European Theatre WWII

"No. 303 Fighter Squadron was formed in Britain in July 1940 comprised of polish and other nations pilots. It fought alongside other RAF units in the Battle of Britain. The 303 Squdadron was well-known for its bravado, fearless attitude, precision and professionalism. During the WWII, they were one of the most effective units of Royal Air Force."

Simulation of the De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber.

It also contained maps and a multimedia reference on Early Aviation pioneers. I have Aces: The Complete Collector's Edition. Except for A-10 Tank Killer 2: Silent Thunder, these sims all run in DOS.

"Aces High takes the art and science of vintage WWII air combat and sets it in an online high intensity environment where hundreds of players can battle it out with and against each other."

The most complex and popular World War II sim of 1992.

Air Warrior 3, released in 1998 is a popular on-line World War 2 Air Combat sim running in Windows '95 and '98.

Air Warrior was introduced to the gaming public as a free - public domain - piece of software which could be downloaded and played in practice mode at home. You then logged on to a dedicated server in your city via modem and played in a virtual war.

A classic DOS sim, and complex for it's time!

B-17 The Mighty Eighth is a single or multiplayer simulation of the B17 Flying Fortress Bomber. You can also fly the escort fighter planes or Luftwaffe interceptors. The design, and some of the team members originate from the classic 1992 sim from Microprose "B17 Flying Fortress.

Features an enhanced graphics engine based on the classic Battle of Britain by Rowan (2000).

The product is presented as a tribute to the BOBMF and a high standard of production is apparent throughout, from the full colour manual to the recreation of RAF Coningsby and the individual aircraft of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

Expectations were high at Xmas 2000. Rowan, the makers of 'Flight of the Intruder' Operation Overlord, Navy Strike and more recently the smash hit 'MiG Alley', released a simulation of the 6 weeks that altered history, when the Royal Air Force fended off the might of the Luftwaffe.

Play by email is fully supported and well suits the chess-like nature of the game. It is turn -based with events unfolding in real time once both sides have entered their decisions. You can zoom in and out on the action. You can set up for a 1 day event or elect to play out the whole 6 week campaign. Based on the reputation of Grigsby this will be good value for the board game crowd.

Dynamic campaign add-on for IL-2 Forgotten Battles.

"From the Battle of Britain, through the dramatic air combat of Pearl Harbor, the fierce fighting of Midway, and on to the European continent in the battle of Berlin, players can hone their pilot skills while creating WWII history."

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat was for many people their first exposure to PC flight simulation of any kind and the beginning of a life-long hobby. The sim is a historical fulcrum between the living history embodied in Chuck Yeager and the younger generation trying to understand the experience of air combat in three wars and codify that.

This was the first game to really factor in morale for your troops, which added a lot of uncertainty to the gameplay. The whole series is undemanding on hardware and an ideal choice for whiling away time on a laptop.

"This was a late addition to the long line of flight sims for the Amiga, and it was also one of the best. The whole sim was based on the 1991 Gulf War ( Desert Storm ) and you could take to the skies in either the mighty Grumman F-14A Tomcat or the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet."

Adds aircraft designed by Terry Hill to Microsoft Combat Flight Sim, Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000.

"It’s the 4th of June, 1942, and Japanese bombs are raining down on Midway – and you. This lethal assault is a prelude to an invasion whose success gives the enemy control over the Pacific. You are one of the American airmen who hold the outcome of this decisive battle in their hands."

"As the Luftwaffe launches its aerial offensive, the outnumbered Royal Air Force is scrambling to bring into combat new planes that will ensure victory over a stronger foe. Will they succeed? It’s up to you, and your Hurricane or Spitfire."

Released in 1994, this was one of the very first flight sims to make use of the brand new S3 graphics chipset. This chipset enabled a doubling of the screen resolution from 300x200 pixels to an amazing 600x400 pixels. It was quite difficult to get running as I recall, requiring many hours of struggling with the graphics drivers. I remember clearly seeing a looping demo of it running in the local games shop. A Spitfire approached a German radar post and attacked. I couldn't believe my eyes at the graphical detail with trees, fences andd irt pathways. I would stand there for hours watching this thing until I splurged the couple of hundred dollars to upgrade my graphics card. I had only bought my first PC 2 months before and it already needed upgrading. That's progress!

Total content. One mission. But an important one.

Dam Busters opened the bomb bay door to a new experience in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2, that of the bomber pilot. You need a different mindset than when flying the fighters. In the bomber accurate station keeping is everything on the final run.

"Pilot a wide range of aircraft, engage in aerial dogfights and dangerous fighter missions across the major theaters of war during WWII."

With this flight sim classic Microprose continued their tradition of creating sims which you could live in for months or even years, never getting bored. European Air War recreated the epic west European air battles which helped change the course of World History 1939 - 1945. Every aspect of this sim was superb, from the graphics and sounds to the atmospheric interfaces.

An attractive WW2 sim geared to online playing, with well organised arenas, training and special events.

"Flight Commander 2 (FC2) is not really a flight simulator at all ... but rather a turn-based, tactical, jet-age air combat war game. So what is FC2 doing in the Flight Sim Museum? It's here because it shares many of the elements of combat flight simulators, and appeals to many of the same people who enjoy flight sims."

"The enemy aircraft are single-color players, which change size and shape with their distance and orientation. It can be difficult to determine the enemy's intentions at long range due to the lack of color and definition of the enemy aircraft. It can also be difficult to tell that the enemy is firing at you until it is too late."

This much anticipated sim recreated the efforts of the Soviet Airforce on the Eastern front in World War 2 from June 22nd, 1941.

28 new missions and new skins for IL-2 based on the aircraft of legendary aces Erich Hartmann and Adolf Galland.

The sensation of speed at low level is the best yet in a flight sim. I enjoyed whizzing past excellent ground textures, individual trees, small stands of trees and whole forests of trees, vast cities (Moscow alone has 500,000 buildings in the sim), flying through clouds, fog, rain and snow, and all with a smooth frame rated with no s-s-stuttering at all on the test system. All this would be an impressive achievement for a civil flight sim, to create a world in such detail and still enjoy a sedate and fluid sensation of flight. But IL-2 is a combat sim and once you add multiple aircraft manoeuvering vigorously, tanks, trucks and ships, bombers, anti-aircraft fire you would expect the sim performance to take a severe hit. Not so. Without a doubt the most outstanding World War 2 flight sim of the 2000's.

"Il-2 1946 includes all of the original IL-2 series content: IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, Ace Expansion Pack, Pacific Fighters and alternate history campaigns of year 1946. What was years ago began as a one-aircraft study sim is now an astonishing anthology, with a whopping 229 flyable aircraft and over 300 aircraft total!"

The biggest MOD pack for the IL-2 series. In fact I'd go so far as to say it is the biggest mod EVER! The World at War pack covers WWII, others cover WWI, Korea and Vietnam. All in all you are looking at 10,000 plus missions, 400 plus maps, more than 1200 aircraft types and about 7,000 object types.

"Rebirth of Honor" (ROH) is a campaign expansion for the computer flight simulation ‘IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles’ with the ‘Ace Expansion Pack’ (FB+AEP). It runs also under ‘Forgotten Battles’ + ‘Ace Expansion Pack’ + Pacific Fighters merged install. (FB+AEP+PF) and under IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946."

"2 campaigns: Luftwaffen- campaign “Greif" and russian campaign ‘Red Banner’. Extremely detailed ‘world’ on the maps Kurland, Moskow, Leningrad and Murmansk. 300 Missions, over 700 very high quality plane skins, over 200 pilot skins. Over 75 hours of immersion."

Luftwaffe fighters over the biggest tank battle in history.

" the most famous air battles of World War II" - Steam

An action filled and gloriously good looking Battle of Britain sim, 7 years in the making and based on 2010's 'IL-2: Cliffs of Dover'. At this point I only have about 6 hours in this sim, which puts me 3 missions into the RAF campaign. The MiGPit Mk.VI is running it like a dream at 3840 x 2160, and if the frame rates hold up in more complex missions I can only give this my highest recommendation to anybody hankering after intense BOB action!

Wings over Jungles is a campaign pack containing four separate campaigns for the flight simulator PACIFIC FIGHTERS (PF). 1. ’Monkey’ (US3) where you take the role of a WWII US Navy Fighter pilot flying from aircraft carriers. 2: ’Angel’ (US4) in which you are flying for the US Marine Corps as a dive bomber and later as a fighter pilot. 3: ’Kyuden’ (IJ3) which lets you fly as a Japanese Navy fighter pilot from aircraft carriers. 4: 'Katana’ (IJ4) which leads you as a Japanese Navy fighter pilot to various assignments.

" Wings over Waves (WOW) is the first of a series of campaign addons for the flight simulator PACIFIC FIGHTERS (Version 3.0+) (PF). It will also be playable under IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles + Ace Expansion Pack + Pacific Fighters merged install. (Version 2.0+) (FB+AEP+PF) and under IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946."

"It is hard for me to be as negative as I'm being with the (to my knowledge) only flight sim made in Spain, but the love for air combat and good gameplay prevails over patriotic feelings. Let's say J44SE is a good idea badly done, that died of sheer ambition: its 3D engine would work well for sports or racing games, but it's not suitable for an 'serious' flight sim." - Francisco J. Campos

Knights of the Sky was a World War I air combat sim released in 1990 by Microprose.

"lthough the graphics were wire frame and there were practically no ground graphics, the attention to detail, complexity, flight modelling and combat were unbelievable. I think the programmer had been a Lightning pilot."

An excellent Mosquito with good virtual cockpit and panels, 21 decent missions and lots of extra terrain added to Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2.

Microsoft's first foray into combat flight sims is a class act. This sim combines the famous attention to detail seen in Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 with photo-realistic scenery generation and challenging missions. The missions are full of action and the photo-realistic scenery adds to the adrenaline rush whether you're in a dogfight at 5,000 feet or strafing a train at 50 feet! By designing an open architecture sim Microsoft have encouraged 3rd party developers and there are already custom aircraft and missions proliferating on the net.

The third in the series from Microsoft, the sim raised the bar again with a detailed and fast low altitude environment suitable for ground attack missions, and a dynamic campaign. On September 18th 2002 I interviewed Scott Lee, product manager from Microsoft's Aces Studio, and checked out the beta version of Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 3.

An alternate name considered for the product was "Double Trouble: Mustang vs Butcherbird".

Night Raider was released by Acme Software in 1988 (Europe). The same year it was imported and released to the US by Epyx as Dive Bomber.

One of the earliest SVGA sims. Flyable aircraft were the Spitfire, Hurricane, Messerschmidt Bf-109, Messerschmidt Bf -110, Heinkel He-111 and Dornier Do-117. I had an Atari ST at the time and the sim was at least as good (probably better) than the PC version!

Their Finest Hour : Battle of Britain was developed by Lawrence Holland for LucasArts in 1989. George Lucas had been a fan of World War 2 movies since childhood, and the famous dogfight scenes in Star Wars were directly inspired by these films, even down to the gun turret in the Millenium Falcon which was based on the B-17 Flying Fortress.

WWII mobile sim.

Like most Janes sims this one pushed the PC hardware available at the time of it's release (1998) to the limits. A year and a half down the track it ran very well on the average new machine - provided you had a 3D accelerator fitted of course!

Classic WWII simulation of submarine warfare.