doug@edge.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (12/29/87)
Title: Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer (C-64 version)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Category: Flight Simulator; 3D out-of-cockpit view
Price: $28 discount
Overall Grade: B
Summary:
A big advance in "flyability" over the SubLogic Flight
Simulator II. This is for someone who wants to *fly*,
not try to figure out *how* to fly. The graphics are
mostly ugly, the program has many minor nuisance quirks,
and there need to be stronger scenarios to provide some
"point" to the flying.
[The following review applies to the C-64 version only. The IBM version
is apparently a much different animal.]
[This review written by an instrument-rated pilot with 1200 hours in single
engine light planes and 10 hours in a genuine F-16 simulator he once worked
on for a living.]
Contrary to first impressions, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer (AFT)
is not just an updated version of the SubLogic Flight Simulator II (FS-II).
If you've flown FS-II, you know what I mean when I say that FS-II seemed to
be an instrument flight trainer at heart. You flew it by radios and numbers
and carefully measured control movements. You monitored your position and
your attitude via the instrument panel. Looking out the window was just for
sight-seeing. Landing was difficult, and landing FS-II anywhere close to
the runway was almost impossible.
I'd guess General Yeager doesn't enjoy that sort of flying nearly as much as
just jumping in the nearest plane and relying on sight, sound, and feel to
tell him where he is and what the plane's doing. THAT is the kind of flying
that AFT is for. To fly AFT you grab the joystick in one hand, place your
other hand over the throttle keys, look out the windshield and GO. The
simulator reacts perfectly to "attitude flying", and an awful lot of work
has been put into providing just the right visual cues to allow you to fly
without over-reliance on the instrument panel.
So just how flyable is AFT? Well... the very first time that I tried
landing at the airport, I landed perfectly, nicely aligned with the runway,
and stopped within the first 1/4 of the runway's length. Now I make my
landing approaches any way I dang please. How about in an F-16 crossing
7000 feet over the runway at .8 Mach, then pulling power back to flight
idle, rolling inverted, popping the gear and pulling the stick back to
split-S onto final approach? What do you know, another perfect landing!
Actually, the ease in landing is just a "special case"; a major design
consideration in AFT was "stick and rudder" flying at high speed and low
altitude. Flying 450 mph in an experimental jet at only 200 feet off the
deck, rolling to knife-edge (90 degree bank) and hauling back on the stick
to make a sharp turn is "just routine". (!!!)
I think that sets the stage. Now for a detailed description and evaluation.
There are a few things which make AFT so relatively easy to fly. The
"stick" operates a little differently than with most simulators. The
position of the stick appears on the "front window" as a white square.
The joystick moves the square left/right/up/down, and you get the
appropriate result. Pressing the "fire" button will center the stick (in
left/right only), but I actually have more trouble flying if I use this
feature than if I center the stick by hand. The front window also has a
small mark in the center which provides a reference point both for the
stick position and for the nose attitude of the aircraft.
What they did to make low-level flight easier is so bizarre, I imagine that
it could only have been determined by lengthy trial-and-error experiments.
They've littered the ground with, of all things, balls about 5 feet in
diameter! As you drop below 200 feet, the balls become visible. As you
drop lower, they get bigger and bigger. As the tops of the balls get close
to the horizon, you're getting awfully close to the ground.
The instrument panel display is clearly legible even though I use a TV set
instead of a monitor. It contains no radios, no fuel gauges, and no warning
lights. It has an airspeed indicator and an altimeter, a vertical speed
indicator and a compass; all presented as rotating needle gauges (plus a
digital 1000-foot counter on the altimeter). The way the compass is
presented is disorienting to me as an experienced pilot, but should be no
problem for non-pilots.
The gyroscopic Attitude Indicator (or Artificial Horizon) is mainly useful
for orientation during aerobatic maneuvers. It's too slow and insensitive
to use for normal flight.
The only engine gauge is a bar-graph showing percent of full power. There
are also indicators for Landing Gear up/down, Flaps up/down, and Brakes
on/off. There's a slip/skid ball, but the C-64 version of AFT has automatic
rudder coordination. In an apparent afterthought, the lower right corner of
the screen has ordinary text telling how many G's you're pulling; how tacky.
The instrument panel has a dreadful drawback. If you switch to a different
view, when you switch back to the front view it takes 18 seconds (!) to read
the panel display back in off the disk. Fortunately, AFT flies so nicely
that there's no real *need* to switch to any of the other views. And AFT
does provide a "front view without instrument panel" so you can switch back
and forth rapidly between views if you really need to.
There's also a HUD (Heads Up Display) which you can switch on and off. But
on the C-64 version, about all it does is put a line on the right side of
the screen which indicates your engine power setting. In the upper left
corner three inverse-video letters may appear: "B" if the Brakes are on,
"F" if the Flaps are down, and "G" if the landing Gear is down. If you
use the rudder pedals to provoke uncoordinated flight, a line appears at
the bottom of the window showing the rudder position (relative to the
correct position). Also, a black "+" marks the position of the main airport
(which is about the only way you'll ever find it if you leave the area).
AFT provides a couple of unusual viewpoint options. I've already mentioned
"front without instrument panel"; there are times when flying aerobatic
maneuvers near obstacles on the ground when being able to "see through the
instrument panel" is really helpful. AFT also provides a view from behind
your plane, they call it a "chase plane" view. Another unusual viewpoint
is from the control tower at the main airport; I haven't found any use for
that. Like FS-II, AFT provides an overhead view, they call it a "satellite"
view, but unlike FS-II it's too "tight" -- the area you can see is all so
close to the plane that it doesn't do much good. All viewpoints, even the
ordinary front-with-instrument-panel view, have a "zoom" feature.
The graphics themselves move somewhat faster than FS-II. But it's still not
fast enough for my taste, especially when there are complex objects on the
screen. Some positive notes: when the graphics database has to be updated
because you've flown into a new area, the delay is hardly noticeable (less
than a second). When you switch viewpoints, the new image comes up very
quickly (less than 1/2 second) except for that danged instrument panel. And
very good news: the rate at which the program reads -- and reacts to -- the
joystick seems to be unaffected by the rate at which the graphics can be
displayed, so the aircraft performs predictably regardless of the graphics.
The simulation recognizes a number of pilot screw-ups. Besides the obvious
goof of plowing into the ground, striking an object also will shorten your
flight. And the first time you try pulling 15 Gs in a tight turn at Mach 2,
you'll find the screen suddenly went black -- the words "black out" in the
lower left corner should clue you in. Similarly, a few planes will let you
push enough negative G's to "red out". I've stalled a number of times, and
there is a stall-warning horn. But I haven't been able to provoke a spin.
The simulation does *not* provide clouds, nor wind, nor night-time nor dusk.
It does give you a black sky when you "cross the threshold of space" at
91,000 feet. It also gives a "bang" sound when slowing below Mach 1. Does
anyone know if that makes sense, to get a bang when dropping below the speed
of sound but not when breaking the barrier in the first place? Is that from
flying through your own shock wave?
AFT provides five flight scenarios, either selected from a menu (AFT is
really heavy into menus) or by function key. There are three normal
scenarios: Test Flight, Follow the Leader, and Racing. The other two
scenarios are Training and Demo. There is no dogfight/combat scenario --
the package says that they're working on a separate combat simulator.
Test Flight is the basic "just you and your plane, go find some trouble to
get into" scenario. In Test Flight, you get your choice of 14 different
planes. Two single-engine light planes: Cessna 172 and Cherokee 235; two
WW-I fighters: Sopwith Camel and Spad XIII; two WW-II fighters: P-51 and
Spitfire; two modern supersonic jet fighters: F-16 and F-18; two rocket
planes: X-1 and X-3; the SR-71 Blackbird spyplane; and three made-up
experimental jets.
Because all of the real jets are supersonic, they're a bit of a nuisance for
playful flight -- it takes forever to make a turn at Mach 1.5. One of the
made-up experimental jets (the XPG-12) is designed specifically as a well-
mannered subsonic jet for horsing around in.
The various planes sure are different in the way they fly. I hope that
they're reasonably accurate, and I'd imagine that the ones that Yeager's
actually flown a lot probably are. But the Sopwith Camel seems to sit in a
tricycle gear stance on the ground, it turns left and right with the same
ease, there's no precession effect from turns/climbing/diving, and it's got
a throttle control. The Camel that's simulated here is quite nice to fly,
something I've never heard said about the genuine article. In a more
obvious oversight, the Cessna 172 sits in a taildragger stance on the
ground. And in a less serious faux pas, the F-16 has a Flaps switch.
What you do in Test Flight is up to you. You can do serious test flying
(the manual describes the tests to be made), or you can just do your own
tests (e.g. see how fast you can get the SR-71 going).
If you want you can go out exploring the world. Unfortunately, AFT doesn't
provide any way of determining your position except by looking out the
window, so it's difficult to draw any sort of map.
If you want to just go play around with the plane, the "world" database
includes a number of fun things for you to fly around, between, and under.
Unfortunately, the objects are simple, plain, and sometimes ugly. More bad
news: all of the objects are just scattered here and there; the database
desperately needs to have some roads and stuff to tie them together.
Even the main airport has some toys. At the south end of the runway is a
"hangar" 200 feet high which provides a nice "window" to aim at when landing
(and a choice target for showing off by flying through at Mach 1.5!) At the
north end is a box 50 feet high, which provides an "FAA standard" 50'
obstacle for takeoff and landing practice. There are two other airports;
the one that I've seen (40 miles east of the main airport) has clear runways
without obstacles.
AFT lets you select your initial position from a menu which includes the
seven major "playgrounds" as well as the usual spots on and near the main
airport. The bad news: there's no way for you to "program in" any other
initial positions; you always have to start at one of the standard points.
More bad news: if you change aircraft you automatically get reset to the
most recent starting point so you can't use a jet to get you somewhere
fast and then change to the plane you really wanted. Small consolation:
you can move North, South, East, or West by 40 mile jumps.
They call the Follow-the-Leader scenario "Formation Flying". I think that
"follow the leader" says it better. There are six pre-defined sequences,
three in P-51s, two in Spads, and one in the XPG-12 jet. In addition, you
can define three sequences of your own, in your choice of plane at your
choice of location, via a kludge which turns on recording and puts you in
Test Flight.
Sorry to say, but the graphics for the lead plane are downright ugly -- not
at all like the picture on the package (taken on a PC). On the other hand,
I seldom got close enough to notice how ugly the plane is. :-) The lead
plane leaves a short trail of smoke puffs.
When the lead plane is done, the flight is over and you receive a score on
a scale of 0 to 100.
The Racing scenario pits you against another plane, flying at low altitudes
through a series of gates. There are five race courses; three are flown in
the P-51, one in the Spad, and one in the F-18. Every time you win a race,
your winning flight becomes the competition for the next race -- this lets
you hand the controls to somebody else with a "Try and beat that!", or you
can try to improve on your "personal best". You also have the option of
saving that flight on disk as the permanent competition. There is also an
option to scrap the current competition; your next race will be by yourself,
and your performance in that race will then become the competition.
As with Follow-the-Leader, the graphics for the other plane are awful.
I think there might be a bug in the Racing scenario: I've had a few times
where partway through the race the game just "locked up" and I had to turn
off the computer and reload the game.
The Training scenario offers an unusual "follow along" approach to learning
to fly. Your "stick" appears on the screen (as always) as a small white
box. Your instructor's "stick" appears as a bigger black box. As you go
through the lesson, you can see the instructor's "stick" moving, and if you
want you can move your stick to match. If you want to try flying, hit the
CTRL key and "you've got the plane." Oh, and the lesson is supplemented by
a running commentary on the bottom line of the screen.
There are three levels to Training: Basic, Advanced, and Aerobatic. Don't
be misled by the word "Advanced"; these are just stalls and steep turns and
such. The Aerobatic training does not include the Hammerhead Stall claimed
on the package; the aerobatic lessons are Aileron Roll, Loop, Slow Roll,
Immelman, Split S, and Cuban 8.
Although the Follow-the-Leader and Racing scenarios and the various objects
to fly around and through do provide a lot more to do once you're airborne
than FS-II ever did, it's still not quite enough for me. I doubt that I'll
be dragging AFT out to play with it on a regular basis once the novelty has
worn off. This is my main reason for rating AFT only a grade "B".
The manual is quite thick by Electronic Arts standards -- 45 pages. But
don't let that mislead you. After you've read it you're not sure you
learned much about the program. The biggest problem is that the manual is
for the IBM PC version, and the package includes two pages of differences
in the C-64 version -- differences that nearly void out the original manual.
The two versions are so different that Electronic Arts *definitely* should
have printed separate manuals.
Fortunately, what with the menus for option selection and the easy flight,
you can pretty much ignore the manual -- just look at the control key
listing on the reference card and start playing. Even there I've found an
oversight: they didn't mention that the "+" and "-" keys can be used to
make small throttle adjustments (2.5% per step).
A couple of notes on the package. I've already pointed out that it is in
error about having a training lesson for Hammerhead Stalls. In the case of
the C-64, it's also in error about having a "black box recorder" to "save
your finest stunts" -- that's a PC-only feature. The pictures are from the
PC version, but they only say that *inside* the package. And take a close
look at the second picture on the back: the Attitude Indicator shows the
plane in a right bank, but the view out the window is a *left* bank!
To sum up, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer has some shortcomings, and
the graphics are generally ugly, and there are a few signs that it might
have been rushed out the door just a mite, and I don't know how long it will
continue to hold my interest, but flying it *is* an absolute ball!
--
Doug Pardee -- Edge Computer Corp., Scottsdale, AZ -- uunet!ism780c!edge!doug,
{ames,hplabs,sun,amdahl,ihnp4,allegra}!oliveb!edge!doug, mot!edge!dougdoug@edge.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (12/30/87)
[If anyone replies solely on rec.aviation, I won't see your postings. Edge no longer receives any rec newsgroups. E-mail or crosspost to comp.sys.cbm] I thought of a couple things I should add to my review of Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer for the C-64: >The graphics themselves move somewhat faster than FS-II. But it's still not >fast enough for my taste, especially when there are complex objects on the >screen. I should point out that where FS-II uses line drawings with hidden line removal, the objects in AFT are filled-in solids. That unfortunately means that the addition of each new object to the picture really slows the graphics down. >Every time you win a race, >your winning flight becomes the competition for the next race... >... You also have the option of >saving that flight on disk as the permanent competition. I thought this was what the manual said. But upon trying it, I find that the competition doesn't change if you don't save to disk. I haven't tried saving to disk yet. >A couple of notes on the package... I also note that the sticker on the package says C-64 version, joystick recommended. I guess you *could* run the Demo flight without a joystick :-) If you want to select something else off of the menus, or if you actually want to fly, a joystick is *required*. -- Doug Pardee -- Edge Computer Corp., Scottsdale, AZ -- uunet!ism780c!edge!doug, {ames,hplabs,sun,amdahl,ihnp4,allegra}!oliveb!edge!doug, mot!edge!doug