if the chosen renderer can't start, the game now uses the automatic choice instead of quitting.

New

• Renderer option (Settings → Display → Renderer: Automatic / OpenGL / Software, applied on restart), and the active renderer is shown with Show FPS.
• Native Linux build instructions in the README.
• Both of those come from @sxdot in #3. Thank you!
• The README now has a "How it was made" section: this project is built with heavy use of AI (#1).

Everything from 0.7.0 is included: minimap, rewind on the left trigger, autosave, rumble, career stats and AI-upscaled HD packs.

You still need your own ROM dumps. No game data is included.

Downloads

• StrikeCollectionHD-0.7.1-Setup.exe: Windows installer, per-user.
• StrikeCollectionHD-0.7.1-portable.zip: unzip anywhere and run StrikeCollectionHD.exe.

Windows 10/11, 64-bit. Unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Electronic Arts or Sega.

Strike Remastered Collection HD 0.7.0

Strike Remastered Collection HD 0.7.0 adds a live minimap, rewind, autosaves, rumble, career stats and AI-upscaled HD packs to Desert Strike, Jungle Strike and Urban Strike.

You still need your own ROM dumps (USA/Europe releases). No game data is included.

New in 0.7.0

• Minimap: the pause map's own terrain in the lower-left corner, live while you fly. It shows the units of each available objective, the player, and Desert's frigate. LB / RB (Q / E) step through the objectives and categories the same way the pause map does, and the pause map opens on your pick. Settings → Picture → Minimap / Minimap Size.
• Rewind: hold the left trigger (Backspace) to go back about 30 seconds.
• Autosave when a mission starts and when an objective is completed, in three rotating slots (Load State → Auto 1–3).
• Gamepad rumble when you fire, take hits or lose a life (Settings → System → Rumble).
• Career stats: time flying, objectives, rescues, shots, damage and lives. They're on a new Stats page in the pause menu and on the game picker.
• AI HD packs: Build HD Pack can now upscale sprites and terrain with Real-ESRGAN on your graphics card (any Vulkan GPU). The tool is included in the ai folder. Without a compatible GPU it falls back to xBRZ. Settings → System → HD Pack Style.

Changes

• LB / RB are no longer second A / C buttons; they now step through the minimap. Older controls files are updated automatically.

Downloads

• StrikeCollectionHD-0.7.0-Setup.exe: Windows installer, per-user, no admin needed. It asks for your ROMs.
• StrikeCollectionHD-0.7.0-portable.zip: unzip anywhere and run StrikeCollectionHD.exe.

Windows 10/11, 64-bit. Unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Electronic Arts or Sega. Real-ESRGAN and ncnn are BSD-3 (licenses in the ai folder); the xBRZ tool is GPL-3 and ships as a separate program.

Strike Remastered Collection HD 0.6.0

First public release of Strike Remastered Collection HD: native PC versions of the Sega Genesis Desert Strike, Jungle Strike and Urban Strike, recompiled from the original game code.

You need your own ROM dumps (USA/Europe releases). No game data is included. The installer and the game picker check your files by SHA-1.

Features

• Widescreen 16:10, 16:9, 21:9, 32:9 and "Match window". Menus, maps and cutscenes stay 4:3.
• HD graphics: Settings → System → Build HD Pack extracts and upscales each game's graphics 4× with xBRZ. Takes a few minutes per game.
• Status HUD: armor, fuel, load, lives and ammo.
• Pause menu: save/load slots, full keyboard and gamepad rebinding, display, picture and audio settings, and cheats (god mode, unlimited fuel, ammo and lives, campaign select).
• Game Speed: Smooth (no slowdown) or Original (the console's slowdown).
• Launcher: the games' intros play live behind the game picker.

Downloads

• StrikeCollectionHD-0.6.0-Setup.exe: Windows installer. Per-user, no admin needed. It asks for your ROMs.
• StrikeCollectionHD-0.6.0-portable.zip: unzip anywhere and run StrikeCollectionHD.exe. Select a game to point it at its ROM.

Windows 10/11, 64-bit. Unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Electronic Arts or Sega.