Today Cyningstan released Star Cadre: Combat Class, a tactical combat game for the IBM PC. Available for download from the Cyningstan web site and from Itch, the game puts you in control of a team of elite troops in a sci-fi battle simulator.

This latest game in Cyningstan's series of new games for old hardware is designed to run on the original IBM PC from 1981. It supports the original 4.77 MHz 8088 processor, and requires only four-colour CGA or monochrome Hercules graphics. It is compact enough to run from a 360k floppy disk. It will of course work on DOSBox.

Each mission you play is randomly generated, so you can enjoy the game again and again. There are six mission types, and three levels of play. Your long-term objective over many games is to achieve the highest score possible for each mission type, at each difficulty level.

Star Cadre: Combat Class, like previous Cyningstan games, features 4-colour CGA graphics with a choice of palettes: a blue/red palette that works well with the sci-fi theme, a cyan/magenta palette that evokes nostalgia of 1980s PC games, and a high resolution monochrome option for both CGA and for Hercules. Title music and sound effects are for the PC speaker.

Controls are keyboard only. There are shortcuts for many of the options, but the whole game is playable with just directional controls and a fire key. So the game is suitable for emulation on a wide range of devices, from desktop PCs to mobile phones. And, of course, it works on the original vintage hardware if you're lucky enough to have it.

There is no charge for the game, although donations are gratefully accepted. It can be downloaded from the Cyningstan website or from Itch, and people are encouraged to distribute it to other suitable download sites.

Cyningstan is a one-man developer specialising in games that run on the original IBM PC. Star Cadre: Combat Class is their fifth full game to run on this specification. Also available are CGA Robots, Ossuary, The Anarchic Kingdom, Team Droid, and Barren Planet.