MiG-29 Fuldrum (Domark)

Hell, the game was running interlaced on the AMIGA (and my Atari ST.. MiGMan) and the frame rate was nothing short of stunning, and at that time there was nothing that could match it on IBM-PC platforms.

The Intro screen was too eye-catching...a beautifully drawn bitmap background depicting the Kremlin, together with the towering St.-Basil's Cathedral next to it were setting the player in the right place, at the right time.

Standing in stark contrast with the motionless static background, a 3D MiG-29 would fly-by at regular intervals, performing multiple barrel rolls.

All the mission splash screens were accurately hand-drawn (marvellous work for that time), and portrayed a preview of the mission's plot and geographical location.

All the mission splash screens were accurately hand-drawn (marvellous work for that time), and portrayed a preview of the mission's plot and geographical location.

There were 6 missions, mysterious, challenging, and very atmospheric despite the graphical simplicity of the sim. I remember those incredible dogfights against the VTOL Harriers in Antarctica, and blowing up enemy subs surfacing from cracks in the ice.

Then there was the border war with China, just over the Great Wall against multiple Shenyangs/MiG-21s; the maritime mission where you had to blow up an oil-drilling platform with rockets and bombs (under constant enemy ship fire) was really cool !

The 5th mission took place at night and involved an air-to-ground strike inside enemy territory, where you had to blow up a train (was that the Trans-Siberian railway ?!?), then proceed to reduce an enemy radar/ECM installation to smoking ruins, with bandits taking off from a nearby airfield just behind a mountain range.

Finally, the last mission involved a nuclear power plant that featured a 'corridor' lined-up with pyramid-like structures; countless bandits would sneak-in for surprise attacks...it was no piece of cake, and if I remember well, I completed it only once!

The flight controls were weird; certainly unlike anything I had been used to till then, but real cool! I was flying the thing with the mouse, and believe me, it wasn't easy... the landings were nightmares.

The controls were VERY sensitive ! Sometimes you would wobble your mouse a little bit too much and the Fulcrum was almost getting out of hand; fortunately there was a flight levelling key that returned the aircraft to level flight... much like the 'PANIC' button (PRIVED. K GORIZ in Russian) in the real MiG-29's control stick.

The controls were VERY sensitive ! Sometimes you would wobble your mouse a little bit too much and the Fulcrum was almost getting out of hand; fortunately there was a flight levelling key that returned the aircraft to level flight... much like the 'PANIC' button (PRIVED. K GORIZ in Russian) in the real MiG-29's control stick.

The funny thing was was that once the input had been made, the controls would not revert to neutral, unless you made the necessary corrections manually. So you basically had to be flying the MiG-29 all the time with the mouse, which was actually quite realistic since it reflected the absence of FBW controls.

There was even a special feature...when you pressed the 'X' key you were actually disconnecting the MiG-29's automatic flight control system (AFCS), and entered a very unstable regime of ' supermaneouvrability '.

I remember using this feature many times against those nasty Harriers, especially in tight-circling dogfights where they resorted to VIFFing (Vectoring In Forward Flight).

Take-off and landing were by far not the easiest part... you definitely had to watch out for rotation speed and angle; the same held true for flaring the aircraft prior to touching down with a pitch definitely not exceeding 13 degrees, unless you wanted to scrape the tarmac with your tailpipes and end your career in a ball of fire (for this and other failures/emergencies, the sim was merciless....

A notable feature of the sim was the modeling of black and red- outs, which was pretty well made and occurred at G-loads approaching +9 or -4 Gs.

Avionics and cockpit modeling were kept as simple as possible, yet the sheer oddity of the flight instruments was crucial to putting the pilot in the right 'MiG-29-mystery-mood'. There was a radar scope that displayed radar blips, and had a 'miniature aircraft' bank indicator in its center...if I remember well the detection range must have been around 100 Km, which is quite close to reality.

The MiG-29's weapon load was extraordinarily realistic, with provision for bombs, unguided rockets, R-60 'Aphid' and R-27 'Alamo' AAM's. In some special missions you could also use a guided A/G weapon...I don't remember exactly whether it was a laser/TV-guided bomb or an AGM of the Kh-type.

All in all, Domark's flight sim was state-of-the-art at the time of its release, and can undoubtedly be credited as the the very first MiG-29 simulation ever on a personal computer.