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Other Sims

In the long run I’d like to have a mini review for each and every flight sim I own. However whilst I’m working on that - here is a list of them all plus a few brief notes

This first table (and currently only table) is for PC titles. Unless otherwise stated the platform is Windows XP - and for the DOS based games I’ve generally tried to get them to run under DOSBox emulation. Note DOSBox has moved on quite a bit since I did some of my testing so its always worth trying the latest standard DOSBox before trying the alternative CVS builds.

The column marked W indicates whether the game has direct support for Wide screen video modes. I have now ‘upgraded’ to a 1.6:1 aspect ratio wide screen monitor and was somewhat surprised to find it stretched traditional video modes to fill the entire screen. Everything still runs - but games which don’t support the wide screen look a little distorted. :-(

Note: All DOS games would suffer from the wide screen issue - but DOSBox has some quite good features for getting around this. I’ve therefore put DB in the W column to indicate the game runs under DOSBox and hence doesn’t have a problem assuming DOSBox is configured correctly.

Please feel free to email any queries/suggestions - but please bear in mind that I’m not necessarily up to speed on all of these.

Title

W

Description/Status

 

 

 

Aces Over Europe

DB

See full review.

Air Offensive

 

Futuristic dogfighting game. Not installed.

Air Warrior II

 

See full review.

Air Warrior III

 

Update to Air Warrior II but with 3D accelerated graphics, more planes, missions etc. Not tested.

Airfix Dogfighter

 

Fly aircraft the size of airfix kits around a house - dogfighting and completing missions as you go. Good fun. Need latest patch to get joystick working.

B-17 Flying Fortress

N

Interesting game where you get to man the various positions of a B-17. Not that easy to master - but graphics are reasonable and you can jump straight into the fight without boring training missions.

Battle of Britain II Wings of Victory

Y

Revamped and re-released version of Rowan’s Battle of Britain. Still a great sim.

Battle of Europe

Y

Arcade style WWII game. Lots of aircraft to fly and 16 missions. Quite an attractive looking game and not bad for a budget title. Lacks a quick combat mode - which means you have to do boring ground attack training missions in order to get anywhere.

Blazing Angels - Squadrons of WWII

 

Arcade style WWII game. Over 30 aircraft to fly and more than 18 missions. Not tested.

Carrier Strike Fighter iF/A - 18E

 

Not installed.

Combat Wings Battle of Britain

Y

Very much a game and not a simulator - but graphically quite appealing and fast and furious game play. Uses mouse for yolk but shame about the bad language as otherwise quite playable for younger children.

Crimson Skies

 

1930s comic book style flying game - lots of fun and happy with XP. Worked fine on my old PC with FX5200 video card but has trouble rendering text on later NVIDIA cards and drivers. Apparently a known issue that is not likely to get fixed ever. Still playable using software rendering though.

Have recently installed on an old DELL laptop with an ATI card (ATI Mobility RADEON 7500C) and works fine. I also tried it on a machine with a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 chipset and this had similar problems to the NVIDIA chipset.

 

Dawn of Aces

 

Use Window 95 compatibility under XP to get 3D menu to work. Very playable.

Dawn Patrol

DB

See full review.

Eurofighter Typhoon

 

Not installed.

European Air War

 

Extensive WWII combat sim.

F/A-18 KOREA

 

Not installed.

F-16 Fighting Falcon

 

Not installed.

F22 RAPTOR

 

By Novalogic. Not currently installed.

Falcon 4.0

N

Classic F-16 flight sim. Superseded by a revamped version - so probably won’t get played again. However does have a very low required spec - so could be useful for older machines.

Falcon 4.0 Allied Force

N

Revamped and re-released version of above. Graphics not quite up to modern standards - but very much a detailed sim and not just a game.

Fighter Pilot

 

Very simple jet fighter game by Electronic Arts - dating to 1998. Easy enough for a child to master and if you have 2 copies - great for a bit of multiplayer dog fighting.

Works on very low spec hardware and doesn’t require an accelerated 3D card at all.Designed for 95/98 but fine on XP.

Flyboys

 

Arcade style WWI sim. More than 10 aeroplanes and 12 single player missions. Official game of the film of the same name. Not tested.

Flying Corps

 

WWI sim. Can be installed under Windows or as a DOS program. No joystick under XP. DOS version did not work under standard DOSBox at the time of testing - but did on the later CVS build dated 14th Feb 06. Still issues with joystick calibration.

Heroes of the Pacific

N

Not installed. Also own PS2 version - looks similar to Secret Weapons Over Normandy.

History Channel Battle of Britain

 

See full review.

IL-2 Forgotten Battles

N

See full review.

Note: Whilst doesn’t support widescreen - can be run in a window which does give correct aspect ratio.

IL-2 Sturmovik

N

See full review.

Jane's Attack Squadron

N

See full review.

Jane's WWII Fighters

 

Designed for W95/98 - but does run under XP. My current PC won’t install it as it seems to have problem with 16bit windows installers. However I have recently installed it on an old DELL laptop with an ATI card (ATI Mobility RADEON 7500C) and works fine.

In the past I’ve tried it on older XP machines with NVIDIA cards but suffered from graphics corruption.

Looks a little dated - but still a good game

Lock On

Y

Decent (and now very cheap) modern jet fighter simulator.

Luftwaffe Commander

 

No joystick under XP.

Microsoft CFS 1

 

See full review.

Microsoft CFS 2

 

Like CFS 1 but better.

Microsoft CFS 3

Y

Good but a bit of a missed opportunity and never had the following CSF 2 had. Lost out to IL2

CFS 3 was released 2002 but my copy dates from 2004. I remember it being very hardware intensive - but I’ve just loaded it onto my Core2 duo with GeForce 7500LE video card (not a great one) and I can now get around 25fps at 1600x1000 and max everything. Using a 8600GT provides a significant increase in FPS.

Good force feedback and thumping cannon sound too.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 98

 

Good solid flight sim. A bit dated by today's standards - but also does not require a very powerful PC.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004

Y

Okay - I’ve got this one and its pretty good - but where oh where are the guns?! No decent crashes or forced landings either :-(

Having said that it does look pretty good if you bump the resolution and graphics detail up.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X

Y

 

Microsoft Space Simulator

DB

Runs under XP with DOSBox 0.63 - slow screen updates.

Mig Alley

 

Classic Korean War era Jet combat simulator. Looks like the same game engine as Rowan’s Battle of Britain.

MiG - 29 FULCRUM

 

By Novalogic. Not currently installed.

Nations WWII Fighter Command

 

Good looking WWII combat flight sim from 1999. Runs under XP with Win95 compatibility mode. Use ‘j’ at start of each flight to enable joystick. Flight model a bit suspect.

Overlord

DB

Looks like the same game engine as Dawn Patrol but with WWII planes. Runs under XP with DOSBox 0.63. Need CVS build for SVGA graphics.

Pacific Fighters

N

See IL-2 Forgotten Battles

Pearl Harbour

 

Arcade style flight simulation following historical events of the Pacific war. 9 US fighters and 7 Japanese plane types. Not installed.

RC Daredevil

 

Arcade game where you fly various remote controlled aircraft

Red Baron

DB

I now have bought the 256 colour VGA version as well as the original 16 colour DOS version. Install using XP - then copy and run under DOSBox.

Red Baron II

 

Good looking WWI sim from 1997. Works on XP but a few problems with joystick and sound. Patches available inc apparently an upgrade to hardware accelerated 3D. Lots of fan sites.

Rowan’s Battle of Britain

 

See full review.

Fighter Squadron SDOE

 

See full review.

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe

 

Not currently installed.

Secret Weapons Over Normandy

 

Also available on the PS2 and it shows. very much a game and not a sim. Not currently installed.

Sky Aces

Y

Slick looking but very arcade style WW1 game. I bought it not least because it had an awful review on Amazon! It actually has some redeeming features - but is unlikely to ever be considered a classic.

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X

 

 

Ultra Fighters

 

Futuristic flying game modelled on WWII dogfighting. Under XP - throws errors on startup - but does work. WIN95 compatibility option under XP seems to make game worse not better - so don’t enable.

Have also tried with Windows ME using MS Virtual PC - but joystick doesn’t seem to calibrate well enough.

US Navy Fighters

DB

Runs under XP with standard DOSBox 0.63. I’ve revisited this game with DOSBox 0.72 CSV and it works even better (mouse now much faster). Don’t forget to set the joystick to FSC (Thrustmaster) in both DOSBox and USNF.

Wings of Glory

DB

Good looking WWI game from 1994. I have been able to get this working under DOSBox 0.63 - though need:

core=full
ems=false

Non flying screens work well but very slow to enter mission (and not at all without the ems=false). Flying is slow and joystick difficult to calibrate. Easier to use Windows programable stick to map to game control keys.

Wings of Honour

N

 

Wings of War

 

 

X Plane version 5.66 / 5.99

N

This is now upto version 9 - but I have an old version 5 to play with. Visually comparable to MS FS98 but a completely different and arguably better approach to the flight models.

All text and images Copyright © 2000-2011 Roland Givan, unless otherwise stated. All Rights Reserved. Game artwork copyright their respective publishers.

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