Strike Force Harrier

"The day was saved though by Strike Force Harrier. I was gobsmacked when I started flying. The manual, small by todays standards was very complex and even had a section on dogfighting ACM.

The cockpit had a modern CRT moving map display which was colour coded for friend or foe ( quite a feat for a Spectrum ) and a quite respectable RWR display as well as a weapons system display. The best thing of all?

A full working HUD.

I think this game was well ahead of its time. You had control of flaps, airbrake/wheel brakes, chaff, flares and VECTORED THRUST!!! The flight model was good enough for you to do VIFFING manoeuvres during combat, and you could do standard, short or vertical take-offs and landings.

It was also the first game I remember where you could communicate with friendly forces who would then move upto the frontline and construct a new landing ground for you where you could re-arm and re-fuel. It also had a basic INS system so you could find your way back to base.

The ground targets were made up of the usual Soviet tanks, mobile SAMS and I recall they could put up a respectable amount of flak. Your main AG weapons were a trio of 1000lb GPB's. The bomb aiming was all by manual CCIP and you had to take into account the min release height or risk getting fragged.

You also had the twin 30mm ADEN cannon, which were good for strafing, but fantastic in dogfighting. Your opponents were MiG-23 FLOGGERS. The sprites were done so that you had Floggers with various wing sweep positions too!

The primary weapon for air combat were a couple of AIM-9L Sidewinders. They actually growled when locked onto a heat source and hummed contentedly when not tracking anything. The sim also gave me an introduction to BlackOuts and RedOuts.

The ground detail was good too, with large triangular hills and mountains, plus various trees and bushes. Higher up, you would go through the cloud layer ( about 10,000ft ASL ) to the Floggers and smaller fluffy clouds.

This game will forever be remembered by me as it gave me my first ever air-air kills - both by guns and missiles. The only thing that was wrong with this game?

No eject. If you got hit, then that was it.