Enemy Engaged Apache vs. Havoc

MiGMan's Combat Diary, 1999

The AH-64 Apache is a perennial favourite in flight-sim land, going back to Gunship (1987), and in the late 1990's one of the first 3-D accelerated flight sims Team Apache (1998) by Simis.

And let us not forget the hight fidelity Longbow by Janes Combat Simulations.

The AH-64 Apache Longbow is modelled in amazing detail in this sim.

Starting from the top - the rotors tilt according to joystick deflection - and they droop and turn in the breeze after engine shutdown! Also note the aerial atop the doughnut shaped Longbow radar.

These images were taken in 1998 using a Creative 3D Blaster Banshee graphics card.

The Mi-28 was my preferred steed in Apache vs Havoc due to it's relatively simple avionics.

The Mi-28 cockpit is excellent with fairly clear instruments and very nice lighting effects. The Heads up display and map (toggle with Enter) provides enough information for most of the situations.

Mi-28N cockpit: Primary flight instruments

This sim has hours of fun in it before you even take off! Those windscreen wipers aren't just "window dressing" either. As I jumped around using F6 and F7 ... to check out the game objects... the weather changed. A rain squall actually swept across and enveloped the carrier, visibility was reduced, the lighting changed... incredible. The red lights on the superstructure cast an eerie glow as the rain swept in.

After I'd finished playing with the wipers - which have two modes by the way - standard (Y) and intermittent (Alt-Y to switch modes), I looked around the cockpit.... wait... who's this guy?

Oh, it's only me! Very neat! It's nice too that the interior colour scheme seems accurate... blue panelling and amber screens are Standard Soviet, sorry I mean Russian issue.