/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.3146732]

Let's talk about retro flight and combat simulator games.
What's your favorite?

[Anonymous No.3146767]

As far as simulators go, Pacific Strike was amazing for some aerial WW2 action back in the early days of sims.

[Anonymous No.3146778]

>>3146732
I had F-15 Strike Eagle on my Amstrad back in the day. It was, however, shit.

[Anonymous No.3146787]

>>3146732
F-22 Lightning II

[Anonymous No.3146795]

Air Combat/Ace Combat 2/Electrosphere. Probably plebian tastes, but I've never really tried real flight sims, as much as I love flight games.

[Anonymous No.3146801]

Why was firing a barrage of missiles so fucking satisfying?

[Anonymous No.3146804]

>>3146801
This was my reply to your thread

I think a combination of the following:
1) Massive damage
2) Detailed and visible damage modelling
3) sound FX

[Anonymous No.3146813]

[Anonymous No.3146831]

F-29 Retaliator, commonly known as RETAL

[Anonymous No.3146845]

>>3146732
>Red baron
The atmosphere and music are fucking top notch.
>Earth siege 2
A very good mech simulator. And i cannot remember another one with aircrafts avaliable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoABC6B8oG0

[Anonymous No.3147013]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqfX3oakclU

[Anonymous No.3147058]

>>3146813
Oh boy. My seven year old me couldn't get past the WW2 planes. The others were too complex and fast. The fact my dad didn't like how they behaved didn't help.

[Anonymous No.3147575]

>>3146732
LHX Attack Chopper

Corncob 3D.

Thank you.

[Anonymous No.3147673]

>>3147575
Hell yeah my man


It was even more fun when my brother and I figured out the key combo to cycle through your helo's external model, then changing the model to the mobile SAM and gracefully flying a truck through the sky

[Anonymous No.3147710]

Good thread OP, I haven't heard of half of this shit.

[Anonymous No.3147862]

>>3147673
I enjoyed the fact that you could never truly explode in midair--it just got harder and harder to stay aloft until you eventually crashed into the earth. 3 SAMs was the limit for the LHX I think. And I always enjoyed watching the Osprey get shot down at full speed from the ground cam--I don't know why but I found great delight in watching it auger in.

[Anonymous No.3147948]

>>3147862
It was also fun to try and shoot yourself down with TOWs in free flight

[Anonymous No.3147950]

>>3147710
Probably because Top Gun on the NES doesn't count as a flight simulator. You could've AT LEAST used F-117A

[Anonymous No.3148092]

>>3146732
Of ALL the threads on /vr/ this really causes me real nostalgia. As a dorky teen who was really into aircrafts and with access to only my grandad's 386 PC I remember vividly all Microprose airsims: F-15 Strike Eagle II, F-19, F-117 etc... and ofc LHX. Time passed on and I bought my first PC (in my youth I wasn't a console gamer, I didn't have one) a P2 350 with a ATi Rage Pro (upgraded many times, with more RAM, a Voodoo Banshee and on the last iteration a PowerVR KyroII), and played with Jane's Sims, Falcon 4.0 etc... but started to get less interested in planes in general and got more into "generic" gaming, like FPSs (you couldn't blame me, FPSs were THE PC games back then), but even the last PC of my youth (an Athlon XP 3200+ with a 9800Pro) had always the Saitek X45 connected for playing with Il-2 Sturmovik. Then my life get a really bad turn, because I didn't go well in school, I dropped out of it and go full NEET, get disinterested on PC gaming (mainly because of no money), got into NDS (thanks to my sister) for passing the too much time. The NDS developed in me a love for 2D/pseudo classic gaming, a world that I didn't know before. Still, to this day, even I don't like flightsims so much now, I remember those times as the times that built in me the love for computers (and games).

BTW, I'm no longer a NEET and I have build a new computer since 10 years a couple of months ago.

[Anonymous No.3148107]

>>3148092
OH, and, even if it's not a flightsim, I spent months on Mechwarrior 3. That game for me it's simply the best Mechwarrior game to date, even if 4 with expansions was more complete and varied, 3 simply had that feeling that was PERFECT. I know that many prefers MW2 for many reasons, but 3, even if the missions and landscapes were bland and ripetitives, had the best mechs, graphics and game system.

[Anonymous No.3148119]

>>3147948
...and shooting camels

[Anonymous No.3148214]

>>3147950
Does Turn and Burn count too? I think OP meant anything with planes and such, even though there was no mention of Ace Combat or After Burner so far.

[Anonymous No.3149393]

>>3148092
>Falcon 4.0
Top yes. one of my favorites.

Re-fighting the bosnian wars from the seat of an F-16 has to be one of my favorite things to do in the air. The dynamic campaign map really made it into a whole new game, and made you feel like you were part of a real war.

Technically retro too! (1998)

[Anonymous No.3149406]

>>3149393
Falcon 4.0 is the sim to end all sims. Nothing else comes even remotely close. Everything else is pong level childs play in comparison. A one of a kind program. Kind of a shame, really. We need more of that kind of dedication

[Anonymous No.3149407]

>>3149393
>>3149406
Even that screenshot shows an attention to detail that was extremely uncommon at the time, and still is

[Anonymous No.3149572]

>>3149406
Seriously. Imagine a game like Il-2 Sturmovik, or even with modern planes with the dynamic campaign of F4.0 done today. Don't get me wrong, there are great sims out there that have very realistic flight models, but are really, really boring because you can't do shit or, at best, have a fixed mission campaign and often have really dumb missions. Falcon 4.0 was a realistic game, but was also immersive and programmed by people that wanted to bomb things with the flightmodel and the virtual plane that they created.

[Anonymous No.3149785]

Air Duel is pretty simple and pretty fun to just hop in and start dog fighting. Also the scenarios mode where you can have battles versus WW1, WW2 and other planes is fun as fuck. As for a more complex game I like I'll always love F-117 Stealth Fighter

[Anonymous No.3150068]

Any love for WIng Commander in the desert?

[Anonymous No.3150603]

>>3150068

Picked this up on GoG a while back. Game wouldn't recognize my joystick.

I was sad.

[Anonymous No.3151312]

>>3149406
>>3149407
That game is so good I would probably be able to take off, calibrate my HUD, then attack a target using a variety of weapons in a real F-16, even though I've never sat in one.

[Anonymous No.3151565]

>>3146778
Mah nigga. To this day I play with an inverted y-axis because of F-15 Strike Eagle III

[Anonymous No.3153249]

>>3151565
Who the hell doesn't play flight sims with an inverted y-axis?

It's how real aircraft work.

[Anonymous No.3153268]

>>3146831
Big part of my childhood here.

[Anonymous No.3155654]

F-117 Nighthawk by MicroProse. I literally logged around 1500 hours when it came out. That and the original M1 Tank platoon. MicroProse was hands down the best producer of military sims. Even to this day, despite the cruddy graphics, they're still awesome. Oh, and MicroProse made Falcoln IV.

[Anonymous No.3155747]

Aces Over Europe. Need to find a download of it eventually, haven't played it since I was a kid but damn blastin nazis was fun.

[Anonymous No.3155864]

>>3146831
My nigga.

This, apache, fleet defender and atf3.

[Anonymous No.3156286]

>>3155654
Just bought this today on a whim anon. I like how the graphics look, and it was only 97 cents. Does it work with a flight stick? Been dying to bust it out.

[Anonymous No.3157349]

>>3146845
>Earth siege

Mah nigga. I'm currently playing the first one and it takes me a while to get used to the controls before the cybrids knock my dick off.

[Anonymous No.3157365]

>>3149393
I know Falcon BMS is not retro at all (even though the base game is) but damn that dynamic campaign really is fantastic. Fucking cool flying in on a mission and seeing strike packages flying in and out.

Reminds me, someone made an F-14B cockpit mod I gotta try out.

[Anonymous No.3157374]

>>3146732
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOIKsFzzr7Y

[Anonymous No.3157643]

F/A-18 Hornet 3.0
F/A-18 Korea

[Anonymous No.3158345]

>>3155747
The pacific version of this was great too.

[Anonymous No.3158534]

Polka Yeezus did a video on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhwPI50esKE

[Anonymous No.3159394]

>>3155747
>Aces Over Europe
http://www.old-games.ru/game/download/2340.html

[Anonymous No.3159407]

>>3150068
I remember a review at the time saying the system requirements were sky high.

[Anonymous No.3159408]

>>3159407
Also no pun intended.

[Anonymous No.3159835]

>>3156286
Yep, it does. Iirc when I got the steam version it supported my USB flight stick. I haven't played the steam version much because I got sucked back into Darklands, another MicroProse Classic.

[Anonymous No.3159943]

Anybody remember A-10 Attack/A-10 Attack: Cuba? It was supprisingly good for what it was, a 1995 period DCS: A-10 fidelity sim on the Mac OS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00LuVgeHkRg

[Anonymous No.3159954]

>>3159943
I remember tha game A10 Cuba! was fantastic, i remember the demo mission, the be 52´s flying over your hangar an the taxi maneuvre a great game

[Anonymous No.3159959]

Another cool one I remember was Super VGA-Harrier. Nice mid-90s fidelity sim about the Harrier jump jet where you also controlled a USMC task force. I'm hoping that the Combat Air Patrol 2 game that showed up on steam a while back will provide a similar experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm3964ZSZmE

[Anonymous No.3159971]

>>3159954
IIRC that was the one where you had to attack SAM sites guarding tobacco fields that the B-52s were going to bomb.

You could also do some questionable stuff like shooting down MiG-29 by locking AGM-88s onto their radars, or carrying Hellfires, which the A-10 can't do. And the final level was a death star trench run against Fidel Castro's mansion located at the end of a canyon. IIRC in A-10 Attack there was also a mission where you were tasked with using unguided Zuni rockets and your cannon to shoot down some Russian cargo aircraft.

I should dig up a Mac OS emulator and try to get it running again one of these days.

[Anonymous No.3160009]

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/nightdive/

75% off B-17: The Mighty 8th, Knights of the Sky, F-14 Fleet Defender, 1942 Pacific Air War, F-177 Nighthawk and F-19 Stealth Fighter until the 29th.

[Anonymous No.3160379]

Any love for the F/A-18 Super Hornet?

[Anonymous No.3160391]

[Anonymous No.3160427]

Red Baron 3D is pretty fun, even if flying WW1 biplanes is tough as fuck.

[Anonymous No.3160448]

>>3146732
gunship 2000
played it non stop, it was the first 3d game me and my brother owned

[Anonymous No.3160453]

>>3160427

Real planes for real men. None of that fancy stuff.

[Anonymous No.3160487]

>>3160453
Tangentially related, One thing on my bucket list is to make a Sopwith Pup and learn to fly it.

[Anonymous No.3160506]

>>3160487

Pups are fun, less tempermental than the Camel, but still quite willing to kill you dead if you don't treat the stick with respect.

Can't remember if its a finicky flyer in the old Red Baron games, but it is in Rise of Flight.

[Anonymous No.3160538]

>>3160506
Yeah, WWI planes need respect and knowledge of their limits.
I chose the pup because it seems to strike a good balance between maneuverability and instability.
The Camel may be capable of some impressive acrobatics, but I think they're a little more excitable than I'm comfortable with.
But before all of that I need to get thought college and save up money to build the thing and get a private pilot license.

[Anonymous No.3161428]

>>3160538
Easily doable. A PPL will run you around $10,000 (and 6-12 months of your time) and this place makes a Pup kit that costs $13,000 and uses a modern Volkswagen/Rotec radial engine. (so figure another 4k for the engine, however much more for instruments, plus 1-2k for tools and workshop equipment/space)
http://www.airdromeaeroplanes.com/

[Anonymous No.3161432]

>>3161428
>uses a modern Volkswagen/Rotec radial engine
isn't that kind of missing the point then?

[Anonymous No.3161462]

>>3161432
God no. The Pup used a rotary engine, not a radial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_engine

Basically instead of the pistons turning the propeller, the engine is just mounted on a shaft and spins around it, with the propeller being attached directly to the engine. The throttle is effectively non-existent, meaning that for a landing you use a blip switch and cut fuel in pulses to slow down. And it's lubricated with castor oil which is also sprayed back onto the pilot, meaning most WWI pilots shit themselves constantly.

And due to the engine itself rotating, you've got this bigass flywheel mounted on the front of your airplane. Turn left and it takes forever and your nose turns upwards. Turn right and it happens quickly and your nose is suddenly pointed at the ground.

[Anonymous No.3161470]

>>3161462
I know what a rotary engine is, which is why I asked if replacing it with something normal isn't kind of missing the point. That's not a pup any longer, just some random sports aircraft that kinda looks like one.
Really, isn't that adventure shit half the reason to fly one of these WW1 beasts? Where's the fun in flying them, if you don't get oil scars to tell about?

[Anonymous No.3161478]

>>3161470
>oil scars
or at least some stained pants. Flying these fuckers should be an adrenaline rush, one way or another, an adventure. Something you literally live to tell

[Anonymous No.3161518]

>>3161428
Yeah, I've been eyeing that kit. Price isn't too bad.
It's just getting a job and then finding the time that I really need to do.

>>3161432
>>3161470
I really don't mind using a newer engine. I don't need an exact replica, like, one dude stuck a jet engine onto a Waco, and that thing is pretty awesome.

Besides, I think the maintenance on a ancient rotary engine is more that I want to deal with.

[Anonymous No.3161637]

>>3161478
How about a ultralight with a home-made pulsejet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKHz7wOjb9w

[Anonymous No.3161641]

>>3161637
I don't think they had those in WW1

[Anonymous No.3161689]

>>3161637
>Propane
I like the idea but what >>3161641 said here is true. Propane wasn't identified until 1910 and even then the method to refine and compress it were developed way the hell later.

[Anonymous No.3162275]

>>3161641
While the pulse jet wasn't put into use untill 1936, with the V1, the first working (valved) pulse jet was patented in 1906, and a valveless pulse jet, like the one in the video, was patented in 1908.

These pulse jets were usually powered by alcohol.

So, one could technically design and build a pulse jet powered ultralight using WWI level technology.
Not that this would be a good idea.
WWI planes were covered in cotton canvas, doped in cellulose nitrate. Combine this with the fact that pulse jets are horrendously inefficient, easily becoming white hot, and you get an extreme fire hazard.

[Anonymous No.3162901]

So, what do you guys think about Wings Of Fury for the GB/C?

I think it's a fun little game and a decent port of the Amiga version, even if some features got left behind.

The use of engine gauges instead of a health bar is a nice touch.

[Anonymous No.3162960]

>>3162901
Can't get past the first level

[Anonymous No.3163696]

>>3162960
What are you having trouble with?
Bombing, strafing, or landing?

[Anonymous No.3164363]

I liked Air Diver on Genesis. There was another game where you controlled a helicopter. I can't remember what it's called. I remember the first mission was to escort the presidents limo to the White House.

I was only 9 at the time so I'd just fly around blowing shit up and ultimately destroying the limo. Good times.

[Anonymous No.3164594]

The late 80s and the 90s were really the golden age of flight simulators. You could get everything from arcadey games like Red Baron or Strike Commander, to more in-depth study sims like Falcon 3/Falcon 4 or A-10 Attack. And there were plenty of games that hit a comfortable middle ground like Microsoft Flight Simulator or Combat Flight Simulator so that the average Joe could start playing them with a joystick and a key reference chart and relatively little hassle.

[Anonymous No.3164640]

Did anyone here enjoy Crimson Skies?

I loved all of the unusual design and the diesel punk/art deco art style.

[Anonymous No.3164685]

>>3164640
Yes. Sad no sequels for X360, it was a great game.

[Anonymous No.3164732]

>>3164685
I'm just happy that I finally got it to run on my win7 computer.

It doesn't run great, but it runs and my joystick works, so I'm happy enough.

It would be cool if GOG got a hold of it and fixed it up though.

[Anonymous No.3165201]

Comanche 3 Gold was my crack as a teenager, got it in one of those bundled editions IIRC. I loved the whole stealthy attack helicopter concept, ended up making a few multi-part scenarios where you had to sneak through a area, blow up air defenses or a bridge or something, then you'd play the next level with full weapons to support a ground attack or blow up a convoy that would have crossed the bridge.

Sadly I was never able to convince my parents to buy me the Jane's Longbow games. I should probably hunt down some disk images for them.

[Anonymous No.3168030]

>>3165201
Damn, that game looks and sounds solid.

[Anonymous No.3168085]

>>3162901

I adored Wings of Fury on the Amiga.


That and Jetstrike. Something about the side scrolling 2d aircraft did it for me.


I remember when I as a little kid along with my older brother got the Amiga 500+ (1 whole MB of memory) and F/a-18 Interceptor was the first game we got given with it (the 2nd was Test Drive)... made the old Atari console look like shit.

[Anonymous No.3168117]

Holy shit, how has this thread gone this long without someone posting the most obvious one? Along with X-Wing and X-W Alliance of course.

[Anonymous No.3168572]

>>3146787
That's NovaLogic right?

I liked their F-16 Fighting Falcon game better.

Also Comanche Gold

[Anonymous No.3168581]

>>3165201
>>3168030
Not that guy but oh it was

had something like 52 missions and a bitchin' menu screen soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aziVgPWAAo8

I haven't played this game in probably close to 15 years but that nuclear sub mission and base defense mission where you get invaded by like 60 units gave me PTSD

[Anonymous No.3168626]

>>3146813
"Welcome to Chuck Yeager's Air Combat."

Finished every campaign.

[Anonymous No.3168643]

Red Baron
Red Baron 2
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
Aces over Europe
European Air War

[Anonymous No.3168647]

>>3168117
>Tie Fighter

HD version when? That fucking story

>hunting rebels
>bringing peace to warring species
>traitorous admirals
>Thrawn
>the slow setup to Endor

[Anonymous No.3169240]

[Anonymous No.3169780]

>>3164640
I kinda did, even if, in true FASA style, the plane building was pretty unbalanced (what's the reason for not using all the highest caliber guns with EX ammo and as much armor as possible, I still have to know) and the difficulty curve of the game was schizophrenic at best. The sequel was the closest thing we got as an actually released Propeller Arena, with better stunts since you don't need to do fighting game inputs in it, but I didn't like the flight model that much, especially the fact that your plane always tries to realign itself to the horizon and that everyone could turn on a dime, making dogfights drag far too long.

[Anonymous No.3170517]

>>3169780
I usually put a couple AP shots into a enemy plane and then finish them up with DD rounds.
That or I would fire flak at them if I was having trouble.

I didn't think that the flight model was that bad. Some enemies were hard to out maneuver, sure, but it really just made it that much sweeter once you were on their tail.
I've never had the planes orient themselves to the horizon.

I will agree that the dificulty curve was pretty schizophrenic, but I never had too much trouble.
(Except for the Black Swan. That was a bitch, having to fight the People's Voyage, and rival sky pirates)

>fighting game inputs
I'm afraid I don't follow on that one.
I've been playing with my flight stick, and everything pretty much handles how I would expect a plane to.

[Anonymous No.3170605]

>>3169240
Dude, could you imagine a AR remake of that game using today's tech so you could use your room as the playing field?

[Anonymous No.3171061]

>>3170517
The flight model complaints were about the second game, High Road to Revenge. It's a bit more arcadified, and you can pull off specific stunts with the analog sticks and then by pressing the right analog: for example, to pull off a snap roll on the left, you pull the thumbsticks both on the left and press the left thumbstick.

Propeller Arena had the same system, only that in order to pull stunts off you had to input fighting game combinations, like quarter circle left + X to pull a snap roll to the left. It's a bit more clunky.

[Anonymous No.3172598]

>>3171061
That sounds weird.

[Anonymous No.3172623]

>MFW people are posting GBA games in this thread

[Anonymous No.3173309]

A10 Tank Killer
Falcon 3.0
Aces of the Pacific
Stunt Island
MS Flight Sim 2.0 (First pc game I owned)

[Anonymous No.3173318]

>>3173309
>Stunt Island
Severely underrated game.

[Anonymous No.3175875]

The Flight Unlimited series is underloved.

[Anonymous No.3177921]

>>3146845
>Red Baron
I remember when I started to get good at that and was able to paint my own plane. Fun times.

[Anonymous No.3179374]

>>3162901
I remember a flash game that was very similar to this. Good times.

[Anonymous No.3179463]

>>3146813
ripped the wings off so many times. Used to crash in new ways on purpose, man that was neat.

[Anonymous No.3179485]

>>3162901
WoF goes back to the Apple II in the 80s.Boot it up on the 2.8Mhz IIGS and it extra speed gets really fun, if not really hard to land.

[Anonymous No.3179505]

>>3179485
I feel compelled to mention Sopwith, which showed up about 3 years before WoF and may or may not have been an inspiration

[Anonymous No.3179631]

>>3179485
Yeah, I knew about the Apple II version

I hadn't heard of Sopwith though.

[Anonymous No.3179650]

>>3179505
sopwith is a pretty fun game - there was even an sdl port of it made (by fraggle who did chocolate doom)

[Anonymous No.3179693]

US Navy Fighters.

Use to go over to a friends house and play the shit out of it. Then I remember there was another game like that... but you were able to shoot off helicopter rotors, and wings off jets.

[Anonymous No.3179739]

>>3146813
I just want to point out that this featured a video review system where you could obsess over your performance in your last dogfight. This was in 1991.

[Anonymous No.3179758]

Just want to mention Wing Commander.

>Unique wingmen.
>Perma deaths and funerals.
>Storyline which changed based on the players performance.
>Rad cutsceens.

If you haven't experienced it, you should. Ahead of its time.

[Anonymous No.3180320]

>>3179758
>Ahead of its time
was it really ahead, if nobody's doing anything like that anymore? Seems more like an evolutionary branch that ended up as a dead end, sadly. There were a few games that did something similar, but ultimately, very little followed in this direction

[Anonymous No.3180325]

>>3179739
>>3173309 mentioned Stunt Island. The game was a video editor with a flight sim attached to it. Early 90s PC gaming was really cool

[Anonymous No.3180361]

>>3179505
Sopwith is GOAT.

[Anonymous No.3181323]

>>3172623
Where?

[Anonymous No.3181346]

Jane's WWII Fighters, still fun to play.

[Anonymous No.3181352]

>>3181323
It's a shitposter

[Anonymous No.3183004]

>>3181346
I liked Jane's Attack Squadron.

Though with hindsight it really was fucking buggy.

[Anonymous No.3184518]

>>3181352
He's not wrong though.

I don't want to point them out because there will be drama.

[Anonymous No.3184623]

Any love for the Jetfighter series?

I got this back in elementary school, the deluxe edition that came with a MOTHERFUCKING SHIRT, IT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER


Now you're lucky if you even get a basic manual in the box

[Anonymous No.3184627]

>>3184623
Like, how hard does this get you? Navalized Raptors, fuck yeah

[Anonymous No.3184647]

mah nigga, how come this is not here?

[Anonymous No.3184808]

>>3184518
>I don't want to point them out because there will be drama.
Is it one of the ones that was originally on SNES?

I think an F-14 game (or was it F-18) was released for both SNES and GBA (GBA being a remake/port)

[Anonymous No.3185505]

>>3184647
a 3D sim on the mega drive always impressed me.

i think there was also an F-22 sim

[Anonymous No.3185932]

>>3146732
Has anybody heard of Team Apache? Pretty realistic heli sim and the campaign put you in the commander seat who had to pick and care for his pilots at base. Really like an economical sim with the repair of the birds and the well-being of your staff. I was a kid however and tried to play it with keyboard only which was kinda hard.

[Anonymous No.3186101]

Wasn't there some WWII plane game that came with Windows 98? My grandpa had it on his computer and I guess it was pre-installed. You could only play as one plane.

[Anonymous No.3187527]

>>3179693
I have been trying to think of that title for like 6 months now. I played the shit out of that game and made a fully inhabited city with the mission editor.

Thanks anon

[Anonymous No.3187849]

>Silky Smooth 3 FPS

[Anonymous No.3187861]

>>3187849
for flight probably sufficient. How much change in motion or direction can you do on a civil plane, be it amateur or commercial, in 0.3s? Not talking about aerobatics, that's a whole different level. Just your run of the mill Cessnas and Boeings

[Anonymous No.3188081]

>>3187849
First pc was a tandy 2000 with msfs 2. It was fine until you had the audacity to make a turn. Then it was 3 spf and death a few minutes later.