chris@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Chris Schanzle) (11/19/87)
Well, it finally was released: The F-15 fighter simulation by Sphere (formally Spectrum Holobyte). Here are my initial thoughts on the program (after playing for about 10 hours). First, the program (like all too many Macintosh programs) seems to be a first release. There are several pecularities to keep it from crashing when you start Falcon. (RAM Cache _MUST_ be off, program disk #1 MUST be in the internal drive.) WARNING: Even though they say the program works on the Mac512, they are referring to the old ROMS -- you cannot run this program without at least one meg of memory (and it seems to need every byte of it). This program is BIG - two full 800K HFS disks. First off, the graphics and sound are EXCELLENT, but the animation is something on the order of 4 frames per second, yielding in some pretty gittery motions of both the scenery and of enemy aircraft. I think this is on the order of Microsoft's Flight Sim, but when you're dogfighting and making VERY sharp maneuvers, the jitterishness really is kinda bad. However, I must admit, I'm not being quite all fair to the mac - its capabilities are limited - certainly not an Iris workstation running FLIGHT. The controls are implemented VERY well with the mouse. True, I would prefer a joystick (it's on the Christmas list!) and there is support for the Kraft Quickstick. Basically, when you move the mouse, you move the controls. Unlike other simulators (like MS Flightsim), the controls center themselves when the mouse stops moving. This may seem strange, but it allows you to bank into a turn by moving the mouse, and when you've reached the degree of bank you want, you stop moving the mouse and you will not "roll over." I'm sure there's someone out there who's saying, "Lord, I'll be putting MILES on my mouse in no time!" Well, like I said, they thought this one out. If you hold down the mouse button when you move the mouse, the controls will not center themselves until you release the button. GREAT MOVE GUYS! Unlike other simulations, Sphere implemented this one via Missions (scenarios to shoot down enemy aircraft, bomb specific airports, headquarters, etc...etc...about a dozen in all). For each mission, you choose your level of difficulty (your RANK as an officer). The lowest level has some of the following traits: uncrashable, super-engine (never stalls, can climb vertical and accelerate -- rather unrealistic for the F-15), plane never stalls, enemy weapons are very inaccurate (I can't remember getting shot down in this mode), and the enemy doesn't fly very difficult maneuvers. As you go up in the levels, all these characteristics get more realistic - and more difficult, obviously. As I mentioned earlier, the sounds are excellent, the views out of the cockpit are fantastic, and the realism of the equipment (radar, HUDs, weapons). However, this brings us to.... Less-than-wonderful points: ILS (landing helper) sometimes glitches way off to the side. (once I was told to come to heading -254...not an easy heading to get to!) Remote game playing has not been finished yet (but a free upgrade "check box" has been included on the registration card). I was hoping for smoother animation. The player has no control over what aspects of the mission are realistic or fudged. For example, the enemy seems to "get on my six" too quickly for low level missions. I don't mind the "Ranks" idea, but it would be really nice to be able to customize exactly what is going to be realistici and what isn't. If the plane is flying straight and level, airspeed has no effect on whether you are climbing or diving (even on the highest levels, where the plane should behave like the real thing.) I haven't seen many F-15's that can fly level at 100 knots w/o loosing altitude. When you crash, you get a single trumpet death tune (can't remember the name of it off hand). However, on a two drive system, just after you die, the disk drive comes on to read some more info. For those who don't know what happens when the mac tries to play asyncronous sounds throught the sound buffer while the disk drive is doing I/O, it sounds pretty bad. The other occasion where this is a problem is just after you select your weapons. Jets in the background take off every 30 secs or so and you hear them kick in the afterburner. About 25% of the time, after you click the <TAKEOFF> box, disk I/O is done right when the plane in the background takes off. Sounds horrible. Since the program needs all the memory it can get, desk accessaries are not available (just an "About Falcon"). This is a bummer if you forgot to kick up the sound - you have to return to the Finder, turn up the sound, and wait another minute (on floppies) for the program to load again. Also, they need to make the program die more gracefully if it runs out of memory (e.g., you forgot to turn off the RAM cache). Overall, I personally am more than happy I bought the program from MacConnection for $27. Like the programmer's plea says, the manual is worth it. I do hope, however, that when they finish the remote combatting (hook two computers together and both players fight each other), they will remove some of the current bugs and inaccuracies. For those who care, the program is not copy protected, therefore you can install it on your hard disk (I can't wait until I get mine). If I were Sphere, I wouldn't worry too much about people copying their program...you really need the manual to learn about all the instrumentation and how to use the weapons. A final warning - I don't think this is an easy simulator to fly. The pilot has a lot to learn at first, although the manual is excellent at getting you up and flying (I was up in 5 minutes). I have yet to land successfully on the higher levels (I feel due to the above-mentioned characteristic that the plan doesn't "mush"). If you have any other questions, please feel free to send mail. -- ARPA : chris@umbc3.UMD.EDU BITNET : chris@umbc "He was betrayed by the limits of his own potential."
chris@umbc3.UUCP (11/19/87)
In article <582@umbc3.UMD.EDU> chris@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Chris Schanzle) writes: > >Well, it finally was released: The F-15 fighter simulation by >Sphere (formally Spectrum Holobyte). Here are my initial thoughts >on the program (after playing for about 10 hours). > Please forgive my brainfade everyone...I certainly meant F-16 throughout the entire article. Two other things I forgot to mention: The keyboard response is quite slow. To be sure a key is "registered", you have to hold it down for 1/2 of a sec. This can be frustrating when trying to switch to guns when you suddenly find yourself flying head-to- head and you are in missle mode. Second, a tip for those using the mouse: you might try to set the mouse control to "tablet" for less sensitivity. This seems to help stick control. -- ARPA : chris@umbc3.UMD.EDU BITNET : chris@umbc "He was betrayed by the limits of his own potential."
dwb@apple.UUCP (11/20/87)
In article <582@umbc3.UMD.EDU> chris@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Chris Schanzle) writes: > >Well, it finally was released: The F-15 fighter simulation by >Sphere (formally Spectrum Holobyte). Here are my initial thoughts >on the program (after playing for about 10 hours). Since the nickname of the F15 is "Eagle" and the nickname of the F16 is "Falcon" it seems reasonable that Falcon is in actuality an F16 simulation rather than an F15. -- David W. Berry dwb@well.uucp dwb@Delphi dwb@apple.com 973-5168@408.MaBell Disclaimer: Apple doesn't even know I have an opinion and certainly wouldn't want if they did.