Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!adrian
From: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Good flight simulator for Amiga?
Message-ID: <2066@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Date: 29 Jan 91 22:55:50 GMT
References: <7230@crash.cts.com>
Sender: news@cs.hw.ac.uk
Reply-To: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt)
Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland
Lines: 53

In article <7230@crash.cts.com> critical.mass@pro-graphics.cts.com (Peter Altamore) writes:
>On 24 Jan 91 01:39:56 GMT elson@otc.otca.oz (Elson Markwick) writes:
> 
>>Yeah, I wouldn't mind one a bit different myself.  I get a bit sick of the
>>latest technology type simulators around.  Isn't there *any* where you can
>fly
>>say a Spitfire, with some decent ground fire (NOT just SAMs), do a little
>>balloon strafing, a little bombing, dogfighting (I get *real* sick of just
>>locking the radar onto 'em and launching off an AIM), trench strafing.......
> 
>You do a wonderful job of describing Wings by Cinemaware.  ...
>					   It has ground fire (not SAMs)
>which you can supress, balloon strafing, bombing, dogfighting and trench
>strafing.  It's a masterpiece (IMO).

The snag with Wings is that some of it (dogfighting) is flight simulation,
and some of it (bombing, strafing) is more like a scrolling game.

>There seems to be a recent flood of WWI biplane type simulators lately.
>Their Finest Hour, Wings, Blue Max, and The Red Baron are the one's I can
>think of.  The last two are coming for Ami.

Which version of Their Finest Hour is that?  My version is set in WWII.  It
simulates several different aircraft, and none of them are biplanes.  I suspect
that Elson would enjoy this game, even though there is no trench strafing or
balloon busting, and the only time you see "ground" fire is from ships, and
even that is just decoration - I've yet to see anything get hit by ship's
AA.  You can fly a Spitfire or a Hurricane, and try to shoot down German
bombers while evading (or shooting down) German fighters.  Or you can fly
a German fighter, and try to protect the bombers.  Or you can fly a bomber.
My personal favourite is to fly the Bf110, which allows you to do a bit of
everything.  Aircraft graphics are bitmapped, which means they aircraft are
nicely detailed.  It also means you can see when they change from one view to
another.  The ground, and buildings on the ground, are vector drawn.  One
thing I like about this game when compared to all the jet simulators I've
seen is, enemy weapons do as much damage to you as your weapons do to him.
In too many games, one hit from your weapon destroys the enemy outright,
while a hit on your aircraft just damages it a bit.  In Their Finest Hour,
you need to hit the enemy aircraft a lot before he goes down - and often
enough, he does go down, rather than simply exploding before your eyes.
More variety is provided by the fact that there are several fixed missions
for each type of aircraft, apparently based on real actions from the Battle
of Britain; or you can custom-build your own missions; or you can play a
campaign, in which you get to decide what aircraft (and how many) to use in
each raid (if you're playing the Germans, you also get to decide what to
raid).  Finally, the manual contains a full history of the Battle of Britain,
along with lots of black-and-white photos - the manual alone is almost worth
the price!

 "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk