BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks’ Revenge

BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks’ Revenge is a strategy game from Westwood Associates, published by Infocom for DOS in 1990. The action takes place in the BattleTech universe, with pilots who command BattleMechs and receive orders during engagements. The copy is in English and lets you start a campaign from New Game.

Before combat begins, a map and scenes set up the situation. Selecting pilots and machines is also part of the opening. You must complete all four assignments before leaving that screen. The arrow keys move through the options and Enter confirms your choice. Wait for each change to appear on screen before continuing.

Giving orders to the Jenner

The first battle places Anderson’s Jenner near a dropship, a lake and a bridge. A Locust is approaching the area. The image of the terrain fills most of the screen, while messages and lookups let you follow what is happening with each unit.

F1 shifts attention to your own unit. Enter opens its orders box when it is selected. There you can check the pilot, experience, affiliation, weaponry, armor and heat. In the opening we checked, Anderson appears as Green and the Jenner retains 81% of its armor. The status changes during the engagement, so it is worth checking it after moving.

Movement and target

Move lets you choose a destination on the battlefield. The arrow keys move the cursor and Enter confirms the position. The menu that follows lets you review other orders before returning to the action. Esc closes that lookup. When the move is executed, the Jenner’s position and the surrounding terrain references change.

Target selects an opponent. In that mode, F9 lets you switch to the enemy and Enter confirms the target. The orders box shows Target Locust once the selection has been registered. That text lets you verify the order before continuing the combat.

The menu includes Fire Defensively and Fire At Will. It also shows Overburn and the heat status. These are decisions that affect how the unit behaves during the battle. In testing, we confirmed the switch to Fire At Will, turning off Overburn and assigning the Locust as the target. Heat and armor remain visible in the Jenner lookup.

Reading the combat alerts

Anderson’s messages point out the Locust’s presence, its arrival at the bridge and the attack on the dropship. When one of these alerts appears, read it and use Space to continue. A pending message can interrupt the next order you want to give. After closing it, F1 and Enter let you check the unit again.

The online version starts in the KEYB mode that the game’s original configuration supports. The executables and the data are kept intact. The background of this game page comes from the title screen, and the gallery shows orders entered in the first mission. The download keeps the original copy, including its mouse configuration.