The graphics performance of Commando was nothing special for the time, as far as arcade machines went, particularly for 1985. Compared to contemporary computers like the Amiga, it was actually on the fairly weak side.
The thing about it is that the hardware was pretty much entirely bespoke for Commando and Space Invasion, although it has an obvious functional lineage to the year-earlier 1942 hardware.
That said, arcade machines tended to lead the top of the pack in the 80's and early 90's for pretty much two reasons: First, the hardware was typically developed with a specific game in mind, and any subsequent games released on the same hardware were then tailored to that hardware. Second, arcade operators would drop multiple thousands of bucks on a new arcade cabinet with no questions asked, because for the most popular games they could make their money back within a few weeks to a few months. As a result, arcade manufacturers could and did use technology that was wildly out of reach of the average home computer or home game console that had to meet a price point just a fraction of what a single arcade cabinet would cost. Most of the cost of the cabinet was never really the wood-working, or the controls, or the CRT. It was the beefy PCB - sometimes multiple ones - riddled with enough components that a lot of them couldn't even hope to fit in a compact home computer or game console profile.
I could do a deep dive into how the hardware for Commando works, but I'd need a link to the schematics so I can ensure that I'm not just talking out my posterior. Think you can oblige?
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Re: VDP or equivalent for Capcom Commando hardware
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