Military Flight sims

1942 The Pacific Air War was a World War II air and sea combat simulation from MicroProse -- you could regard it as the spiritual predecessor to the wonderful European Air War. It allowed you to fly in WWII for the US Navy or the Imperial Japanese Navy (an update also gave access to USAAF planes such as the P-40, P-38, and P-51).

"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."

This Mac sim featured fabulous flight modelling and was the predecessor to 1996's A-10 Cuba. Ran fluidly on an average machine in 1996.

A-10 Cuba by Eric "Hellcats" Parker is a fluid and exciting sim which ran well on modest PC's. This sim was one of that rare breed which begged to be flown! The handling from taxiing to landing is pure flight sim joy! The wealth of detail, smoothness and sense of speed added up to an addictive experience The handling from taxiing to landing is pure flight sim joy!

This sim may look primitive today , but bear in mind the the CPU speeds in 1989 were 8MHz, computers had 640k of RAM and there was no dedicated video hardware. To put it in perspective, a standard PC only 10 years later ran at 3,000 MHz with 1,000,000 k of RAM and a video card that is probably more powerful than the host PC!.

One of the first Windows 95 flight sims and sequel to 1989's A-10 Tank Killer.

The Flight Sim Museum sadly remembers Jane's A-10 Warthog, the best sim that never took flight. A-10 Warthog was the greatest sim that never took flight. The crack team at Janes Combat Simulations had the rug pulled out from under their feet just before the 'Hog flew. Sim fans worldwide were bitterly disappointed when, in July 1999, Jane's announced the cancellation of the project. All we are left with are these tantalising glimpses of what may have been.

A fun military aircraft with detailed external model and good sounds.

One of the first sims with air to air refueling. "One of the first sims with air to air refueling. I remember being in afterburner which ate up fuel at an enormous rate. The tanks were little pyramids that shot dots at you as you tried to strafe them." Rob Henderson reported: "A.C.E. Air Combat Emulator by Cascade on the Spectrum 128k. Was a multi-role combat aircraft called the A.W.A.T. (All Weather All Terrain) Combat Aircraft. This could be played as a 2 player sim, with a pilot and weapons systems officer."

Sequel to the very popular ACE and one of the first to feature head-to-head multiplayer. "There was no take-off or landing, you just needed to overfly your base and you got re-armed etc. I do remember it getting quite slow at times - especially if alot of missiles were in flight! It was good as a two player, but not a patch on the original."

An arcade style air combat game played from a 3rd person perspective.

The successor to Ace Combat 2. Third in a popular series of air combat oriented arcade style games.

The fourth installment in this popular series of air combat oriented arcade style games.

The fifth installment in this popular series of air combat oriented arcade style games.

High paced and great looking aerial action which could be a modern 'Strike Commander' if it supported HOTAS and TrackIR. It no doubt serves console players well but excludes itself from the running for those coming from the sim end of the field because of these issues. Bizarrely though, Bandai-Namco did a deal to support a specific Ace Combat model joystick from Thrustmaster. This left me looking forlornly at my top-of -the-range Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS and TRP rudder pedals and wondering why I couldn't join the party? || Eventually I did find workarounds on Steam which allowed my HOTAS and TrackIR to work in the sim.

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."

At the time it was the most complex and popular World War 2 sim available.

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

Part of the most complex and popular World War II sim series of the early 1990s. It had detailed cockpits, different for each aircraft type and some of the most detailed ground objects seen at that time in a VGA sim.

Advanced Tactical Fighters was the sequel to Marine Fighters, and third in the series. It introduced stealth and vectored thrust aircraft. I remember the first time sat in my hom-buil cockpit and booted it up on my 486 DX-66. I leapt into the Grumman X-31 and headed for the clouds. For a while I was convinced there was something wrong with the program because this aircraft just seemed too fast!

"... last game in the AeroWings series, and was also considered the best: quality graphics, very detailed and animated 3D plane models, over 60 planes to fly (including Mig 29, SU27, Mirage2000, Harrier, A10, Tornado, etc.), challenging missions and new original features like the "scramble" mode - a random interception mission where a player must take off, intercept an unknown intruder plane, take pictures to identify it, then return to the base and land to finish the mission. " - Wikipedia

AeroFighters Assault was developed by Paradigm Entertainment and published by Video System Co. Ltd. for the Nintendo in 1997. It was released in Japan as Sonic Wings Assault.

The PC port of this game didn't look as good as the arcade machines, but bear in mind that these were the days of 386 25 Mhz processors and 2 MEG RAM! Although this was definitely an arcade game rather than a sim, it is worth a mention because it had a pretty good moving cockpit in the arcades and probably got many people interested the flight sim genre. 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, you mean like: Afterburner!". It is an iconic game.

Air Combat Classics is a collection of absolute classic flight sims from LucasArts released in 1993. It contained: Battlehawks 1942 | Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe | Their Finest Hour (Battle of Britain).

Air Combat Yugeki-oh II was developed by SystemSoft for the NEC PC-9801 series of PC's in Japan. The player is a mercenary pilot working for the Asian Pacific Economic Network (APEN). "The package contained a 30 page manual and 2 floppy disks. The two floppy drives are necessary to play as it is impossible to install on the Hard Drive. Screen resolution was 640 x 400 pixels and 16 colors. There was a cockpit view only, no external view, and a special mode called the wired scan system for night missions."

Arcade flight sim: Become immersed in the exploits of famous aircraft carriers. Choose the side you want to play on: the US Navy or the Imperial Japanese Navy.'

Arcade flight simulation set in a world war I + II scenario. During the 7 campaigns the player has to fly and fight through 49 missions.'

You are Joe Thompson, an intrepid and patriotic pilot fighting to uphold the values of his country. '

Mobile sim featuring air combat in jet fighters.

"Action combat flight simulator based on the Russian Mi-24 Hind assault helicopter."

Mobile sim featuring air combat in carrier based jet fighters.

Similar in style to the 2000 sim Crimson Skies, Air Power was a sim set in a fictitious land and set your colourful planes against zeppelins and other nasties!

These themed add-ons from Just Flight always had compelling box art. I bought a spare copy just to sit on the bookshelf! The package contained 29 aircraft, scenery and missions for Microsoft Flight Sim 2002 and Microsoft Combat Flight Sim. I found it to be great value and it provided me with many hours of fun.

A scrolling game from the 1970's.

Air Strike USA was published by Digital Integration and released on on the PC in 1985. Really an arcade game rather than a flight simulator it is mainly of interest because the Publisher / Design Team Digital Integration went on to produce some of the finest PC Flight Sims ever to grace screens worldwide. From humble origins grew one of the giants in air combat sim development.

"Don't be misled by its title and the illustration of twin Tornado ADVs soaring across the cover of Psygnosis' latest battle-in-a-box. Air Support is not a screaming, seat-of-the-pants combat flight simulator, It's more like a tedious, and less enjoyable version of their own previous release Armour-Geddon."

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.

Who as a child didn't use their plastic model aircraft to stage furious dogfights? Airfix Dogfighter recreates that simple and joyful world!

One of the best AH-64 Apache sims, published when PC's were really getting some serious processing power.

ARMA may be described as a military | physics | AI sandbox. It supports air, land and sea operations as infantry and in all sorts of vehicles and has a massive user base.

"Combat gameplay in a massive military sandbox. Deploying a wide variety of single- and multiplayer content, over 20 vehicles and 40 weapons, and limitless opportunities for content creation"

"'Arma 3 Helicopters, the second premium DLC for Arma 3, features the highly detailed CH-67 Huron and Mi-290 Taru heavy-lift helicopters, a Sling Loading showcase scenario, and four exclusive helicopter Time Trial challenges. The DLC is complemented by a major free platform update for Arma 3, which lands the new Support MP mode, sling loading, RotorLib, firing from vehicles, and more."

"Fly brand new air-superiority jets and use advanced targeting systems to shoot down the enemy in the Arma 3 Jets DLC."

ATAC (Advanced Tactical Air Command) puts you in the position of group leader of a mixed squadron of F-22's and AH-64's deployed to Colombia by the United States. It required you to plan and fly the missions, thus adding a tactical depth rarely seen in flight sims to that time.

Advanced Tactical Fighter by Digital Integration was an arcade - style flight game released in 1990 on the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC.

UNRELEASED. Lars Gramkow Nielsen reported: "From what I've been able to make out, it was supposed to be released after Falcon 3.0, as the second of the Electronic Battlefield Series sims - of which Falcon 3.0 was the first." My industry sources reported that the main problem was the low altitude rendering of terrain by the graphics engine, which pushed the hardware of the day beyond it's limits.

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.

Back to Baghdad was an F-16 simulation set in the Gulf War (1991) . It was a DOS sim with claims to high fidelity of flight model and weapons systems modelling and was priced about 30% higher than other PC sims at the time. The publishers Military Simulations Inc. went on to specialise in military sims and released no more products for the home market. It was unique in that it supported a second monitor for the radar display - and this while running in DOS !

Adds aircraft and missions, also adds 10 new aircraft designed by Terry Hill.

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.

"Action game that drops players into massive air, sea, and undersea battles from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Players command massive fleet attacks and take direct, real-time, control of every plane, battleship, and submarine in the battle."

"Feel the power of the historically authentic and decisive battles of the Pacific War."

In 1992 16 bit processors had just arrived and we were plunged into an exciting world of flying polygons! The weapons were destructive to any object, no matter what the device or target. I have witnessed a Forger get hit AFTER launching from a carrier by a Mk83 slick released by a B-1B Lancer." Pretty good for a sim that came on ONE floppy disk - 720K !

My first impressions: Black Knight Marine Strike Fighter SE was distributed as a shareware demo in 1995 with some functions disabled. The graphics were VGA (300 x 200). The publisher was FormGen. The flight recorder played back your flight from various angles. It runs very fast on a 486 and is worth a look at as an introduction to jet combat sims. | 1998

"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."

One of the earliest and most addictive real time strategy games, it also had a flight simulation element. A classic sim in it's time which integrated many of the elements of addictive gameplay.

"Carrier Deck is a fast paced time management game where you will play as the Air Officer on board a CVN-76 in the midst of active war."

Mobile sim focussed on carrier landings.

Check Six was the first flight simulation from Pegasus Japan on the NEC PC-9801 Series. In this game the player is a mercenary pilot who gets rewarded for successful missions and can buy aircraft. Screen resolution is 640 x 400 pixels and 16 colors. It gives a similar impression to Air Combat III.

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.

The graphics engine used "Voxel" technology which was a novel way of treating pixels to gain more detail and speed. Rather than applying bitmaps to 3D terrain, each pixel actually contained it's own altitude data. The result was the most exciting terrain seen on a PC to that point in time. It excelled at producing a sensation of low altitude flight.

It was one of the last sims to run in DOS.

"The best-selling Comanche series returns with this fast-paced action game that places you at the controls of a Comanche RAH-66 helicopter."

"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."

2016 simulation of the AV-8B Harrier. This sim could pick up where SVGA Harrier Assault left off in 1992, with a flyable AV-8B Harrier and a dynamic campaign!

"Since 1996, crazed rotor-heads have wanted more of that paranoid, heavy metal, hi-tech thrill-ride that is Longbow 2. FIVE years on and the uber simulation of helicopter combat is still as exciting as it ever was, unfortunately our desktop computers and operating systems have moved on making it difficult at best, impossible at worst, to fly our favourite sim."
Richard "Flexman" Hawley, October 15, 2001

Allowed you to fly the Westland Lynx in a ground Attack role and may have been the first sim to feature 3D terrain with rolling hills?

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."

This collection was published by Microprose in 1997. It contains four of Microprose's best DOS combat flight sims: 1942: Pacific Air War, Falcon 3.0, Fleet Defender and Gunship 2000.

Set in a parallel universe in 1937, the game sets up a world where the USA is divided into small nations and Air Power rules the day. Jordan Weisner has combined elements of the swashbuckling 1930's pulp fiction hero with, in his words "Air Combat with everything taken out except the fun!".

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.

World War I air combat sim optimised for online play.

"Flying Corps Gold is a better game." - Dave Whiteside

Successor to Flanker 1.5, Su-27 2.0, LOMAC and others, this sim continues the mission of presenting a high quality combat flight sim environment. " DCS is a true "sandbox" simulation that is also designed to cover multiple time periods of interest such as WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf War and others."

Delta Wing by Creative Sparks was released in 1984 for the Sinclair Spectrum. It included a special two player version that you play with two Spectrums, two interfaces and two TVs.

I bought the Atari version and was blown away by the smooth and "complex" graphics and variety of gameplay, even though the graphics looked nothing at all like the splash screen, the gameplay being instead state of the art early 1990's shaded polygon models. One outstanding innovation for the time was the inclusion of virtual cockpits with padlock view.

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

EF 2000 first saw the light of day (a gloomy Scandinavian day at that! ) in 1995. It's roots lay in F-29 Retaliator and TFX but it went much, much further, breaking new ground in combat flight fidelity. From engine start, sorry, I mean TWO engine starts, you knew this was a new kind of flight sim experience. Taxiing quickened the pulse as the Eurofighter bobbed and bounced on its suspension. Sunlight glinted through the canopy, wheel brakes on, engine spooled up and the beast was straining at the leash.

"Brakes off and the tyres rumble, 120 knots and the dragon leaps into the air."
Ode to EF 2000 - MiGMan, 1999.

This sim has the finest of pedigrees, based as it is on the best helicopter dynamic campaign engine ever built.

Enemy Engaged: Apache vs. Havoc had arguably the most successful modelling of dynamic battle environments ever seen on a PC in the 1990's. It featured not one, but two of the premier Helicopter Gunships, created in stunning detail and placed in dynamic combat environments. The world of EECvH is so dynamic and interesting that it invites you to get in there and look around, beyond the attraction of flying missions. It really set a gold standard for this kind of sim environment that has still not been matched some 20 years later.

It was early April 2000... and two of the world's most fearsome helicopter gunships landed on home PCs worldwide. One of the best pieces of news to me was that 'Enemy Engaged: Comanche vs Hokum' is backward-compatible with Enemy Engaged - Apache vs Havoc, meaning you still have access to the campaigns and flyable helos from AvH. That of course is if you have AvH installed - if you don't, and you have a PC 300 Mhz or faster and a 3D graphics card, then run out and get it!

The AA radar allows real intercepts to be made, commonplace in combat sims but a first for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

In 2001 Digital Image Design (DID) released Eurofighter Typhoon, an accessible and immersive simulation of tactical jet combat.

Eurofighter Typhoon for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

15 new missions and enhanced weather effects enhance the sim - but the real value lies in the inclusion of the original Eurofighter Typhoon and the excellent strategy guide in the package. The Eurofighter Typhoon - Operation Icebreaker CD contains the original Eurofighter Typhoon and a new scenario set immediately after the original campaign. It also adds rain, snow, lightning, Carrier Operations, Windows WP compatibility, New multiplayer games, Enhanced declutter HUD mode, Stealth radar mode. The new scenario starts after the Eurofighter Typhoon campaign and assumes that you lost Iceland to the Russians. Based on an aircraft at the North West tip of Iceland you are thrown in the deep end with frantic air combat from the first mission. I think the difficulty level is way too high to begin a campaign. After struggling through the first 4 missions, and aided by the excellent strategy guide, I decided to replay the original campaign first.

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.

The Software Toolworks is an established developer of games: board, simulation, adventure. They needed a flight sim in their catalog, and Particle Systems did for them. The game was called Evasive Action, a curious choice in 1994, when flight sims were on the rage. Evasive Action proposed four different scenarios: 1917: The Great War, 1942:WWII, The Air Dominance Era, 2064: Space Combat.

F1Tornado was released in 1990 for the Sinclair Spectrum. Once of the intro screens, curiously, shows a profile view of an F-4 Phantom II.

F-117A Stealth Fighter has been referred to as "the mother of all sims" due to the many innovations it presented and the atmospheric way the sim is presented. It set standards of game-play which have probably never been exceeded.The sim was a major enhancement and re-release of F-19 (1988) by Sid Meier. F-117A runs very well on a 386 and is a "thinking person's sim" emphasising tactical thinking over reflexes.

The opening scenes to this 1990 flight sim from Activision are an accurate time capsule! The PC hardware of the day was only capable of displaying a limited number of polygons and colours, and the sound made good use of the latest sound card technology. Note that in the game you could also fly in cockpit view.

F-15 by Janes had to be the strike fighter sim of the Millenium! Although it does have a formidable Air to Air capability in terms of Radar and ordnance, the F-15E is about half way down the ladder in manoeuverability... not a dogfight machine! But for fans of the Strike Aircraft community... F-111, A-6 Intruder, Tornado... 1998 was hog heaven!

The original code for this flight sim weighs in at a hefty 53 K. That is NOT a misprint, not 53Mb or 53 Gb. To put it in perspective, that is the size of an email. This was one of the first sims published by Microprose and launched many a lif-long fascination with flight and flight simulation.

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 III was a ground breaking simulation of the premier Strike Fighter and one of Microprose's greatest achievements. It was also one of the few sims that enabled two people to fly in the same aircraft over a network, in this case as pilot and Weapons Systems Operator.

Boasting one of the most advanced flight models seen in a consumer flight sim. F-16 Aggressor unfortunately had it's development cut short.

The simple graphics of this sim belie the amount of information it presented to the pilot in real time, a milestone achievement for flight sims of the era. I first played it in the 1980's on an Atari ST. I used to fly on instruments most of the time and play with the comprehensive information available on the 3 Multi-Function Displays. It was the first flight sim with a dynamic battlefield.

An obscure sim, this was Gilman Louie's Falcon project before the 'original' Falcon.

This sim continued the legendary legacy of Tornado and brought it into the age of 3DFX graphics. Also released as iF-16.

The box art shows an F-16, unlike the splash screen which shows an imaginary AV-8B with twin tails!

F-16 Multi Role Fighter by Novalogic combined a lightning quick graphics engine with accessible gameplay.

Mobile sim focussed on carrier landings.

F-19 Stealth Fighter was the first version of the wildly successful release "F-117A Stealth Fighter". The smoothly profiled aircraft you can see on the box was based on aerospace industry observer's best guesses about what the mysterious 'Stealth Fighter' actually looked like. Bear in mind that the F-117 was flying in secrecy for about 10 years before the general public got a look at it! Quite a remarkable achievement. The Atari version had digitised sounds, I distinctly remember the "click" of the recon camera. The manual was probably the largest and most informative we had ever seen for a flight sim. Playing this sim on my Atari ST prompted me to get back into scale modelling, so I went out and bought a 1/72 scale F-117 model, which although more accurate in general shape than the F-19 guesses, still wasn't quite right, being too short and stubby.

F22 Air Dominance Fighter by Digital Image Design was the most extensive attempt to recreate the modern air combat environment seen on a PC.

Notable Features Edward Lerner also wrote Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer.

Follow up to Novalogic's best selling F-22 Lightning II.

First in Novalogic's successful and fast paced F-22 series.

Novalogic's first F-22 sim from the era of DOS and pre-3DFX.

Total Air War (TAW) is an aptly-named product. More than a combat flight simulator, it offers a strategic component based on modern air warfare theories first applied in the 1991 Gulf War. In addition to a detailed simulation of the F-22 fighter, TAW simulates a near-future war in the Red Sea region (northeast Africa and Saudi Arabia). It does so many things so well, that the player could easily concentrate on any of several single aspects of the sim and still find a lot of depth and fun.

F-22A for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. | Very nice and predictable with a fluidity to the flight model that enhances immersion. Probably one of the smoothest in the landing regime with no hiccups or quirks. This makes it a pure pleasure to fly. The cockpit is 5 -star accommodation with great, unobstructed visibility.

The graphics were detailed by the standards of the day, with cities, bridges, roads, islands, mountains and moving vehicles.

Graphic Simulation's F/A-18 3.0 sim set new standards of fidelity and was playable on an average PC! It was actually released on Mac first, unusual for flight sim nowadays but back then Mac's had better graphics capabilities than PC's.

IOS sim from the makers of a long line of PC and Mac F/A-18 sims. Based on F/A-18 Korea

Released in 1988 by Electronic Arts, F/A-18 Interceptor was written by Bob Dinnerman who founded the enormously successful Jetfighter series.

Jane's F/A-18 (JF18) is the successor to their magnificent F-15 simulation. It models the US Navy's next-generation F/A-18E Super Hornet in great detail. As the F/A designation suggests, the Super Hornet is built for both Fighter (Air-to-Air) and Attack (Air-to-Ground) missions. In this sim, you operate your F/A-18 from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in the Arctic Sea, flying missions over Russia's North Cape area.

Korea was one of the most realistic flight sims around 1n 1997 and it ran very well on a modest (Pentium) system. Royal Australian Air Force pilots regard this sim as a very accurate portrayal of the Hornet flight model. The flight model was one of the most fluid around and energy management in a dogfight became a desperate necessity! This sim was worth buying just for the in-game training tutorials. The Hornet was conceived from the word go as a dual-role aircraft, hence the designation F/A-18, which means Fighter-Attack. It was meant to supplement the role of the F-14 Tomcat, providing shorter range Air defense and to totally replace the A-7 Corsair and A-6 Intruder.

This sim reflects the dual role with an incredible array of Air-to-Ground weapons and systems. It was an updated and 3DFX enabled version of F/A-18 3.0.

Enhanced version of F/A-18 Korea, which was originally developed by Graphsim and released in 1998.

Enhanced version of F/A-18 Korea, which was originally developed by Graphsim and released in 1998.

This sim demanded your full attention. It detected you were not giving full attention... and then turned around and bit you hard! The computers did their best to fly the plane where you pointed it, but couldn't rescue you from gross errors of judgement like my full loops at low altitude! From a hard-core point of view I like this... it forced you to correct sloppy habits and get into the checklist mentality.. getting into a "landing state of mind" when landing... not dwelling on the fantastic dogfight you just had / didn't have. This indeed is the essence of creating an immersive sim!

Falcon was created for the Atari ST, IBM PC and Commodore Amiga and Apple Mac by Gilman Louie's Spectrum Holobyte team in 1987. In Falcon you piloted the F-16A Falcon on 12 preset missions. Falcon was my initiation into hard-core simming and like many others, I've only looked back since to check six.

An iconic flight simulator, Falcon 3.0 pushed the boundaries of air combat sims. It had all the features anyone could dream of at the time and the gameplay was riveting, with dynamically generated missions. It was also demanding on hardware, needing a 486 with a maths co-processor to run the "High-Fidelity Flight Model".

Falcon 4.0 was probably the most ambitious air combat sim ever attempted, with a full scale war on the Korean peninsula being modelled. From a problematic beginning - with several patches released before the development team was disbanded by Hasbro to a glorious maturity with user supported development, Falcon remains an iconic sim.

Under the stewardship of sim veterans Graphsim and Falcon 4.0 experts Lead Pursuit, Falcon 4.0: Allied Force keeps alive the seminal combat flight sim dynasty which originated in the late 1980's.

Flag bearer of flight simulation's most distinguished dynasty, this release is a heavily modded version of 1998's Falcon 4.0.

Strike Aces was also titled 'Fighter Bomber' was released in 1990 on the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and PC. It was published by Activision and Accolade. The sim was set in a bombing competition inspired by Gen. Curtis LeMay's training events. It featured an unusual mix of flyable aircraft: F-4 Phantom , F-15E Strike Eagle, F-111 Aardvark, MiG-27 Flogger, RAF and Luftwaffe Tornado and the Saab Viggen.

Fighter Pilot was the first combat flight simulation from the British developer Digital Integration. The game earned the distinction of being the first attempt at simulating the undoubtedly complex F-15 Eagle interceptor. Not a very impressive attempt by today’s standards, but in 1983 the coding was fairly complex and the result quite respectable. 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. - MiGMan thanks Marc Pajak for the overview.

One of the very first Russian authored sims to reach the western market. The sim had good scenarios, a variety of aircraft and was oriented towards multiplayer. The graphics requirements proved too much for my hardware (this was pre 3DFX) and my copy ended life as a hangar queen.

Fighters Anthology brought the DOS sims US Navy Fighters, Marine Fighters, Advanced Tactical Fighters, NATO Fighters and the Windows sim USNF '97 into one collection under Windows. It gave you over 100 different aircraft types to fly! It was the culmination of an ambitious series which bought hours of fun to flight sim fans the world over. A great introductory sim series. It was extremely ambitious in scope and I for one spent many hundreds of hours in the virtual skies of this series. The method of presenting flight information in user defined windows still hasn't been improved on 10 years since the series started. The reference CD is worth the price alone.

"This is a real-time flight and landing simulator for a small plane similar to a Cessna. You're approaching the air strip, and must use your instruments and the view from your cockpit to land safely. You control pitch (angle with the ground), yaw (angle about the plane's vertical axis), and power with your joystick. You may choose flying conditions and decide whether or not to use your instruments. Overall, this is an excellent and convincing simulation." - Synopsis courtesy of Digital Antic Project.

One of the crowning achievements in the Golden Decade of flight sims which presaged the fluidity and detail we would take for granted in the years ahead.

A high fidelity sim of Naval and Navy Air Operations set in the early 2000's.

Fleet Defender, released in 1994 by Microprose, was the most thorough treatment of Carrier Fleet Defense ever seen to that date on a personal computer. The graphics were VGA 320 x 200 and based on the F15 Strike Eagle III graphics engine. This sim gets about as much detail as it's possible to get out of VGA.

"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."

Flight of the Intruder, released in 1991, is one of the classic combat flight sims of all time! It was developed by two teams, one in the USA and one in the UK. Flyable aircraft were the A-6 Intruder, F-4 Phantom, MiG-21 - this was the first time I got to fly a MiG-21! I remember flying head-to-head against my brother - he in the F-4 Phantom and myself in the MiG-21. Somehow he could always tell which aircraft was piloted by me despite my best efforts to send in the drones first! Until Falcon 3.0 was released, Flight of the Intruder led the pack in features. I remember getting FOTI for the Atari ST, sometime after I came across Falcon, and being amazed at the depth of the simulation, especially the mission planning options.

Flying Nightmares was eagerly awaited for years. Well, at least I was waiting for! It was set to be an evolution of "SVGA AV8B Harrier Assault", with more detail in the Real time Strategy elements. There was an excellent version released for the Apple Mac... but not PC!

"Air-combat action game based on the true events of America’s secret volunteer squadrons that defended China against Japan in the China-Burma-India theatre of World War 2."

Collection containing four titles by Digital Integration: F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-16 Fighting Falcon Afghanistan Campaign, Hind, Apache Longbow.

In Gunship there were no external views available, just a cockpit with a bedazzling array of engine sensors and weapons displays. Engine start left, Engine start right then drop the clutch to start the rotors spinning. Collective up and the rotor blades bite savagely into the air. With a leap and whoops, you're airborne! 1987 had never been more exciting!

Gunship 2000 was an Apache Gunship sim released in 1991 by Microprose. As usual with their products, a strong sense of atmosphere was maintained by seamless menu screens and music. You could also fly the A H-1 Cobra, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, MD 530MG, UH-60 Blackhawk, RAH-66 Comanche and AH-64B Apache Longbow. 1998: "If you only have a 386 and want some exciting chopper action then get this!"

One of the last great sims from Microprose, this reprised their 1988 and 1991 AH-64 Apache simulations and took full advantage of the relatively new technology of 3D graphics acceleration.

"You'll never get closer to the real thing. Your only other option would be to join the Air Force". So sayeth the box blurb from Microprose's 1992 Harrier Jump Jet sim. In the early 90's PC's had finally come into their own as games machines, with Sound Cards and powerful CPU's of the 386 variety! Harrier Jump Jet pushed the machines of the day with it's smooth rolling terrain. Those were the days! A 270 page manual printed on glossy stock and well bound in a size ideal for throne room reading. As well as heaps of tables detailing air-to-ground weapon effectiveness there was diagram after diagram on air combat manoeuvres. Not to mention the 3 full - colour maps!

Harrier Jump Jet 2002 adds 20 aircraft including Harriers, Skyhawks, Mirage and Pucara to Microsoft Combat and Civil flight sims. It also contains a 20 mission campaign for Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 1 and 2. The lack of 3 essential elements in the Harrier dogfight - VIFFING, IR and Radar guided missiles and appropriate countermeasures makes you wonder why bother trying to recreate this scenario? Having said that, I nonetheless had a lot of fun with this package. This exhibit serves as a good snapshot of the state of graphics in 2001 within the world of Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002.

Mobile sim focussed on military rotary wing operations.

"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."

Hind campaigns were based in Korea, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. The flight model felt very smooth and responsive. All in all, Hind is one of the shining lights in the firmament of combat flight sims.

Mobile sim focussed on WWII aircraft, in particular landing and carrier operations.

Homeworld is a Real Time Strategy game set in space, with full 3D combat modelled.

iF-16 by Digital Integration (1997) iF-16 was developed by Digital Integration and published by Interactive Magic in 1997. The fact that this sim was also released as F-16 Fighting Falcon had me confused for quite a while. But that's just me!

The graphics were of the first generation of sims that used 3DFX cards and satellite mapping techniques.

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."

An arcade style game which looked spectacular in 3DFX. The Harrier featured prominently throughout.

The program was entirely written in Spectrum's BASIC.

"Interdictor marked the studios first release in 1989 and is credited as the first flight simulator to be released for the Acorn Archimedes. Interdictor put you at the controls of a fighter plane heading towards enemy lines, your mission was to push the enemy away from their location by taking over its airfields one by one and eventually destroying their headquarters. Beyond rewarding the player for their mastery of the flight controls, strategic elements were included involving details like demolishing bridges to prevent supply trucks from crossing and keeping an eye out for ships moving up-river with supplies to repair them. The depth of the game was unparalleled at the time and was critically acclaimed for being ‘as near to the real thing as you could get’. British publication The Micro User stated ‘The realism is stunning’." - from guildford.games/developers/simis

"... one of the first flight simulators to ever feature 3D terrain, utilising the powerful new ARM processors of the day. Interdictor 2 was built with a complete set of proprietary object and world building tools, which later went on to find a life of their own as Flight Sim Toolkit.’" - from guildford.games/developers/simis

IAF is an utter blast with just the right balance of accessibility and challenge. The ability to change aircraft during a mission turned out to be a real fun factor accelerator. Highly recommended.

"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

If EA/Janes had literally rebooted the mission content of their own US Navy Fighters sims into this game engine they would have had a blockbuster. Instead we are left with arcade style scenarios with swarms of enemies and unlimited fictitious weapons. What a missed opportunity. The PC sim crowd expects more, especially from a sim with the Janes name attached. Undoubtably a good contender in the console arena, but I found it a disappointing end to the Janes Combat Simulations legacy.

In October 2001 Xicat Interactive signed an agreement with Jane's Information Group to continue the military games suspended by Electronic Arts. This included the much anticipated Jane's Attack Squadron by Mad Doc Software , which had been sidelined for a year.

Michael Woodley developed the scenery for Flight Simulator II. He recalls: "The game 'Jet' was developed by Charles Guy using Bruce Artwick's technology. He adapted it for the IBM-PC. I don't recall any version of it for any other platform but that was years ago so it may have slipped my memory. It had the interesting feature of being able to run Scenery Disks developed for Flight Simulator." My readers found several cross-platform editions, check out the exhibit for more info.

"As far as I know, this was the only computer simulation based on the Lightning aircraft. Had it been fully developed much earlier, it might have been a useful training aid for the RAF. It could have helped ground radar operators and controllers appreciate the pilots problems, etc." | Jet Pilot was a high fidelity air combat sim developed and published in 1996 by Vulcan Software for the Commodore Amiga platforms.

"September 8, 1998. KESMAI'S JET WARRIOR - VIETNAM, the latest installment in the legendary Air Warrior flight simulator series will recreate the aircraft and campaigns of the Vietnam Conflict."

Jetfighter FullBurn was a standalone expansion of Jetfighter III. It had Russian and U.N. Forces, and you could fly for either side. It continued the Jefighter tradition of fast and furious action within a storyline. Four CD's with lots of full-motion video in the campaigns added to the atmosphere and sense of a storyline. Campaigns were set in the Nordic states and the terrain corresponded impressively closely to real-life operational navigation charts (ONC). Verdict: very atmospheric and a lot of fun.

Fluid flight modellling and carrier landings combined with dogfighting in the F-22 and YF-23 made Jetfighter II an incredibly popular combat flight sim.

JetFighter III, released in 1997 was probably the last of the great DOS Combat Flight Sims. It was one of the first to support the 3DFX chipset and portrayed very detailed terrain... but still ran at a playable speed! The Navigation and Weapon systems were simple in operation so you could concentrate on turnin' and burnin'.

Fourth in line of one of the most popular combat flight sim dynasties, JetFighter IV returned to the San Francisco scenarios of 1988's "Jetfighter: The Adventure" and thus provided a neat summation of where graphics had evolved to by the end of the 20th century.

First in a long line of popular combat flight sims on the PC.

JetFighter V was released in 2003 under the title of "Jetfighter". It is a stunning looking sim which still serves the purpose of providing an action arena for neophytes to the genre, but old hands will be frustrated by the lack of controls and options.Unfortunately the Jetfighter dynasty seems to end not with a bang but a whimper. It's as if there were two design teams - one who set out to make a fully functioning virtual cockpit and one who vetoed the implementation - the whole sim is like that. Heaps of potential but nothing much is finished.

Probably the first sim to feature the F-35 as the main player aircraft.

Harrier sim from 1987.

Belonging to a small group of flight sims that gave you real-time tactical control of a campaign, the sim used the same graphics engine as AV-8B Harrier Assault except that it only ran in 320 x 300 resolution. This was hard to understand as the campaign system and other features were pretty much the same.

Sporting what was probably the most detailed low level environment ever seen in a flight sim, the sim looks fantastic and should have been a flagship product for the publisher. Sadly it was released without fanfare and at a budget price in April 2000. Unfortunately an early build of the code appears to be the one shipped to consumers.

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

Korean Combat Pilot recreates aerial encounters during the Korean conflict 1950 - 51. There are two campaigns, I flew the North Korean Campaign in the year 2000. TIPSelect unlimited fuel in the menu to avoid problems with warping and with your wingman's fuel supply.

Korean War is a series of campaigns for Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (1998) created by Mike Eustace and Doug Attrell. Download all the packs at www.simviation.com.

Lago's F-16 Falcon Collection gives you the choice of several different variants including a few 2 seaters (D model) and some of the most recognisable and colourful paint schemes.

The cockpit is simple looking now, but in 1990 it was state of the art! You could configure the MFD's to your taste as well. You could fly the Apache, Blackhawk, Osprey or the LHX. The Boeing Osprey VTOL which was featured in the novel "Hammerheads" by Dale Brown . This was the only simulation of the Osprey until the year 2000.

"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."

The sequel to the acclaimed air combat sims: Su-27 Flanker 1.5, Flanker 2.0 and Su-27 Flanker 2.5.

Longbow from Janes was released in 1996 and remains possibly the most immersive simulation of the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter.

Longbow 2 has a more sophisticated campaign engine than Longbow, giving you the ability to preview Allied missions, alter waypoints and arming and select which choppers will be flown.

MACE(Modern Air Combat Environment)is a physics-based, full spectrum Computer Generated/Semi-Automated Forces (CGF/SAF) application with a large and user-extensible order of battle, capable of many-on-many simulation yet having very high fidelity at the engagement level.

Mobile sim focussed on operations of the Italian Navy, including fixed and rotary wing operations.

Marine Fighters was an add-on pack to US Navy Fighters. It added 4 new player aircraft and a campaign set in the Kurile Islands. Marine Fighters was an add-on pack to US Navy Fighters. It added 4 new player aircraft and a campaign set in the Kurile Islands.

Mayday! Mayday! is an expansion pack for Microsoft Flight Simulator '98 released in 1999 by Take 2 Interactive and created by John Waller. Overall this is a very well presented package with generous supporting material. It is made more immersive with the voice-overs. Engaging in this kind of directed activity in MSFS 98 gives a sense of purpose to your flights and creates a sense of urgency, especially when you are responding to "Mayday! Mayday!".

Based on the popular Sci Fi mech warrior board game franchise this first foray into PC games was a challenging RTS style implementation.

A great RTS Mech game that was challenging to run on the hardware available at time of release.

Megafortress was based on the novel "Flight of the Old Dog" by Dale Brown.

Add-on to Falcon 3.0 which enabled you to fly head to head MiG-29 vs. F-16 as well as containing full campaigns for the MiG-29. A good snapshot of 3-D modelling in the early 1990s.

The "Soviet Super Fighter" is what we called it in the 1980's. Modelled here by Deimos. The cockpit interior has bland textures, however that's irrelevant to me because I use a physical cockpit. BUT - it's in the flight model that the MiG wins! Fantastically fluid and responsive. Does it perform accurately at the extremes of the envelope? Well, (1) I wouldn't really know and (2) I don't think ANY of the ac do, and that's down to limitations of the sim's flight modelling. I also enjoy the engine sounds, which use at least 3 different frequencies and change as you move around the airframe. Great fun.

In 1990 the MiG-29 had only just been revealed to the west at the Farnborough Airshow. It seemed to be a sexy mystery machine which could perform spectacular manoeuvers such as the "tailslide" and "cobra". Despite only having 6 missions, this sim bought countless hours of fun to flight sim fans on multiple platforms.

The sim ran as smooth as silk on Pentium 233MMX with 64 MEG of RAM. ( No 3D accelerator) and looked great. With a Banshee card the framerate seemed to double and the object detail is spectacular. Smoke trails are thicker, and the framerate doesn't seem to slow even at 1024 x 768 resolution.

MiG-29 Fulcrum (Domark) with updated menus and more content on the PC.

MiG Alley is a simulation of Air Combat operation in the Korean War June 1950 to January 1951. MiG Alley achieved very close to a perfect blend of action and graphical realism as a simulation of the air war in the Korean conflict. In November 2001 Rowan released the source code, so expect the sim to keep developing in the hands of dedicated fans.

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.

Sequel to Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (1998). Set in the Pacific Theatre WWII, it significantly upgraded the graphics and fidelity of the series.

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.

Part of the most popular combat sim franchises in the 1990s, NATO Fighters had the biggest line-up of flyable aircraft ever seen in a combat sim to that time.

Navy Strike was developed by Empire and published in 1995. It was a DOS based sim released which combined Strategy and piloting.

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.

"The game features first-person views from the aircraft cockpit, as well as from cameras mounted on remotely controlled weapons. The views are rendered in flat-shaded polygons. The aircraft are equipped with heads-up displays as well as working instrument panels."

The official expansion to Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, it is a first person perspective military sim which also enables you to fly military helicopters and aircraft.

Richard Leszczynski, who provided the scan, had a valid question: "Why the F-14 on an advertisement for a Harrier sim?"

Added flyable aircraft, objects, scenery and bases to Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (1998). There was also a downloadable version available for Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2.

"The game is based on the military career of a US serviceman, who takes part in a Pacific Air campaign. Commencing in the Pearl Harbor battle as a second level serviceman in lower rankings, the objective is to fulfill all upcoming missions."

Proflight was the first flight sim I had seen since the Apple ][ in 1982. I had bought an Atari ST to arrange and print music for my string quartet and included in the package was a demo of this amazingly fluid sim, running at 600 x 400 pixels (in monochrome). There began my true flight sim addiction.

An action-sim-lite which satisfies the need to turn and burn!
Just don't expect to land... or take off. But that's par for the course with this genre. HOTAS are easy to configure, this should be a role model to other developers in the combat-sim-light space. If TrackIR was supported natively it would be perfect in that regard. Project Wingman does what it sets out to do, providing a console oriented shooter with heaps of eye candy and a massive quantity of ordnance!

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!

MiGMan thanks Francisco J. Campos for the screenshots.

WW I dogfighting, a campaign of over 40 missions and the ability to fly 33 different aircraft made this a very successful sim.

One of the first 3D flight sims to take advantage of the 3DFX Voodoo graphics accelerator cards, which were new technology in 1998. Red Baron 3-D is an engrossing recreation of the air wars over France in WW1. The style of presentation can't fail to educate as it entertains. With British, American, French and German services to fly in and a full complement of planes it represents hours of flying fun.

Uses the graphics engine from Jetfighter 5.

"Red Skies over Europe' puts you in the seat of a fighter plane during the action packed Eastern Front conflict between the Axis Luftwaffe and the USSR Air Force during World War II."

"Red Skies over Europe' puts you in the seat of a fighter plane during the action packed Eastern Front conflict between the Axis Luftwaffe and the USSR Air Force during World War II."

MiG-15 campaign set during the early stages of the Korean War in 1950/51.

"Pilot legendary aircraft of the early years of aviation, French Spad 13, German Albatros D.Va and Russian built Nieuport 17, in the free-to-play Rise of Flight United! " - Steam

One of the first air combat flight sims to use the brand new 3DFX graphics accelerator technology.

Freeware sim.

20 mission campaign set in the Korean War - 10 missions flying the F-86 for the USAF and 10 missions flying the MiG-15 for the North Korean / Chinese / Russian forces. The missions are conveniently grouped in Air to Air and Air to Ground categories which I like. It gives you a chance to get into the rhythm of a particular role.

"Skychase was a simple dogfight simulator where you flew against a computer or another human player using a split screen, like Topgun."

Arcade shooter with a fictional Jet Fighter shooting alien spaceships and tanks. Notable for it's cockpit viewpoint and that it ran smoothly on an Apple ][. In 1985 this represented a high watermark on a home computer or console. The glory days! Can they ever return?

The NATO codename for the Sturmovik is FrogFoot. Who picks these names? I know, a committee. Ian Boys tells me that the Russian codename Sturmovik translates as The Assaulter or The Attacker and is used both of the Su-25 (and earlier the IL-2) in particular and of ground attack aircraft in general. The Su-25 has been sadly neglected by game designers. The next one appeared as a footnote in Janes' NATO Fighters. Hands up all those who want a new Su-25 sim !! ... mmm, not probably enough unfortunately, considering we can't even get an A-10 Warthog sim, and that aircraft is a household name compared to the Frogfoot. This sim probably runs well on a 386, it screams along on a 486 or above. You'll need a utility such as mo'slo to run it on a Pentium. - MiGMan (ca. 1999)

Strike Commander was a revolutionary flight sim and one of the all-time best selling. The strong story line and role-playing elements meant that it's appeal extended far beyond that market segment whose main interest lay in the simulation aspects.

Second release under the solo banner of Third Wire, led by seasoned developer Tsuyoshi Kawahito.

"Strike Fighters 2 Complete Edition is a collection of the entire Strike Fighters 2 series (over $400+ value!) including 5 games, 2 expansion packs, and 29 DLCs all in one single, easy-to-install package!"

"Hypothetical World War III scenarios - Cold War Gone Hot - where the Soviet Red Army invades West Germany."

"Intense air combat experience in the skies over Middle East during three major historical conflicts - 1967 Six-Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, and 1982 Lebanon."

"1979 hypothetical "Cold War gone Hot" scenario - what if the Soviet Union had decided to invade West Germany in 1979? Join the US Navy and USS Nimitz Carrier Battle Group sent to reinforce the Iceland defense, protect the carrier from Soviet long-range bombers, and strike the Kiev battle group of the Soviet Northern Fleet!"

"Join the United States Air Force, Navy or Marines, and fly historical missions from the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1964-68 and the hard-hitting Linebacker I and II campaigns of 1972."

Third Wire Productions was formed by ex EA/Janes and Microprose programmer Tsuyoshi Kawahito. Their first sim was called 'Project 1' and focussed on the "classic" jets of the 1950's and '60's. After signing with a publisher in 2002 the sim was renamed to 'Strike Fighters Project 1'.

Su-27 Flanker was designed by a team of Russian programmers to run on 386 and low end 486 machines. The project was taken on by SSI and revised to SVGA graphics resolution. The Russian designers didn't have access to the faster PC's, and as a result their code was very efficient and it ran very smoothly despite being state of the art! The" sim recreateds the Crimean peninsula in great detail and pits you, in the Su-27 Flanker, against the latest Russian and NATO aircraft, armour, ships and SAMs. All control surfaces move during flight and the attention to detail is extraordinary!"

Su-27 Flanker 2.0 was released for Xmas 1999 and this major upgrade was released as a free download in 2001.

Su-35 was being developed by a Russian team of programmers.

"Super AirCombat was the successor to AirCombat III. It was the first Windows version of Systemsoft's AirCombat series. It seems to fly by miracle force from another universe. The shape of level flight envelope is far different from real aircraft." - Satoshi "Bin" Hiranuma.

Super Huey II added extra missions to 1985’s "Super Huey". Renegade, Brush Fire, Gulf of Terror, Arctic Rescue and Oil Blaze.

This was the first SVGA sim, which meant that instead of VGA graphics of 320 x 200 pixels, we now had 640 x 400. The visuals were similar to what we had previously only seen in military simulators and were rendered in a beautiful set of pastel colours. SVGA Harrier had immense replay value as the campaign never played the same twice, and it was entirely up to you as to how you won the ground war. Or didn't. SVGA Harrier had immense replay value as the campaign never played the same twice, and it was entirely up to you as to how you won the ground war. Or didn't. This was the first sim I connected to MiGMan's home-built cockpit, and I spend night after night flying it, in the dark and with a flight suit, helmet and nomex gloves!

Team Apache was a fun chopper sim which gave a real adrenaline rush as you flew nap-of-the-earth, (hopefully) avoiding enemy fire and pounding enemy locations with rockets. It was one of the earliest 3DFX sims and looked gorgeous. Brian Walker, a US Army helicopter pilot, was involved with the development.

TFX is an acronym for 'Tactical Fighter Experimental'. When you look at the graphics available in the other early combat flight sims it is easy to see why TFX caused so much excitement on it's release. The flight model could be adjusted from 'arcade' to 'military' and play modes ranged from arcade levels to the "UN Commander" mode. As UN Commander you planned missions, selected the aircraft and flew the Eurofighter, F22 or F117 Stealth Fighter.The later versions run straight from CD Rom and in a DOS box under Windows '98. It will run very smoothly on a '486 and is strongly recommended for beginners.

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.

"Thunderchopper was available for the PC and Apple II. I've played both. Thunderchopper can actually load Flight Simulator scenery disks! It's also one of the first chopper sims that had rescue scenarios (well, maybe except Super Huey Helicopter Simulator.)" - Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang.

"Experience furious helicopter action in this relentless, adrenaline (and lead) pumped arcade shooter!" - Steam

A good representative of the state of DOS, AMIGA and ATARI flight sims at the beginning of the 1990’s.

Tomahawk was released in 1985 and was one of the earliest attempts to model an Apache Gunship on a personal computer.

Featured a Split Screen, 2 player mode.

Top Gun: Fire at Will was a light sim based on the movie starring Tom Cruise. It was originally released in 1995 then again in the Microprose "Powerplus" series in 1998. The sim introduces the player to basic concepts of Air Combat with plenty of commentary and advice coming from your back-seater and instructors.

Overall a good sim for newbies, more experienced players will probably find it lacking in challenges and want more control over landings and takeoff's.

One of the all-time classic flight sims. The training missions covered every aspect of operating the Tornado and you were wise to work your way through them... this sim gave you more opportunities to "buy the farm" than most! Player aircraft were Tornado IDS (Interdiction/Strike) and Tornado ADV (Air Defense Variant).

Ultra Fighters was a futuristic Combat Sim set here on Planet Earth and released in 1999. Before you play you have to ask yourself, do you have The Right Stuff? In the year 2571 you might find out as a pilot with the Navco mercenary group your job is to rid the Solomon Islands of Zindo forces. Ultrafighters combines the feel and look of a space sim with clouds, hills, vehicles and buildings to attack. If a Space Sim is your style, you get the best of both worlds!

This CD ROM edition contained US Navy Fighters and the 1st official add-on, Marine Fighters.

The sequel to Israeli Air Force and another popular sim from Janes Combat Simulations.

"Vector Thrust is a fast-paced single and mulltiplayer combat flight game, using a unique cel shaded art style." - Steam

"A flight-based action game designed to be easy to pick up and enjoy right away, and be playable over short timeframes." - Steam

"War Thunder is the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, MMO military game dedicated to aviation, armoured vehicles, from the early 20th century to the most advanced modern combat units. " - Steam

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Remastered Edition

WWII mobile sim.