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#4104677 - 04/11/15 11:28 AM F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim  
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Darklight Offline
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Hi, I posted about this in pressurewasherman's Falcon 3.0 thread, but thought perhaps I should start my own thread. I've begun a Let's Play video series about my first 'proper' flight sim - F-16 Combat Pilot for the ZX Spectrum, an 8-Bit computer popular in the UK in the '80s. When I say proper I mean reasonably realistic modelling of systems, weapons, and even a dynamic campaign - all in 1988 and 48k of RAM.

I'm 4 episodes in, trying the 5 'training' missions before hopefully opening up the dynamic campaign.

Edit - series completed - all videos are below.

Intro

Talking about the game & a little free-flight



Scramble!

I attempt to intercept two incoming MiGs



Tank Buster

I kill some tanks, and do a little bit of friendly fire, plus get intercepted while on final approach



Hammerblow

Striking two targets, while sticking very close to the ground to avoid any MiGs intercepting me



I understand this wont be many people's cup of tea, but perhaps there will be people here that are interested in the historical milestones of our hobby smile

If you have any feedback or questions post them here or on YouTube. I'm interested to hear other people's thoughts on retro flight sims - e.g. what was your first sim & what did you think of it?

Edit - I'll add more videos from the series to this post, as well as adding them as a post on the end of the thread:

Deep Strike

Deep behind enemy lines



Watchtower

Recon mission - and the last 'training' mission before I am given command of my own squadron in 'Operation Conquest' smile



Operation Conquest - Mission 01

I begin my career as a Squadron Commander by attacking some tanks at night time



Operation Conquest - Mission 02

Attacking infrastructure this time, and also being bounced by MiGs, and a terrible ending...



Operation Conquest - Mission 03

Taking out an enemy airfield with a Durandal anti-runway bomb



Operation Conquest - Mission 04

More tank busting, not a great ending though



Operation Conquest - Mission 05

Trying another new weapon - anti radar mission against a SAM site. Wont try that again!



Operation Conquest - Mission 06

Lots in this one - attacking ground targets, air to air against MiG 29s, and a belly landing attempt



Operation Conquest - Mission 07

Attacking more ground targets



Operation Conquest - Mission 08

More tank busting



Operation Conquest - Mission 09

More tank busting, plus an undercarriage emergency



Intermission - mid campaign review

I take a look at how the campaign seems to be working behind the scenes, with the aid of a few graphs



Operation Conquest - Mission 10

Operation Runway Rampage - knocking out every enemy airfield on the map



Operation Conquest - Mission 11

More tank killing, the some more targets of opportunity. The map seems to reset at the end of this mission - what could it mean?



Game over!

Figured out I completed operation Conquest successfully, so celebrate by taking down a MiG 29 with guns, and also crashing lots to see the 'lose screen'. Last video in the series.



Last edited by Darklight; 09/04/15 11:59 AM.

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#4104712 - 04/11/15 01:14 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Chucky Online sosad
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Wow,simming on the Spectrum! Brave man. I think the only flight sim I had on my Spectrum 128 was 747 Simulator. Shortly afterwards I bought an Atari ST on which I did play F-16 Combat Pilot.

I look back upon my early days of flight sims with much fondness but they are not easy on the eye 30 years later.


EV's are the Devils matchbox.
#4104814 - 04/11/15 04:57 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Nice videos!

I took a look at F-16 on my blog last year too ...

Jens


"It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."
#4104875 - 04/11/15 06:56 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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I'd recommend Lightning Simulator if you like retro games. Spectrum 48K, fairly realistic flight modelling, controls and graphics for it's day. Damned hard to beat the "war mission" (intercept two seperated Tu22M with escorting MiG23 *before* they hit their targets, with only 2AAM and 30 'frames' of cannon).

G limits, fuel consumption, TACAN navigation, ILS. Changing light levels, cloud etc.

Multiple aircraft types for ACM/DACM or intercept practice. (Tornado, Phantom, F104, Lightning, F111, Victor, Vulcan, SR71, KC135 among others).

#4104936 - 04/11/15 09:17 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Wow. Easy to forget how sims used to look all those years ago. Great videos!

In those days I had an Amstrad CPC and my flight sim of choice was Tomahawk, although I also had a soft spot for Combat Lynx despite its 3rd person camera view (the landscape tech was pretty original).

After that me and my brother got a PC and quickly moved into Falcon (Falcon 1!), F-119, LHX, Su-25 and, last but not least, Gunship 2000.

Thanks for sharing!


Il est plus tard que tu ne crois
#4105026 - 04/12/15 04:29 AM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Capt Haddock]  
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Originally Posted By: Chucky
Wow,simming on the Spectrum! Brave man. I think the only flight sim I had on my Spectrum 128 was 747 Simulator. Shortly afterwards I bought an Atari ST on which I did play F-16 Combat Pilot.

I look back upon my early days of flight sims with much fondness but they are not easy on the eye 30 years later.


Yes, brave and foolish smile I had an ST too, I may do a series on that version of the game to compare the two. Though the ST version is turning out to be a lot harder and much more detailed.

Originally Posted By: jens198
Nice videos!

I took a look at F-16 on my blog last year too ...

Jens


I've been following your blog - lots of great memories! I'm keen to read more if you can get round to it.

Originally Posted By: Lieste
I'd recommend Lightning Simulator if you like retro games. Spectrum 48K, fairly realistic flight modelling, controls and graphics for it's day. Damned hard to beat the "war mission" (intercept two seperated Tu22M with escorting MiG23 *before* they hit their targets, with only 2AAM and 30 'frames' of cannon).

G limits, fuel consumption, TACAN navigation, ILS. Changing light levels, cloud etc.

Multiple aircraft types for ACM/DACM or intercept practice. (Tornado, Phantom, F104, Lightning, F111, Victor, Vulcan, SR71, KC135 among others).


This sounds (& looks) really interesting - thanks for the tip. I really like cold war era planes too.

Originally Posted By: Capt Haddock
Wow. Easy to forget how sims used to look all those years ago. Great videos!

In those days I had an Amstrad CPC and my flight sim of choice was Tomahawk, although I also had a soft spot for Combat Lynx despite its 3rd person camera view (the landscape tech was pretty original).

After that me and my brother got a PC and quickly moved into Falcon (Falcon 1!), F-119, LHX, Su-25 and, last but not least, Gunship 2000.

Thanks for sharing!


I *loved* Harrier Attack on the CPC! I think I had / played Combat Lynx on the Spectrum - really nice graphics. Never played it seriously though. Thats a nice sim history there. I took a break from the hobby after the 16-bit sims (F-19 was my last), and then got back in with IL-2 / ROF & SF2 Vietnam...


Storm Clouds over the Western Front - 2D aerial combat game
#4105064 - 04/12/15 10:44 AM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Harrier Attack! How could I forget. Perhaps not a true sim, but I enjoyed many an hour flying it. What a great game!

I just remembered. There was another little gem in a similar style: Tornado Low Level


Those guys came up with pretty original gameplay ideas those days...


Il est plus tard que tu ne crois
#4105077 - 04/12/15 11:50 AM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Now we are talking! TLL on a speccy looked a bit bland - looked much better on the CPC. From the same guys (Vortex?), and using the same engine - but I think a better game - Cyclone. Not sure if there was a CPC version.



Storm Clouds over the Western Front - 2D aerial combat game
#4105451 - 04/13/15 11:02 AM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Cheers Darklight, watching those videos got me reminiscing and does anyone remember this?



When I could get it to work it was incredible.. on reflection thats not the best video for it!!

Last edited by FieldyHK; 04/13/15 11:05 AM.
#4105456 - 04/13/15 11:20 AM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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That was Domark right? I played Super VGA Harrier on the PC a lot.640 x 480 res!

Do I remember the campaign being dynamic? That was in 1993.My,how our modern flight sims have come along frown


EV's are the Devils matchbox.
#4105501 - 04/13/15 12:55 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Great stuff!



Scully: Victim died of multiple stab wounds.
Mulder: *throws her a file* Ever heard of the knife alien?
#4106295 - 04/14/15 10:23 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Hi guys,

I completed the 2nd to last mission - Deep Strike!



Storm Clouds over the Western Front - 2D aerial combat game
#4108867 - 04/20/15 06:19 AM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Darklight Offline
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Hi, I've added another video to the playlist:



I complete the final 'training' mission - a recon mission - and have now unlocked 'Operation Conquest', the dynamic campaign. I'll start doing some videos based in that campaign shortly.


Storm Clouds over the Western Front - 2D aerial combat game
#4108980 - 04/20/15 12:26 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Very nice. I remember playing this one on my CPC 6128.

thumbsup


"...late afternoon the Air Tasking Order came in [and] we found the A-10 part and we said, "We are going where!? We are doing what!?"

Capt. Todd Sheehy, Hog pilot, on receiving orders during Operation Desert Storm

#4109827 - 04/21/15 10:59 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Darklight Offline
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Thanks for the thumbs up smile I hope its ok I keep updating this thread with new videos?

At last I begin Operation Conquest - the dynamic campaign. I begin by attacking some tanks at night.



Storm Clouds over the Western Front - 2D aerial combat game
#4110852 - 04/23/15 10:12 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Mission 2 of operation conquest - attacking infrastructure this time, and also being bounced by MiGs, and a terrible ending...



Storm Clouds over the Western Front - 2D aerial combat game
#4165076 - 09/04/15 12:01 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Darklight Offline
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Hi everyone I thought I'd let you know I've completed my video series on this game, the rest of the videos can be found below. I successfully forced an enemy surrender in Operation Conquest. Let me know if you've ever managed the same in this game, I'm keen to hear if anyone else played this as much as I have just done! smile

Next video series will probably be on the Atari ST version of the game, so if you are interested in that maybe subscribe to my channel so you get notified.

Operation Conquest - Mission 03

Taking out an enemy airfield with a Durandal anti-runway bomb



Operation Conquest - Mission 04

More tank busting, not a great ending though



Operation Conquest - Mission 05

Trying another new weapon - anti radar mission against a SAM site. Wont try that again!



Operation Conquest - Mission 06

Lots in this one - attacking ground targets, air to air against MiG 29s, and a belly landing attempt



Operation Conquest - Mission 07

Attacking more ground targets



Operation Conquest - Mission 08

More tank busting



Operation Conquest - Mission 09

More tank busting, plus an undercarriage emergency



Intermission - mid campaign review

I take a look at how the campaign seems to be working behind the scenes, with the aid of a few graphs



Operation Conquest - Mission 10

Operation Runway Rampage - knocking out every enemy airfield on the map



Operation Conquest - Mission 11

More tank killing, the some more targets of opportunity. The map seems to reset at the end of this mission - what could it mean?



Game over!

Figured out I completed operation Conquest successfully, so celebrate by taking down a MiG 29 with guns, and also crashing lots to see the 'lose screen'. Last video in the series.



Storm Clouds over the Western Front - 2D aerial combat game
#4165569 - 09/05/15 06:35 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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What an epic journey! salute


Il est plus tard que tu ne crois
#4165580 - 09/05/15 08:28 PM Re: F-16 Combat Pilot - A very retro flight sim [Re: Darklight]  
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Brilliant job.
I never thought the Spectrum version could be so well done! biggrin
Albeit I didn't manage to find the time to watch all of them I still enjoyed what I did see!

I'd love to see an Epyx "Destroyer!" game on C 64.

Or Defcon 5.

wink


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