|
Computer games in Australia are very expensive, and sometimes when at a computer store the decision between buying one game or another was the "box test". My friend Rinaz and I would often purchase the game that had the heavier box, and Project Stealth Fighter passed the box test well.
Not only did you get a double sided 5.25" disk, you got a thick 120 page manual, a keyboard overlay, 4 maps of the regions in the game, as well as a fold out technical supplement.
The manual itself goes into vast detail about the F19 (in real life, the F117A) stealth fighter, the weapons in the game, your opponents capabilities, various strategies on dogfighting and bombing, as well as a detailed analysis of all of the planes in the game - also used for the copy protection. Lavish doesn't begin to cut it, and Microprose were a company that knew how to treat you with the manuals (the Pirates! manual being another glorious example!).
Before you start, I strongly recommend going to http://project64.c64.org/games/
This web site has C64 game documentation, and the Technical Supplement key list for the game is there, typed up by yours truly. You will need this, otherwise you can't play the game. On an IBM keyboard, the most important difference is that the "Up/down Crsr Key" for the 20mm cannon is the right arrow key.
Once the game is loaded, you're presented with a set of options and your score. I suggest you Create a New Pilot so you can have your own name in the game. You will also need to make a save disk - a blank disk is available on this site. The top of the screen will show your name, your score and any medals awarded.
After passing this screen, you can choose Libya Training, Libya, Persian Gulf, North Cape, and Central Europe as your areas. You may wish to do one or two training missions before the real thing, to get used to the aircraft and its system. They're a snap once you know them, but if you don't get to know them, you may as well play something else.
Next up, you can choose Cold War, Limited War, or Conventional War, each described at the top of the selection screen. Air-Air Missions and Strike Missions are chosen on the next screen. Green Opponents, Regular Opponents and Vetran Opponents is the choice on the next screen, again with explanations as to what they are, same with the next screen - No Crashes, Easy Landings and Realistic Landings.
Your mission briefing is presented to you next. This will detail what you have to destroy and why. At the bottom of the screen is the amount of fuel needed, the airfields you'll be using, and the map coordinates for the various things (if you have the maps, not really important!).
The final screen before being committed lets you choose to Go on Leave, go back to the Mission Briefing, to see an Intelligence Briefing (which tells you what to expect from the enemy armaments wise), Select a New Mission (sometimes you will get the same one again) or to Arm Your Plane.
Happily, the game will choose a default list of armaments for you, so it's possible to play without the book. However, various items have various characteristics. One type of bomb has to be dive bombed - you need to climb to 10,000 feet or so, do a massive dive with flaps out, then fire the missile at the target. The first time I forgot the flaps, and as such didn't do it properly and it missed the target. Most are quite straightforward "aim and shoot" type things, so don't be put off by the amount of choices.
Tips on armaments - Sidewinder and AMRAAM are air-air missiles. HARM is for radars, Harpoon is for ships. Maverick is my favourite air-ground missile for use on SAM launchers, SAM radars, and various other ground targets. Durandal bombs will kill runways. They're the most useful ones for the novice.
Flip your disk and wait while your aircraft is being fueled and armed (ie: the game is loading). You'll be in the cockpit next.
The above shot it right at the point where it's time to fire a missile at another aircraft, and I'll explain the details. However you do need to know - don't fire a missile until the target goes round. This will be a long distance shot. Wait a little and it'll change colour - you're virtually assured of success. With the bombs, the round bit at the bottom of the line needs to cross the target, then fire.
Along the top you have the compass heading. The little black line under 90 is the course you need to follow to get to your target. This is pre-set by the computer in the beginning, so just turn towards that after take-off. Left is airspeed, and right is altitude.
The "RNG: 17.0" is the amount of miles to the target. Most missiles can't be fired until somewhere under 20 miles. Pitch and roll indicate your aircraft axis. Down the left at the bottom, WB is Weapons Bay doors open or closed, LG is Landing Gear up or down, SB is speed brakes deployed or not, and FLP is flaps out or in.
A is your accelerated time indicator (when flying, press 5 - accelerated time to cut the boredom of a long flight), T is target mode, G is 20mm cannon active or not, while B and M are unimportant. I don't think they actually do anything. Below that is a map showing where you are in relation to where you're going. Once you've killed your target, press the C key to Change your destination. This will then put the black line compass indicator on your home airport. Handy! A word about airports, all the runways run north/south.
It's night time in a different game, this time we're going for a ground target. I'll continue explaining the rest of the cockpit indicators though!
The 100 is 100 miles on radar range. This can be decreased to 25 or 12 by pressing Right Shift (don't confuse it with Left Shift, which is Eject - how embarassing could that be!). Next to it is a T - it's blue when Air-Air tracking, and unlit for Ground target tracking.
On the radar screen in the top picture, the little aeroplane things are enemy planes, while on the bottom shot, the L is a plane too. It shows which way they're flying and whether they're up or down, but it's not really needed to know in detail. The little red dots are ground targets, usually missile emplacements.
Under this is the RWR and IWR indicators. When you begin, they are unlit, then RWR will go Blue. This means enemy radar is detected, but they haven't detected you. Yellow means they are tracking you. Orange means they are locking a missile on you, and if it's flashing, a missile is on its way. It will appear as a white dot on the radar scanner display. IWR will just be red flashing as that is infra-red missile launches. Remember the difference!
Under these, V is vertical speed, C is fuel consumption, and F is fuel quantity.
The dashed lines along the right indicate how much radar emission you're giving off. Being a Stealth Fighter, you can have low to high readings. When travelling, try to throttle back to have 3 or 2 blue indicators. You need to be under 2000 feet or over 30000 feet to get this. When you switch on air-air tracking or select air-air missiles, this will go up. Opening weapons bays, flying fast, or flying at middle altitudes will also increase this. The lower you keep it, the better your score.
It was time for another picture - after the flight, you might get a medal or a rank increase, and this screen shows you an award of the most minor medal in the game, the Airmans Medal.
Back to the long and involved discussion on the cockpit though!!
ECM is your radar jammer. When a radar missile gets close, flash on the jammer, and it'll miss you. Almost a 100% success rate. Flash it off straight after, as they need time to cool (they'll go dark blue and then back to grey). IRJ is the same for when you have an infra-red missile after you. DCY are Decoy Flares - use these when your jammers are out. How could that happen?
Missiles and planes DO get you. When they do, various things can happen. Your weapons bay doors can be jammed, your fuel tank and flight controls can sustain heavy or light damage, and your jammers can go out. It does get hairy - and even I get hit from time to time!
Under the jammers is the weapons display. This is also the target identification display (press M), systems status to check damage (.> key) and has other messages from time to time. The letters below that just show what mode the screen is in, not overly important.
Use return to shut down all weapons and return to the least visible mode - after all, you're a Stealth Fighter!
Once you've landed, crashed, or ejected, the game is over. You get told your mission performance and any interesting events that may have happened (especially if you crash, or get shot down in enemy territory - remember, this fighter is secret technology!). Your score is presented and a mission evaluation (including stealth performance), then you get the rank/medal screen, and then the bar scene above. The bar scene even depends on how you went and has some interesting comments!
After that, you get to do it all again!
Now, cheats - I've found two different ones. If you run out of fuel and aren't anywhere near base, get rid of all your weapons except the cannon. Drop all missiles and bombs. The plane will continue to fly in level flight, albeit very slowly. You can get back to base and even land with the plane like this!
The second cheat... when you are like this, enemy planes will often fly right in front of you. Have the cannon armed and shoot them down. A good way to score medals and lots of points! Additionally, if enemy planes are still on your tail when you've landed and stopped on the runway, select cannon before shutting the engines down. The planes will be shootable as they pass in front.
An excellent package from Microprose and my favourite flight simulator of all time. Once you get past all the detail and become a little comfortable with it (shouldn't take you long, it's a 64, not a PC!), then you'll find that you love playing this game!!
Downloads: Music, Advert
|
|
|
|
| GRAPHICS - 8/10 |
The set pieces in the game are well thought out and well presented. The little details such as the ashtray with stubbed out cigarette on the initial screens add atmosphere and depth. The choice they made to include all the weapons details and explanations about the options was an inspired one - you don't need the manual for the game, and this is what makes for longievity. The cockpit with its heads up display (compass, altitude, airspeed in the window) is extremely well thought out. Right in the middle are the most important things - radar, missile warnings, and to the left and right are the less important things. No superfluous things either. The game scrolls very smoothly with the wire frame outside graphics. Each item up close is actually what it's supposed to be as well, though it's unfortunate that you can't crash into the hills. Airports on the way back are easy to spot as they're bright white lines. After the game, the graphics are extremely well done. Even the death screens are well executed and fun. You will come across screens you hadn't, depending on what happens to you, and I like that. A fabulous effort indeed!
| | SOUND - 7/10 |
The only music in the game is the title tune and it's appropriately stealthy! It's all mysterious and gives a good impression of how you're supposed to be in the game - the fighter that you can't see. There is no other sound that I have come across apart from engines, touchdown, the explosions, and the different missile/bomb release sounds. It's a flight simulator, not a nightclub, what did you expect?
| | PLAYABILITY - 9/10 |
Microprose have packed in an absolute shitload of missions. At a guess, there would be maybe 30 or 40 different variations per continent. Maybe more. They range from intercepting enemy aircraft and shooting them down, to bombing runways, radars, ships, headquarters, missile placements - you can even be assigned to take photos of other targets. The sheer range of things to do, and the different characteristics of what attacks you when you're out there, really makes the game one that you can just go on playing and playing forever. Hell, I've had the game since 1987 or 1988 and I am still playing it! I think that speaks for itself. The plane itself is a handy flyer - though you do need to watch the stall indicator when doing tight turns. It also has handy acceleration, and the damage is appropriately annoying. Extremely well done!
| | OVERALL - 8/10 |
Project Stealth Fighter follows Microprose tradition - creating detailed games for techno-geeks like myself. Jim Synoski and Arnold Hendrick must have exceeded their brief on this, and special kudos to Arnold Hendrick for the magnificent manual. As far as I am concerned, this game should be held up as an example of what great games can be and should be. Exemplary effort, Microprose - and if you haven't played it, now is the time!
|
|
| COVER |
.jpg&w=206)
|
|
|
; "Click to zoom!")
; "Click to zoom!")
; "Click to zoom!")
; "Click to zoom!")
; "Click to zoom!")
; "Click to zoom!")
; "Click to zoom!")
