Desert Combat is a mod

Mod (computer gaming)

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...

 for the first-person shooter

First-person shooter

First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...

 (FPS) computer game Battlefield 1942

Battlefield 1942

Battlefield 1942 is a 3D World War II first-person shooter computer game developed by Swedish company Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh . The game can be played in singleplayer mode against the computer game AI or in multiplayer mode...

, created by Frank Delise, Brian Holinka, Tim Brophy, and Stephen Wells. DC features many new weapons and new Conquest

Conquest (gametype)

Conquest is a gametype used mainly by Electronic Arts and Digital Illusions CE's Battlefield franchise. To win a game of Conquest, the teams in the game must capture pre-determined spawnpoints labeled by flags...

 and Capture the flag

Capture the flag

Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...

 Maps. DC is set in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 during the first Gulf War

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

. It acquired popularity since the 2003 invasion of Iraq

2003 invasion of Iraq

The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...

 by Coalition forces

Multinational force in Iraq

The Multi-National Force – Iraq was a military command, led by the United States, which was responsible for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Multi-National Force – Iraq replaced the previous force, Combined Joint Task Force 7, on 15 May 2004, and was later itself reorganized into its successor, United...

 and has been featured on many media websites.

Trauma Studios

On September 1, 2004, Digital Illusions CE

Digital Illusions CE

EA Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment AB is a Swedish video game developer, wholly owned by Electronic Arts, best known for the Battlefield video game series and Mirror's Edge.-History:...

 (DICE) bought Trauma Studios

Trauma Studios

Trauma Studios was an American computer game developer company founded in 2003. They were best known for having created Desert Combat, a mod for Battlefield 1942....

, the developers of the Desert Combat Battlefield 1942 Modification to help work on Battlefield 2.

Shortly before the release of Battlefield 2, DICE announced that the company has "decided to discontinue the New York office, Trauma Studios." DICE will no longer pay $200,000 in outstanding funds from the original deal.

Notable modifications

There have also been secondary mods for Desert Combat, such as Desert Combat Extended, Desert Combat Realism, and Desert Combat Final, which modify gameplay and add new content such as additional armies and features. When Trauma Studios was purchased by DICE, some of the Desert Combat team chose not to join DICE and continued on to make Desert Combat Final, an update to Desert Combat. It was released on October 16, 2004 though it was not an official release by Trauma Studios or by the Desert Combat team.

Awards

• FilePlanet
  FilePlanet
  FilePlanet is a video game download service that provides demos, patches, mods and other gaming media and other gaming media downloads to its users. FilePlanet was launched, and is run by, GameSpy, which is now a subsidiary of IGN, and is one of the most used video game download sites on the...
  
  's Best New Mod of 2004 for Desert Combat Final
• FilePlanet's Best Mod of 2003
• GameSpy
  GameSpy
  GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
  
  's 2003 PC Modification of the Year
• FilePlanet's Best New Mod for 2002

External links

• Desert Combat home page on the Internet Archive
• Desert Combat FAQ on the Internet Archive
• IGN interviews Desert Combat founders