Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty

Commandos
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines	1998
Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty	1999
Commandos 2: Men of Courage	2001
Commandos 3: Destination Berlin	2003
Commandos: Strike Force	2006
Commandos 2 HD Remaster	2020
Commandos 3 HD Remaster	2022
Commandos: Origins	2024

Key points

The original 16-bit installer won't work on 64 bit systems. See: Issues fixed.

General information

Commandos Wiki

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v1 DRM^{[Note 1]}
GOG.com		Includes Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines. Cannot be purchased in Germany.^[3]
Green Man Gaming
Steam

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

The GOG.com version has added compatibility fixes for modern systems, includes the original Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, and is cheaper than buying the base game and its expansion separately on Steam.

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patch for the European retail release is 1.1.

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename H_Intro.avi^{[citation needed]}
Go to `<path-to-game>\VIDEO\` Delete or rename `H_Intro.avi`.

Steam "Ultimate Fix"

Fixes many of the numerous bugs the Steam version has (lack of sound, not being able to save or load and the gameplay running incredibly fast)

Install Steam Ultimate fix patch^[4]
Download the patch Extract it in the folder where the game is installed

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/6810/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\OUTPUT\^{[Note 3]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/6810/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Video options are limited to changing between three resolutions.

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

The audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Spanish				Retail version, download.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		6	Co-op
Online play		6	Co-op

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated		Official servers have been taken offline.
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Can't install original retail version on 64-bit Windows

Manually install the game^[5]

Create the folder where you want the game to be installed (default would be C:\Program Files (x86)\Eidos Interactive\Pyro\Commandos, Beyond the Call of Duty)
Open the <cd drive>\coman_mp folder and copy its content inside the first folder
Open Notepad and save this with the .reg extension

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Pyro]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Pyro\Commandos]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Pyro\Commandos\1.0MP]
"DirCd"="D:\\COMAN_MP"
"DirIns"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Eidos Interactive\\Pyro\\Commandos, Beyond the Call of Duty"
"Type"=dword:00000003

Notes

The above .reg file -which you need then to open to add the keys to registry- assume D: as your CD drive and the default game path as the installation folder. If this is not your case adjust the keys accordingly

"Please run the German version on this computer" error

Change your Windows language setting from "Deutsch (Deutschland)" to "Deutsch (Luxemburg)"^{[citation needed]}

Hex edit coman_mp.exe^[6]
Open the game executable with a hex editor such as HxD. Search for `74 0C 81 FE 07 14 00 00 74 04` Replace first and last 2 groups of byte (74 0C and 74 04) with 90 90 Search for `74 0C 81 FF 07 14 00 00 0F 85` Replace 74 0C with 90 90 and 0F 85 with 90 E9

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	6

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System
Multiplayer	MPlayer.com, EidosNet	Official servers have been taken offline.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 166 MHz	Intel Pentium 233 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	225 MB
Video card (GPU)	2 MB of VRAM DirectX 6 compatible

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[2]
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/6810/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (6810) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
↑ Herzlich Willkommen! GOG.com goes German ● GOG.com
↑ Forget the hiperspeed... enter HERE! - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)
↑ Here's a fix for installing Commandos BEL & BTCOD on Vista 64 - Square Enix Forums
↑ Important Information for German players of Commandos Ammo Pack, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[3] SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[2]

[Proton_path_note-6] 2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/6810/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (6810) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[gamedir-7] When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[1] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[2] Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[4] Herzlich Willkommen! GOG.com goes German ● GOG.com

[5] Forget the hiperspeed... enter HERE! - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)

[8] Here's a fix for installing Commandos BEL & BTCOD on Vista 64 - Square Enix Forums

[9] Important Information for German players of Commandos Ammo Pack, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[Note 1]

[3]

[4]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[5]

[6]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	Pyro Studios
Publishers
	Eidos Interactive
Release dates
Windows	March 3, 1999