Small Soldiers: Squad Commander

Small Soldiers: Squad Commander
Developer: DreamWorks Interactive Publisher: Hasbro Interactive Platform: Windows Released in US: 1998 This game has unused areas. This game has unused items. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select.

Small Soldiers: Squad Commander is a strategy game based on the film Small Soldiers. You control either the heroic Gorgonites or the evil Commando Elite in objective-based scenarios. The game plays like a typical RTS.

Debug Options

The game has a .BIN file (renamed text file) which lists debug options and a level select for the game.

Small Soldiers:  Squad Commander

Cheats

Main Screen

ctrl-shift-q-w, release w will display DirectLoad Dialog

ctrl-shift-q-v, release v will enable all videos for playback

Game Cheats

Play <Name> - Will play that audio file if available

Team +/-X  - Will add or subtract X from the total number available in play

Side <1 | 2> - Set your team side.  1 - Gorgonites, 2 - Commandos

easy <1 | 0> - Sets if you will play the easy level next

vasquez - Creates vasquez

etc...

Entering the key combination Ctrl-Shift-Q-W and then releasing W on the main menu will pull up a level select.

Test Levels

By using the level select, you can load up the game's many test levels, seemingly made by multiple people on the development team.

Commando/Gorgonite Football

These levels have the Commandos and Gorgonites on opposite sides of a football field. To the left are various chests for the enemy team to spawn from, and to the right are a handful of power-ups to pick up. Around the player are also many grenade and football pick-ups, along with a spawn chest with 65 additional units. The enemy team also has a goal pad surrounded by spike pads, which the player can throw footballs onto.

Apart from the swapped teams, the maps are completely identical.

Com Screen Test One/Com Screen Test

These two levels seem to share the same assets and "geometry" as Commando 4 and Gorgonite 8 respectively, albeit with different enemy, item, and player spawns, likely for testing various aspects of the levels.

Gorg Screen Test 1/Gorg Screen Test 2

To do: See if it's possible to open these levels somehow (opening them on Windows 10 crashes the game, may yield different results in a VM/native OS and hardware?).

The level names seem to imply a similar purpose to the Com Screen Test levels with the Gorgonites, but attempting to open them causes the game to crash.

Config Test

A large map made to test all of the game's mechanics.

Kev Test 1

A very large map...with virtually nothing on it. The only things worth noting are the football pick-ups that can't be interacted with, some oddly placed brown tiles, and a small room filled with Commandos and Gorgonites that appear to be on a "neutral" team, as both will attack the player but not attack each other. Their color on the mini map is white.

SG Mine Test

A map that, as the name says, is used to test mines. For some reason, there is a Chip Hazard unit that can't be controlled until the lever next to him is activated.

SG Dance Puzzle

Another somewhat self explanatory map that has a "dance puzzle" to the left of the spawn point, which is done using simple red blocks that kill the player upon touching it. The map also has various pickups, enemies, and mines however.

Shelly's Test Level

A small test map consisting of a few rooms. Only notable aspect of this level is there seems to be a placeholder disc object that summons a small fire when activated. The fire seems to do nothing and can be walked through with ease.

Shelly 2

Identical to the previous map, but with some minor unit and item additions/subtractions.

shelly 3

An even more bare bones map than the previous two, featuring only some units, a spawn chest, and some walls.

Steve's Lonely Punch It

A barren map featuring a lonely Punch It unit, one enemy melee unit, and a fireball shooter that can be activated.

Steve's Test Level

A standard test level with an excessive amount of health pick-ups.

Steve's Commando Level

Identical to the last level, but with only one unit for each team.

Unit Line Up

A small map with Commandos on one side and Gorgonites on the other with one of every power-up/pick-up in the game (minus the football) at the bottom of the map.

Unused Items/Objects

To do: Try to rip graphics for these objects.

Football

Present on several test levels are football pick-ups that can be thrown. On the football test levels, there is a pad that, when one is thrown onto it, will play a sound effect.

Fire Activation Disc

Present on several test levels are activation discs that, upon interaction, will spawn some fire. Where the fire spawns and how much can spawn vary from each map it's on.