bob@eos.UUCP (Bob Krones) (06/11/88)
F/A-18 INTERCEPTOR a review by Robert Krones This game is selling rapidly. For good reason! It brings flight combat simulators to a new height of realism. Designed specifically for the Amiga, it has an update rate faster than FSII, faster than Jet or Harrier Combat Simulator, even faster than Ferrari Formula One. This makes the plane very easy to fly, so you can concentrate on your main mission--shooting enemy fighters out of the sky (in most cases). I had no problem landing my Cessna 182 (FSII) at 60 knots with the Amiga (on the C-64 I would crash half the time because of its slower update rate) but had trouble landing the Learjet. I landed the F-18 perfectly at 160 knots on the second try! "Perfectly" means landing on and staying on the runway. Landing on the aircraft carrier? --well, that's another story. Interceptor takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area. The scenery includes the San Francisco high rises, a few other large buildings, control towers and the bridges. You can fly under the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay bridges if you are good enough. There are fewer mountains than in FSII, however. There are several missions including identifying a bogey, protecting Air Force One from attack, intercepting stolen F-16s, and search and rescue. Some you fly from land bases (SFO, Alameda [really Oakland] and Moffett) and others from the Enterprise (no, not that one!) off the coast. Not all require combat but it usually seems to happen. All combat is air-air, there are no ground or naval strikes as there are in Jet. You can fly the Navy F-18 or the Air Force F-16. Enemy planes are (suprise!) MIGs. You are not allowed to start a combat tour of duty until you qualify at carrier landings. However, the disk comes with you already qualified so you can get a taste of combat before you decide to go through training and qualification. Training includes practice at basic maneuvers both as a passenger and following a lead plane. Once you start a tour of duty your combat record is saved on the disk--so play with a copy. Copy protection is by a key number looked up on a circular hex slide rule. You have to use this gadget before every combat mission. The display includes an instrument panel and a full-featured Head Up Display. You can look out of the cockpit in any direction and can also view your plane from outside from several aspects. You cannot split the screen as you can in Jet. The display seems dark to me and I have to increase the monitor brightness to see things clearly, especially those little red dots on the radar screen indicating enemy aircraft. When you down an enemy aircraft you see it break up in the air, fall trailing a smoke plume and explode when it hits the ground. The sound of the engine varies with power and maneuvers. You hear the sound of the landing gear retracting mechanism as well as various alerts, warnings, explosions and !the wind! (during the dramatic zoom down when you start a mission or floating down in a parachute after ejecting). One Meg of memory is recommended. If you have only 512K you will miss the opening music. If you also have a second drive plugged in, some other sounds are eliminated. The combination of realistic graphics and sounds create a powerful gestalt which causes me, at least, to become totally involved. Watch out, it may do the same to you. F/A-18 Interceptor is a superb simulation!