Video Game / Windom XP

Is your operating system as mecha as this?

Ever wondered "Which computer operating system would win in a battle if they were Gundam-like mechas?". Look no further with than the Windom XP series by doujin circle Project Windom for PC!

Initially named Bootfighter Windom XP SP-2, this series of games started as a Freeware Game based on the popularity of the Gundam Vs Series, initially featuring fourteen mechas based after Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems with four game modes. The original game was fan translated by mirror moon and you can find it here (it is, however, outdated as the current release is v1.200).

It was subsequently followed by a retail Mission-Pack Sequel titled Ultimate Knight Windom XP, which adds new mechs, a fairly difficult Arcade Mode, equippable items, general gameplay tweaks, and balancing to the roster. An Expansion Pack called Power-up Kit was later released during Comiket 77 that adds new stages (two stages from the original Bootfighter Windom XP SP-2 and one new area) and five new units. Ultimate Knight Windom XP was picked up for an official English release by Curious Factory on July 2nd, 2009 and it was released via Digital Distribution through their website and Gamefly DRM-free, however it is outdated since it lacks the additions from the expansion pack and later updates. Thankfully there are fan-made translations for the expansion pack release of the game from a few forums dedicated to the game.

Further development for the Ultimate Knight Windom XP ended with v2.008 as Project Windom worked on another follow-up for the game titled Ultimate Knight Windom SV, one aiming to become more akin to Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. in terms of gameplay. Trial versions of Ultimate Knight Windom SV, aptly-named -Lite Version-, have been released at Comiket 83 and 89, but the game has become vaporware as of 2021.

The Windom XP series owes its spotlight and life though to the spread of its translated freeware version, followed later by the spread of Ultimate Knight Windom XP and the popularization of its fan mods and videos.

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These games provide examples of:

• A Mech by Any Other Name: Originally called Bootfighters, they're now known as KDs as of Ultimate Knight Windom XP.
• Ace Custom: The player can select different palettes and stat-upgrading parts they collect from the Arcade Mode to make their mechs unique.
• Air Jousting: Linux Anisum when performing aerial melee attacks.
• Alpha Strike: Windom Talisker WP and Windom BlackComb's last sub-weapon.
• All There in the Manual: The little information about the game's mechs, the pilot creator and even the default cat-pilots are in a rare file that came with the original games bought from the website, and later lost through massive file-sharing.
• Artificial Stupidity: See Leeroy Jenkins below...
• Artistic License – Physics: The game's gravity is an unchangeable standard, thus the gravity in the Moon map is the same as in the Earth maps...
  • If It Swims, It Flies: The only difference between water, sky and space in this game is that you cannot really see much ahead of you other than blue.
• Attack Drone: KD-06 series, KD-07 BlackComb and some of the Linuxes possess them.
  • The new Talisker WP in Windom SV gets a Transforming Mecha variation of this.
• Attract Mode: Wait a little while in the title screen and the game will start a random CPU match.
• Battle Aura: The mechs gets one once you activate the Super Mode.
• Battle Ballgown: Linux Cymbidium, Ranunculus, Anthurium, Fennel, and Anisum are designed with them.
• Battleship Raid: The Blitz Tactics Mode, where you and a team of mechs try to destroy the opposing team's battleship.
• Beam-O-War: A VERY RARE instance, and only possible through the battle between two KD-07 BlackCombs since by default, the beam projectiles go through each other. Should both face each other and strike at the same time with the sub-weapon or block an incoming beam, it results in a beam pong that will only end until either sub-weapon or the blocking fail.
• Beam Spam: The KD-07 BlackComb and KD-06 Windom Vista being the most popular Windom to do it, though the MS-98 and Millenium suits have a special grenade that rains beams upon the area.
  • Some of the Linuxes like Iris and Primula are able to invoke one of those magical spell circles that spam several medium-ranged beams, and a few long-ranged ones.
• BFG: KD-08-3 Anthurium Linux and KD-06 Asteroid Windom 2000 SP1's guns. Linux Anisum has lance that doubles as a cannon.
• BFS: KD-05-3's Anti-Ship Sword, with the KD-07 BlackComb having a pair of then. And then there's KD-08-2 Linux Cymbidium's power-up sub-weapon move, which basically gives her sword a huge laser blade. Linux Ranunculus can also one for melee attacks.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: Windom BlackComb, especially if you have the HDR settings on.
• Camera Lock-On: Much like in the Gundam VS. games, but considering the default maps and your enemies zipping around, it could lead into Event-Obscuring Camera sometimes.
• Captain Ersatz / Expy: In short...
  • The Linuxes (with one exception, in the case of BlackSelena) are based on iconic magical girls. These includes Shana for Linux Licorice, Saber for Linux Ranunculus, Marisa Kirisame for Linux Primula, and Belldandy for Linux Iris (while at the same, giving off a resemblance to another magical robot girl).
  • As for the Windoms themselves, most of their designs — from the mechs to the projectiles — come from Cosmic Era, like the Windom Talisker WP and the anti-air missiles.
    • Windom SV brings a few elements from Gundam 00, such as the Talisker WP's new mech-backpack and XP SP-3's Trans-Am-like glow for his second subattack.
• Character Customization: You can alter the mecha's colors and skills by collecting items from your battles at the Arcade Mode.
• Charged Attack: The "hold" type for non-melee attacks. To perform one, you need at least one segment of the Charge Meter filled to launch a power-up version of your attack.
• Chest Blaster: KD-06 Asteroid Windom 2000 SP1 and KD-06 Asteroid Windom 2K's particle beams.
• Color-Coded Multiplayer: The Single and Multi-player modes often have that.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In Ultimate Knight, the enemy AI is always given more advantages than the player in arcade mode.
• Cool Sword: Linux Ranunculus and Fennel fight with them.
• Cut and Paste Environments: The "In" maps are basically this. The In1 being what could be a never-ending hangar, while the In2 is basically a bland section of box-rooms.
• Deflector Shields: Added in the v2.005 update for the new Linux unit it provides. The Windom BlackComb however had from the beginning a deflective armor instead of a shield similar to Destiny's Akatsuki Gundam, that recharged the energy meters while reflecting beam shots and absorbing bullets. It was however vulnerable to melee, missiles and other attacks.
• Die, Chair, Die!: Wanna destroy the city's buildings around you with your infinite supply of missiles and beams? Fire.
  • Though averted sometimes, as some of the buildings such as certain skyscrapers are impossible to destroy.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The MS-98 Windom, the Zaku's equivalent of this game, has the poorest of all health and boost meters, speed and melee damage attacks. On the other hand, it comes with the lowest cost in the battle meter, quick boost recharge, five lives, and its machine gun and grenade attacks can overpower any unit when used right (especially the latter).
  • Same for the Linux Anthurium: No melee, no blocking, rapidly empties the power meter and thus is vulnerable to any kind of melee attack... But compensates the lack of these with a variety of specifically made emergence attacks for these situations.
• Double Unlock: In Ultimate Knight Windom XP, Windom Talisker WP and Linux Anisum requires you to beat the Arcade Mode with all the other Windoms and Linuxes first to unlock Windom Vienna and Linux Primula respectively, and then beating Arcade Mode with the mechs that Vienna and Primula unlocks (as of v2.008).
• Dual Wielding: Windom 2K, Millennium-II, 2000 SP1, Asteroid, BlackComb, and Talisker WP.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar: Also gives their distance, life bar and name of the unit, attack drones, bullets and lasers shot at you, and even tells whenever they're blocking.
  • Windom SV takes away a couple of these features.
• Extremity Extremist: Linux Anthurium has no melee whatsoever, just a beam rifle and a cannon.
• Fake Difficulty: It's been noted that some of the last few stages in Ultimate Knight Windom XP's Arcade Mode since the expansion pack update (v2.000 and above) puts you in a hopeless fight against mechs that are over-powered compared to you and your sorry excuse of an ally. Even on Easy the A.I. will pretty much win 99.9% of the time. Good luck testing your patience against the final levels without raging or resorting to cheat programs to tip the odds in your favor.
• Fem Bot: All Linuxes, save for the KD-07-2 BlackSelena.
• Flaming Sword: KD-08-6 Linux Licorice was initially presented with a flaming katana. After the v2.005 update, the katana is no longer permanently on fire. It needs to be manually ignited, and the function to do such replaces her Double Jump ability.
• Freelook Button: Available in the pause menu.
• Game Mod: Hooooo boy, and it's the very thing that keeps this game alive and out of obscurity, having no less than three forums mostly dedicated to this.
  • The mods themselves ranging from the basic addition of pilots and change of texture files to an entire revamp on the roster and gameplay style, often towards simulating the direct inspiration for this game but certainly not limited to it.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: The KD-06-3's method of melee combat.
• Guns Akimbo: Windom BlackBomb, Vienna, and Linux Anthurium with two cannons.
• Gun Fu: Take a guess...
• Homing Lasers: Mainly from the Linuxes, some can even can spam them at once as well.
• Homing Projectile: The beams will, variably, follow the target until they either hit, miss or go a certain distance.
• Humongous Mecha: Based after Windows and Linux operating systems, of course!
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Any mech with a lance or an Anti-Ship sword, especially the KD-05-3's special combo attack.
  • Same goes for some of the Linuxes blade projectiles, which even stay on the impaled mech for a while before pixelating away. Windom SV goes so far as to include a beam blade variant.
• Impossibly Graceful Giant: The Linuxes play this straight.
• Instant Runes: The KD-08 Linux Iris does this for her ultimate move.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Both Windom Taliskers and Linux Lincorice agree.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Most of the times you can still deliver a few blows to an enemy while it is down before the Mercy Invincibility rule begins to act.
• Lag Cancel: Melee attacks can interrupted by guarding to extend one's Cycle of Hurting.
• Leeroy Jenkins: The NPC's default strategy, even when clearly outnumbered. This becomes especially clear in the Arcade Mode where your teammate will throw themselves against the enemies and die seconds later, either rapidly depleting the battle cost meter and making you lose or leaving you to face the onslaught on your own.
  • In the worst cases, such as when you're both targeting the same enemy, much friendly fire ensues and gives the enemy just the right window needed to turn the tides on you.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: All the mechs save for Windom BlackBomb, Vienna, and most of the magical girl Linuxes.

• Magical Mecha-Girl: Linux Iris and Primula, from the magical girl style of their design to their special attacks resembling magic spells complete with Instant Runes.
• Meaningful Name: The name Bootfighter itself. The words "Boot" and "Fighter" can be translated to Japanese as "Kidou" and "Senshi" respectively. See also Theme Naming below.
  • Windoms BlackComb and Vienna were named after the original codenames for Windows XP's successor, which was named Blackcomb and later re-named to Vienna.
• Mecha Expansion Pack: The Windom Talisker WP, Windom Millenium and XP series.
• Mecha Pincushion: Linux Ranunculus has a special attack where she stabs a mech with her BFS, summons a bunch of smaller swords and skewers her victim with the swords just before pushing them off her blade. Her ranged attack can also leave her opponent as such after summoning lots of swords.
• Mercy Invincibility: After receiving a certain amount of hits, your mech goes down and the rule is applied until it gets up and either begins firing again or the invincibility time runs out.
• Mirror Match: Rarely in the Arcade Mode, though common in the other modes.
• Missing Backblast: Subverted with the bazooka gun for the Millenium and XP series as they have the special effect of the back-blast, yet no recoil on the mech itself.
  • Averted when using the sub-weapon, like the missile launchers or the bazookas themselves.
• Odd Name Out: The Linux BlackSelena being the only Linux to not be a robot magical girl, its name amongst the Linuxes is also not that of a flower genus but instead a Shout-Out to Martian Successor Nadesico: Prince of Darkness.
• One-Hit Polykill: With any kind of beam rifles, since the beams will only cease to exist if they hit one or more buildings, the floor, reach a certain distance or time length.
• Rank Inflation: The items you get in Ultimate Knight Windom XP's Arcade Mode. They go by D, C, B, A, and finally S.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: D and C-ranked items are in white, B-ranked items are blue, A-ranked are green, and S-rank are gold.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Should be obvious who it is.
• Regenerating Health: Subverted, as only a couple of Linuxes are able to do that, and it's by summoning one of the crystals you normally use as an Attack Drone.
• RPG Elements: Check Character Customization.
• Sailor Fuku: Guess...
• Scoring Points: Comes with a basic ranking system.
• Schrödinger's Cast: Arguably, since you can add any character you wish in this game as a pilot, be it from a Super Robot series or a popular Memetic Mutation, you can add them to the game.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Linux Fennel and Anisum, if you can see past their hair.
• Shoulder Cannon: Windom XP Type-B has two of them. One of Vienna's wings functions as one.
• Shout-Out: Aside from the examples back at the Captain Ersatz trope...
  • One of the last stages of the Arcade path puts you against the KD-07 and KD-07-2, the Windom versions of the Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice (not counting the Akatsuki parts in each Mobile Suit). Good luck fighting Kira and Athrun at the same time.
  • Several of the mechs' movements and poses also come from their respective inspirations.
• Skybox: A circular and static skybox, noticeable if you fall off the map (especially in the Skyland map) or fly too high without the map boundaries (by deleting the "Hit" files from their folders).
• Sky Surfing: The shield for XP (KD-05) and XP Type-B (KD-05-2) can transform into a sub-flight unit that the mech rides on top of.
• Spam Attack: Pick your preference.
  • Beam Spam? BlackComb and Windom Vista live up to the name of their Gundam counterparts. Some Linux units like Iris also live up to this.
  • More Dakka? The last sub-weapon of the MS-98 and the first Millenium units, aside from the “IWSP” Talisker.
  • Macross Missile Massacre? Meet the KD-05 and KD-05-2.
  • Storm of Blades? Talk to Linux Ranunculus.
• Static Stun Gun: Subverted. Windom BlackComb has a static stun beam that looks like electricity as the first sub-weapon.
• Super Mode: Introduced in the v2.005 update of Ultimate Knight Windom XP. Activating it allows you to shoot faster and deal more damage while executing a sword combo.
  • XP SP-3 gets a temporary one as his subattack 2 in Windom SV.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: Most of the times you use any of the sub-weapons the robot goes through a rotating camera shot, Gundam SEED style.
• Super Robot Genre: The game is essentially the PC gamers Gundam VS.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: The KD-06 Asteroid Windom 2000 SP1 and KD-06 Asteroid Windom 2K's guns, with a normal or a spiral beam shot as the main mode, a bazooka gun mode for the last aub-attack and a Wave-Motion Gun for the fighter ship mode.
• Sword and Gun: A general combination of weapons many of the Windoms (mostly with beam swords) and a few Linuxes.
• Sword Beam: Linux Cymbidium fires one from her blade, but unlike most sword beams, she fires a laser beam from her blade.
• Sword Lines: Whenever a bladed weapon or beam saber is swung.
• Theme Naming: The Windom robots are named and slightly based off the Windows Operating Systems, while the Linux robots (with the exception of BlackSelena as stated above) are named not after Linux distros but rather flower genera.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: KD-05-3 And KD-04-4 in allusion to the Impulse and the RX-78-2 Gundams respectively.
• Transforming Mecha: The KD-06 Asteroid Windom 2000 SP1 and KD-06 Asteroid Windom 2K are capable of transforming into fighters.
  • SV's Talisker WP new backpack, which also doubles as a fighter.
• Unusual Weapon Mounting: Lasers from the hips, the wings, and the list goes on...
• Video-Game Lives: The number of lives your mecha has depends on how powerful it is. Generally weaker units, such as the MS-98 Windom, have more lives than something like Windom Talisker WP.
• Wave-Motion Gun: KD-08-3 Linux Anthurium's BFG.
• Winged Mecha: Windoms Vista, BlackComb, and Vienna. In Vienna's case though, the wings are asymmetrical, but there's a good reason for that.
• Whip Sword: Linux Cymbidium's power-up sub-weapon gives her a huge bending beam blade to her sword that works mostly like a whip, capable of hitting multiple enemies around with the right combo at the right time.

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