F-16 Combat Pilot
Encyclopedia
F-16 Combat Pilot is a F-16 fighter flight simulator
made by Digital Integration
for Commodore 64
, Amstrad
, PC, Amiga
and Atari ST
in 1988. It is considered as one of the first combat flight simulator
s to have a dynamic campaign environment. While the graphics, scenery and audio are quite sparse and basic, the instruments and flight dynamics of a F-16C Fighting Falcon are fully featured and modeled.
guns around enemy airfields. It is possible to shoot down friendly aircraft by gunfire, but friendly aircraft can not be designated or tracked by player's radar.
The simulation keeps a flying log of all the player's time on F-16 and "callsign", which also appears in the game when the player contacts the control tower at airfields. (For its time, this was a very advanced feature.) If the pilot "dies" in combat, this log is erased, and a new "pilot" is created. Any missions that are unsuccessful will have to be repeated.
, ATARS pod, and the external fuel tanks. The LANTIRN
pod is possibly the first to appear in a combat flight simulation. All weapons behave as accurately as possible, missiles can miss if used incorrectly, fired at extreme angles in relation to the enemy fighter or the enemies used countermeasures; the missiles don't make impossible maneuvers to its target as prevalent in other combat simulations of its time.
The flight dynamics is one of the most accurate for its time. The landing is accurately difficult, the player has to master the AoA (Angle of Attack) and vertical velocity during approach, unlike other combat simulations of its time (e.g. F-15 Strike Eagle II
had extremely unrealistic landings where all the player had to do is simply just aim the plane at the runway at any angle or speed). Not properly lined up would cause Autoland
(used in conjunction with ILS
) to cancel if activated, and even landing too hard would damage the landing gear, or even cause a crash. Not following proper speed guidelines while taxiing or going too fast on the runway without lifting off would also damage the aircraft. Unlike other simulations of its time, landing on the nose-wheel would result in a crash due to gear collapse as in real life. A crash is represented with a full screen showing mini explosions, after which the debriefing screen would show up indicating whether or not the player survived. Hard crashes are usually unsurvivable, but the player may walk away from nose-wheel collapses and other minor crashes. The simulation allows the player to perform a wheels-up (belly) landing if the landing gear is damaged and not extendable, however landing has to be precise with a very low vertical velocity.
The airframe also has G-Force
limitations depending on whether the aircraft was fully loaded as the real F-16 has stores configuration categories. When fully loaded, the player can only pull 5.5G's, instead of the 9G's a clean F-16 is capable of. Airspeed & Mach speed would be lower when fully laden as well. The player can even jettison the fuel and weapons in the event of emergency to enable the aircraft to pull higher G's, such as in an emergency or in combat or an aborted mission. Spins and ground effect are not simulated, as is with other simulations of its time, although another rare feature, turbulence
is a user selectable option at Briefing & Weather screen. Turbulence in the simulation causes random and slight variations in the aircraft's bank angle and heading, making it a little bit more difficult to land, but it never affects the altitude.
Damage system is extensively modeled on F-16 Combat Pilot. Each system on board the player's aircraft can be damaged in combat, from radar, landing gear, flaps to ASPJ (Aircraft Self Protection Jammer), oxygen/cabin pressure systems, weapons, communications, navigation system or HUD
etc... If the player successfully returns to base with a damaged aircraft, the aircraft can be repaired and reused before the debrief screen, provided that given airfield has the necessary components and spare parts. This is indicated by color coded status in radio communications. The aircraft can survive near missile hits or enemy AAA
fire at times, but not a direct hit. When there is an on-board fire, the aircraft will be damaged and blown up subsequently (if the player do not eject immediately). It is not uncommon for players to have many "dead stick" landings with engine failure when returning damaged from combat, out of chaff and flare, and even out of fuel, being chased and fired upon by enemies.
Mountains are represented by same-sized pyramids. There are also rivers, bridges (which the player can fly under), SAM sites and roads which makes navigation easier (Bombing bridges has no effect on the progress of the war). The simulation has been thoroughly thought out - the surprise is that landing on an enemy airfield means that the player has "defected", and this shows in the debriefing screen. It is also possible to land on roads - which are much narrower and trickier to land on - but this also has the same effect of landing at an enemy airport, and the simulation shows that the player has "defected" from his country.
When flying over towns, one can easily spot the various buildings representing churches, hospitals, and various other buildings. Flying over power stations, one can make out the cooling towers, and so on. It is fairly easy to distinguish visually in between which area you are flying over based on recognizing the landmarks, but such navigation is not really necessary due to the waypoint computer which shows the target waypoint, distance and estimated time to reach it within the cockpit, assuming that this was set in the Mission Room.
While it is not possible to fly into a "wall" when flying out of the map - the player can fly out of the map until he or she runs out of fuel, but upon doing so there will be no more scenery, just a flat piece of land to fly in. The simulation also has a weather system ( fog and low cloud down to 500ft AGL ) and the combat can even be in the middle of the night.
In night flights, there are no outside visual references except for the green thermal image projected onto the HUD by the LANTIRN pods. There was however, lights on the ground though from towns and military installations, which gives very limited orientation from within the cockpit.
As the game was only viewable on 4 angles from within the cockpit, there is no "outside" look of the player's aircraft, increasing the realism. Many players rely on instruments to fly with, especially in low cloud covers or night missions, which add to the realism of the simulation, but can also be boring for those looking for a quick dogfight. There is an option for a "Quickstart" but even will require reading through the manual. Weather is random and cannot be manipulated except in the training sessions. It can be said this sim is not for the ordinary "arcade" style gamer, as the sheer depth of cockpit and campaign but relatively sparse environment are more suited for the simulator enthusiast.
The player can jump into the F-16 as well and perform his/her own mission objectives - this can be anything the player sets it on the mission map - from destroying a target destination or simply fly patrol and shoot down enemies, although it is not possible to communicate with squadron while in-flight. The AI aircraft are up to the task and do a pretty good job - but at the same time, the enemy aircraft AI are also doing a pretty good job attacking the allies.
As the war progresses, missions become simpler or more complex as both sides inflict damage, and strategy, (such as targeting factories and radar installations first) is required to win. Weapons and parts may even become unavailable as time goes by.
's Falcon (computer game)
, of which the latter was more popular and had much more advanced graphics and audio for its time, and by 1991 the very popular Falcon 3.0 was released. The game was also never released with VGA graphics and soon looked very dated.
F-16 Combat Pilot was voted "best flight simulator" by the European Computer Leisure Awards 1990.
Digital Integration repackaged and released the game in 1994 under Action Sixteen publishing label after fixing the compatibility issue with Amiga 1200
computers, however the 14-MHz processor of the system ran the game faster than real-time.
Flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and various aspects of the flight environment. This includes the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of their controls and other aircraft systems, and how they react to the external...
made by Digital Integration
Digital integration
Digital integration is the idea that data or information on any given electronic device can be read or manipulated by another device using a standard format.-Cell phone calendar to public digital calendar :...
for Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, Amstrad
Amstrad
Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....
, PC, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
in 1988. It is considered as one of the first combat flight simulator
Combat flight simulator
Combat flight simulators are video games used to simulate military aircraft and their operations...
s to have a dynamic campaign environment. While the graphics, scenery and audio are quite sparse and basic, the instruments and flight dynamics of a F-16C Fighting Falcon are fully featured and modeled.
Opposition
The air opposition is made up from MiGs: Mikoyan MIG-31 Foxhound, Mikoyan MIG-27 Flogger and Mikoyan MIG-29 Fulcrum. Most of the missions start with the player inside a hangar, from which the player enters an IFF code, initiate engine start up, taxi without over-speeding, getting on the runway and takeoff - which adds to the tension if the base is under attack. On the ground, there are tank battalions (which moved to different locations as war progressed), radar & missiles installations and Triple-AAnti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
guns around enemy airfields. It is possible to shoot down friendly aircraft by gunfire, but friendly aircraft can not be designated or tracked by player's radar.
The simulation keeps a flying log of all the player's time on F-16 and "callsign", which also appears in the game when the player contacts the control tower at airfields. (For its time, this was a very advanced feature.) If the pilot "dies" in combat, this log is erased, and a new "pilot" is created. Any missions that are unsuccessful will have to be repeated.
Weapons
The weapons that can be used in the game include: AIM-120A AMRAAM, AIM-9M Sidewinder, Mk82 ( slicks and snakes ), Mk83 slicks, Mk84 slicks, AGM-88A HARM, BLU-107 Durandal, AGM-65 Maverick (IR guided "D" and laser guided"E"), M61A1 20mm cannon, LANTIRN Targeting podLANTIRN
Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night, or LANTIRN, is a combined navigation and targeting pod system for use on the USAF's premier fighter aircraft — the F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon...
, ATARS pod, and the external fuel tanks. The LANTIRN
LANTIRN
Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night, or LANTIRN, is a combined navigation and targeting pod system for use on the USAF's premier fighter aircraft — the F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon...
pod is possibly the first to appear in a combat flight simulation. All weapons behave as accurately as possible, missiles can miss if used incorrectly, fired at extreme angles in relation to the enemy fighter or the enemies used countermeasures; the missiles don't make impossible maneuvers to its target as prevalent in other combat simulations of its time.
Flight Dynamics
Dave Marshall of Digital Integration used to program real military flight simulators and had built up a huge library of the technical specifications for the F-16C and knew who to ask for some of the less readily available information, and this shows in F-16 Combat Pilot.The flight dynamics is one of the most accurate for its time. The landing is accurately difficult, the player has to master the AoA (Angle of Attack) and vertical velocity during approach, unlike other combat simulations of its time (e.g. F-15 Strike Eagle II
F-15 Strike Eagle II
F-15 Strike Eagle II is an F-15 Strike Eagle combat flight simulator released in 1989 by MicroProse and is the sequel of F-15 Strike Eagle. It was followed in 1992 by F-15 Strike Eagle III, the final game of the series....
had extremely unrealistic landings where all the player had to do is simply just aim the plane at the runway at any angle or speed). Not properly lined up would cause Autoland
Autoland
In aviation, autoland describes a system that fully automates the landing phase of an aircraft's flight, with the human crew merely supervising the process.-Description:...
(used in conjunction with ILS
Instrument Landing System
An instrument landing system is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument...
) to cancel if activated, and even landing too hard would damage the landing gear, or even cause a crash. Not following proper speed guidelines while taxiing or going too fast on the runway without lifting off would also damage the aircraft. Unlike other simulations of its time, landing on the nose-wheel would result in a crash due to gear collapse as in real life. A crash is represented with a full screen showing mini explosions, after which the debriefing screen would show up indicating whether or not the player survived. Hard crashes are usually unsurvivable, but the player may walk away from nose-wheel collapses and other minor crashes. The simulation allows the player to perform a wheels-up (belly) landing if the landing gear is damaged and not extendable, however landing has to be precise with a very low vertical velocity.
The airframe also has G-Force
G-force
The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...
limitations depending on whether the aircraft was fully loaded as the real F-16 has stores configuration categories. When fully loaded, the player can only pull 5.5G's, instead of the 9G's a clean F-16 is capable of. Airspeed & Mach speed would be lower when fully laden as well. The player can even jettison the fuel and weapons in the event of emergency to enable the aircraft to pull higher G's, such as in an emergency or in combat or an aborted mission. Spins and ground effect are not simulated, as is with other simulations of its time, although another rare feature, turbulence
Turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic and stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time...
is a user selectable option at Briefing & Weather screen. Turbulence in the simulation causes random and slight variations in the aircraft's bank angle and heading, making it a little bit more difficult to land, but it never affects the altitude.
Damage system is extensively modeled on F-16 Combat Pilot. Each system on board the player's aircraft can be damaged in combat, from radar, landing gear, flaps to ASPJ (Aircraft Self Protection Jammer), oxygen/cabin pressure systems, weapons, communications, navigation system or HUD
Head-Up Display
A head-up display or heads-up display is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints...
etc... If the player successfully returns to base with a damaged aircraft, the aircraft can be repaired and reused before the debrief screen, provided that given airfield has the necessary components and spare parts. This is indicated by color coded status in radio communications. The aircraft can survive near missile hits or enemy AAA
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
fire at times, but not a direct hit. When there is an on-board fire, the aircraft will be damaged and blown up subsequently (if the player do not eject immediately). It is not uncommon for players to have many "dead stick" landings with engine failure when returning damaged from combat, out of chaff and flare, and even out of fuel, being chased and fired upon by enemies.
Weather & Environment
Players fly in a large battlefield. A typical flight from one end of the battlefield to the other end usually takes about forty minutes, depending on the traveling speed the player is flying to. The faster the player flies to his target also has the effect of consuming more fuel than usual due to afterburners, especially at low altitude, so some fuel conservation, careful planning and flying is required to come out alive. This battlefield is dotted with 2 sides of factories, towns, airports, power stations, radar installations and tank battalions. This map can be viewed in the Mission Room. Once near enemy border, any flights above 500 feet will cause enemy radars to track the player and MiGs to scramble and vector into the players' position, so this requires flying at low altitude to infiltrate enemy territory for strike missions.Mountains are represented by same-sized pyramids. There are also rivers, bridges (which the player can fly under), SAM sites and roads which makes navigation easier (Bombing bridges has no effect on the progress of the war). The simulation has been thoroughly thought out - the surprise is that landing on an enemy airfield means that the player has "defected", and this shows in the debriefing screen. It is also possible to land on roads - which are much narrower and trickier to land on - but this also has the same effect of landing at an enemy airport, and the simulation shows that the player has "defected" from his country.
When flying over towns, one can easily spot the various buildings representing churches, hospitals, and various other buildings. Flying over power stations, one can make out the cooling towers, and so on. It is fairly easy to distinguish visually in between which area you are flying over based on recognizing the landmarks, but such navigation is not really necessary due to the waypoint computer which shows the target waypoint, distance and estimated time to reach it within the cockpit, assuming that this was set in the Mission Room.
While it is not possible to fly into a "wall" when flying out of the map - the player can fly out of the map until he or she runs out of fuel, but upon doing so there will be no more scenery, just a flat piece of land to fly in. The simulation also has a weather system ( fog and low cloud down to 500ft AGL ) and the combat can even be in the middle of the night.
In night flights, there are no outside visual references except for the green thermal image projected onto the HUD by the LANTIRN pods. There was however, lights on the ground though from towns and military installations, which gives very limited orientation from within the cockpit.
As the game was only viewable on 4 angles from within the cockpit, there is no "outside" look of the player's aircraft, increasing the realism. Many players rely on instruments to fly with, especially in low cloud covers or night missions, which add to the realism of the simulation, but can also be boring for those looking for a quick dogfight. There is an option for a "Quickstart" but even will require reading through the manual. Weather is random and cannot be manipulated except in the training sessions. It can be said this sim is not for the ordinary "arcade" style gamer, as the sheer depth of cockpit and campaign but relatively sparse environment are more suited for the simulator enthusiast.
Dynamic Campaign
This was the first flight simulator with a dynamic campaign. Once the player has become a Mission Commander (via achieving success on all other 5 missions without dying or failing the mission) he or she can control a squadron of other pilots which could be assigned missions by the player to help win the war, and attack targets such as power stations, factories, radar installations and SAM sites.The player can jump into the F-16 as well and perform his/her own mission objectives - this can be anything the player sets it on the mission map - from destroying a target destination or simply fly patrol and shoot down enemies, although it is not possible to communicate with squadron while in-flight. The AI aircraft are up to the task and do a pretty good job - but at the same time, the enemy aircraft AI are also doing a pretty good job attacking the allies.
As the war progresses, missions become simpler or more complex as both sides inflict damage, and strategy, (such as targeting factories and radar installations first) is required to win. Weapons and parts may even become unavailable as time goes by.
Known Bugs
When the radar is on, the target cue will light up in the HUD (looking out front) where the enemy aircraft is located on the screen for a brief moment, immediately after looking out left, right or rear angles. This gives a clue where the enemy is, and the player can use this advantage to track where the target is effectively no matter the enemy is on his left, right or from behind. This appears in the PC version, but it is not known whether it also happens in any other version.Game Reception
F-16 Combat Pilot, although a very good simulator, did not receive much popularity as the PC version was released a year later than Spectrum HolobyteSpectrum HoloByte
Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher originally based in Alameda, California.The company was founded in 1983 and was most famous for its simulation games, notably the Falcon series of flight simulators and Vette!, a driving simulator from 1989...
's Falcon (computer game)
Falcon (computer game)
The Falcon line of computer games is a series of simulations of the F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft. The games were developed and published by Spectrum HoloByte...
, of which the latter was more popular and had much more advanced graphics and audio for its time, and by 1991 the very popular Falcon 3.0 was released. The game was also never released with VGA graphics and soon looked very dated.
F-16 Combat Pilot was voted "best flight simulator" by the European Computer Leisure Awards 1990.
Digital Integration repackaged and released the game in 1994 under Action Sixteen publishing label after fixing the compatibility issue with Amiga 1200
Amiga 1200
The Amiga 1200, or A1200 , was Commodore International's third-generation Amiga computer, aimed at the home market...
computers, however the 14-MHz processor of the system ran the game faster than real-time.
Reviews
- Your Sinclair 92%
- Lemon 64 9/10
- Atari Magazine
- Amiga Reviews
- COMPUTE! Magazine
- Amiga Magazine Rack Review Collection
Screenshots
- http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/f-16-combat-pilot/screenshots
- http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/f-16-combat-pilot/screenshots