There are some interesting curiosities surrounding A Bridge too Far, I have found these while looking through old French magazines. Looks like the French had an early build of the game to review and take screenshots of, so the maps that where featured in the articles, where not always the final version. These are the ones I have being able to spot.
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| "No roads and no boat!" - Cyber Stratège 003, Page 033 (1997) |
This first screenshot shows an engagement created with Battle Maker that confronts some German tanks with the British
Guards in an early version of Arnhem Rail Bridge. There are no dirt roads and it's missing the sunk boat at the river shore. Also, note the early version of the flags and the "Flee" and "Truce" buttons in the interface.
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| "You are upside down!" - Cyber Stratege 004, Page 013 (1997) |
Even more curious is this map. This is "Polish Drop Farmlands" but it's upside down! It's also missing the "To Driel" and "Public School" Victory Locations of the final version. If you take a look at the final map you will see that even the shadows have been corrected. Note how big the trees are, those are not the ones in the final version, but the trunks match these shadows way better than the final ones, so that must be something they forgot to correct.
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| "Wrong map" - Cyber Stratège 003, Page 033 (1997) |
This looks like an early version of the Campaign Map, note how the operations are in the wrong place. Also note the title in the left up side corner is different from the final version. This one is kinda cool.
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| "No rubbles" - Cyber Stratege 004, Page 013 (1997) |
Here we can see an early version of the "Relief Suburb" map. There are no destroyed buildings or rubble, there also appears to be no secondary roads and other details. In the picture, the journalist Eric Teng is explaining how to position your troops for the defense.
This last screens are from an early version of Groesbeek LZ that featured some Waco Gliders. The first one is a detail of one of the Waco Gliders taken from the French Magazine Génération 4 Number 102, Page 122 (1997). The one in the middle is taken from the Close Combat II Help File, under Gameplay/Battlemaker/Battlemaker Main Screen. The third one is the map recreated by Nembo, you can download it from CCS.
Another screenshot form the Help File, this time an early version of Arnhem Bridge, note the lack of detail in the terrain with no elevation and the early flags.
Finally, another screenshot from the Help File, some early maps, including "Relief Suburbs" and the Rail Bridge.
A blurry, low resolution screen cap from a youtube video. This was a promo made for A Bridge Too far. The curious thing is that the usual buttons for zoom and ceasefire are only letters and symbols. The AT and AP indicators look different too, and there is a wide gap between them and the Troop Status bar.
Oosterbeek North Train.
Another screenshot form the Help File, this time an early version of Arnhem Bridge, note the lack of detail in the terrain with no elevation and the early flags.
Finally, another screenshot from the Help File, some early maps, including "Relief Suburbs" and the Rail Bridge.
A blurry, low resolution screen cap from a youtube video. This was a promo made for A Bridge Too far. The curious thing is that the usual buttons for zoom and ceasefire are only letters and symbols. The AT and AP indicators look different too, and there is a wide gap between them and the Troop Status bar.
Oosterbeek North Train.
This one was discovered by Mafi and is posted in his CC2Guide-NewBattlesMaps_v6 guide.
"I discovered a german steam locomotive on the CC2-map 111. This locomotive is a scanned Maerklin-Model-Railway-Toy from which the original length is known. (...) It seems to be an adoption of the never-build BR-53-steam locomotive by Borsig (Mallet type), which should have become the original length of 27 meter."
If you have anything curious related to Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far, please contact me:
"I discovered a german steam locomotive on the CC2-map 111. This locomotive is a scanned Maerklin-Model-Railway-Toy from which the original length is known. (...) It seems to be an adoption of the never-build BR-53-steam locomotive by Borsig (Mallet type), which should have become the original length of 27 meter."
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| Märklin BR-53 |
If you have anything curious related to Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far, please contact me:
