Combat Flight Sims of the 1980s < The Flight Simulation Museum





Combat Flight Sims of the 1980's 1980 - 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989 Before 1980 1970s - Combat flight sims 1980 1981 1982 Nightflite (Sinclair Spectrum) 1983 Fighter Pilot Fighter Pilot was the first combat flight simulation from the British developer Digital Integration. There were a number of successive versions created for several platforms over a period of a few years, which makes it harder to determine the release date of the original, but it was probably in 1983. The game earned distinction of being the first attempt at simulating the undoubtedly complex F-15 Eagle interceptor. Hellcat Aces Intercepteur Cobalt Jet Jet was developed by Charles Guy using Bruce Artwick's technology. He adapted it for the IBM-PC. Bruce Artwick Red Baron 1983 Red Baron 1983 ThunderChopper 1984 Combat Lynx Combat Lynx by Durell Software ... released in 1984, allowed you to fly the Westland Lynx in a ground Attack role. This must qualify for the most esoteric combat sim of all time! It was released for the Sinclair Spectrum with 48K of RAM and the Commodore 64. Dam Busters Dam Busters consisted of just one mission. It simulated the daring raids against dams in the Ruhr Valley which were heavily protected by flak emplacements and fighter patrols guided by German radar. The bombs were dropped with a back-spin (like a cricket ball), skipped along the surface of the water and then dove to the base of the dam before exploding. The Dam Busters sim was the first one to involve multi-tasking. You could be pilot, engineer, gunner or bomb aimer - in fact you had to do all at some point in the mission. Not a bad effort for 1984! Delta Wing MiG Alley Ace Skyfox Skyfox by Ray Tobey came out in 1984 and I first played this on my 8-bit Apple II. With the extra memory card the Apple II had a whole *64K* of ram to fly with ! SoloFlight SoloFlight - Solo Flight was released in 1984 on the Atari 800 and Commodore Amiga Spitfire '40 Spitfire Ace 1985 Air Strike USA F-15 Strike Eagle I F-15 Strike Eagle I This sim pushed 1980's technology to the limit. It looks crude now but consider that it ran on a 286 processor at 8 MHz and it wasn't too shabby! And how about this - The original code weighs in at a hefty 53 K !!!!!!! F-16 Fighting Falcon - 1985 In 1984, Gilman Louie and Les Watts wrote F-16: The Real Dogfight Simulator for the MSX, a Japanese computer. From the outset, Gilman wanted players to be able to compete against each other in aerial combat... F-16 Fighting Falcon - 1985 Harrier Strike Mission Superhuey Superhuey was released in 1985 by Cosmi for the Commodore 64. The upgrade Super Huey 2 added extra missions : Renegade Brush Fire Gulf of Terror Arctic Rescue Oil Blaze Tomahawk 1986 A.C.E. (Air Combat Emulator) Ace of Aces An early Mosquito sim -maybe the ONLY Mosquito sim released until Mosquito Squadron for Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 in the 2000's. Skychase Skychase by Broderbund was a simple dogfight simulator released in 1987 where you flew against a computer or another human player using a split screen, like Topgun. Spitfire '40 Strike Force Harrier 1987 Air Warrior Falcon Falcon AT Falcon 2.2 - the Mac version Gunship (1987) In Gunship (1987) the mission generation was endless with a primary and secondary to complete and the briefings had everything you needed for the coming mission. It also had basic radio comms, with password and countersigns being used during the battle - give the wrong response twice and you start getting hunted by your own side! JumpJet JumpJet Top Gun 1988 A.C.E. 2 Title - Afterburner by Sega Release Date - 1988 Developer - Sega Publisher - Activision Collection - Yes. Donated by Simon Robbins in 2001. Comments - Although this was an arcade game rather than a sim it is worth a mention because it had a pretty good moving cockpit in the arcades and it probably got many people interested in flight sims. Well it may have! Anyway the fact remains that if you tell someone that you're into Flight Simulators there is a pretty good chance they'll say "Oh, yeah - like Afterburner!" Title - B-24 Release Date - 1988 Developer - Publisher - Strategic Simulations Inc Collection - Yes. Comments - Battlehawks 1942 Carrier Command Carrier Command was published in 1988 for the Atari St, PC, Commodore Amiga and Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Rainbird Software. This game consisted of 2 files...total size 180 K......not 180 MEG as we are used to today but 180 K. At the risk of labouring the point, 180 K is only 0 .18 MB. Dive Bomber F/A-18 Interceptor F/A-18 Interceptor was written by Bob Dinerman who was the force behind the later Jetfighter series from Mission Studios. Containing only 5 missions, yes, that's F I V E MISSIONS - this 1988 sim nonetheless amused and entertained sim fans around the world for months at a time. F-19 Stealth Fighter F-19 Stealth Fighter - The F117A Stealth Fighter was one of the best kept secrets in aviation history, being in service about 10 years before anyone got a good look at it. The F-19 was the nearest guess for a long time. When the plane was finally unveiled, Microprose revised this sim accordingly and released it as F-117A Stealth Fighter. Harrier Combat Simulator Title - Jetfighter 1 Release Date - 1990 Developer - Velocity Publisher - Collection - Comments - The start of one of the most successful combat sim series ever. The Jetfighter series by Mission Studios Jetfighter 1 Jetfighter 2 Jetfighter 2 - Advanced Mission Disk Jetfighter 3 Jetfighter Full Burn JetFighter 4 JetFighter 5 Lightning Simulator on the Sinclair Spectrum Night Raider Title - Project Stealth Fighter Release Date - 1988 Developer - Publisher - Microprose Collection - No. Comments - Released in 1988 as the Commodore 64 and 128 version of F-19 Stealth Fighter. Sinclair Spectrum version 1990. Stealth Mission 1989 A10 Tank Killer Blue Max Blue Max was a World War I simulation released in 1989. It ran in 256 colour VGA (320 x 200 pixels). F-15 Strike Eagle II F-15 Strike Eagle II In 1989 F-15 Strike Eagle II had one of the richest and most interactive sim environments ever seen. The world was full of activity from enemy fighters and ships. Who can forget "Director Mode", which let you sit back and watch as the sim followed the action. Pour a cup of coffee, grab a donut and watch the action unfold! F-15 Strike Eagle II: Sega Genesis F16 Combat Pilot F-19 Stealth Fighter for the NEC 9801 F-29 Retaliator F-29 Retaliator ran very fast, even on a 386 25Mhz which was a typical machine of the day. I remember trying again and again to strafe a train whilst travelling at about mach 1.2.... it never occured to me to slow down ! The graphics were detailed by the standards of the day, with cities, bridges, roads, islands, mountains and moving vehicles. The cockpit was also pretty exciting for the time, with 3 MFD's you could set up in a number of configurations. Interdictor Project Stealth Fighter Their Finest Hour (Battle of Britain) Their Finest Hour (Battle of Britain) was developed by Lawrence Holland for LucasArts in 1989. George Lucas was once a kid who grew up reading comic books and watching old movies about the Battle of Britain. When he grew up he made blockbuster movies fusing comic book legends and scenes from old movies about the Battle of Britain. The famous dogfight scenes in Star Wars were directly inspired by these films... even down to the gun turret in the Millenium Falcon... from a B-24 Liberator 1990s - Combat flight sims Email MiGMan with your experiences or any information related to this sim.



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Before 1980

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