rdd@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Robert Dorsett) (11/12/89)
Sublogic's the company which produces Flight Simulator (which, for the Mac
and IBM PC, is distributed by Microsoft).
JET was apparently smuggled out the back door of Sublogic sometime last year,
and with good reason: it's a disappointment. Every bit as bad as I had heard
the PC version to be, but there are some interesting goodies in the box.
Here's what one gets in the package:
1. The Jet disk.
2. The Jet manual.
3. A quick-reference card
4. Registration card
5. The Flight Simulator Osaka/Tokyo scenery disk
6. A map for the Osaka/Tokyo scenery disk
7. A booklet with airport/approach information for the Osaka/Tokyo scenery
disk.
8. Order form for a binder to hold scenery disk booklets.
And here's what it all boils down to:
1. JET.
The disk is 400K MFS, running Finder 4.1. The program and support files
amount to 270K. The program can only run on an SE or lower. The program
was not written according to the Macintosh User Interface Guidelines: it's
menu-oriented (i.e., given a list of options, one presses a key to select
the option. :-)). Indeed, it's quite telling that the program defaults to a
PC or Apple-style keyboard mode to control the airplane, rather than a mouse
(the mouse may be selected, though, and works fine).
Two aircraft types are supported: an F-16 and F-18. Each of these two types
may support three game scenarios: free flight, ground target, or a "combined"
air/ground game. All of these scenarios (even at level 9, the "hardest") are
very easy, and not much of a challenge.
The cockpit of each of the airplanes amounts to a large "window" view, a tape
mach indicator on the left, a tape altitude indicator on the right (nicely
done), a fixed ADF/DME, compass, and scoring information. If the mach indicator
is any indication, the airplane's performance is not very realistic. The
compass indicator, which displays a thirty-degree spread, is almost useless,
due to the lack of a lubber line. There's also a g-meter, which doesn't work
(pulling 0.7 g's while whipping around in an eighty degree climbing turn at
Mach 1.0 is interesting...:-)).
Performance-wise, each aircraft is a super-plane: very good performance (carrier
launches to 1000', easy :-)), with a service ceiling at 49,200' (literally:
one can be zooming up pell-mell, and "hit the ceiling." The aircraft's nose
keeps bouncing up against it at the current thrust and attitude. Hilarious).
The default scale for the head-up display does not correlate with the airplane's
attitude: 20 degrees on the HUD equals about 45 degrees looking out over the
left wing. The HUD itself is far inferior to Falcon's, but is probably an
improvement over Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer.
The F-18 operates from an aircraft carrier. The runway (indeed, all runways)
are enormous, and not the slightest challenge to land on.
The graphics are very good, with nice object representation, and surprisingly
good performance, considering the shading and complexity of the scenery. The
program does not, however, run in color (or, indeed, even on a Mac II).
Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, in comparison, is better.
It should be emphasized that this is a video game, and not even a good one
at that. The documentation says that JET incorporates features from an
"unreleased" Amiga product, so I can only wonder how bad the IBM version is.
A friend commented that he'd seen a Nintendo game that was more impressive.
Particularly after spending some time with Hill's fine, fine P-51 simulator,
JET is a bit of a disappointment.
2. The manual.
Reasonably decent, but there's little in the program itself to wax poetic about.
The manual for Falcon's a lot more interesting to read.
3. Quick-reference card.
Believe me, one NEEDS the quick-reference card. This program maps almost every
key on the keyboard, PLUS command-keys, PLUS shift-keys, PLUS shift-command
keys.
4. Warranty card.
Standard warranty card, EXCEPT the serial number of the program is not stamped.
This leads me to conclude that this program really is a whimsical cash-cow for
Sublogic, and probably a demo to support the...
5. Scenery disk.
I'd be pretty pissed off about buying JET, if it wasn't for the freebie scenery
disk which was packaged along with it. For those of you who don't know,
Sublogic's been publishing scenery disks, to expand upon and complement the
standard Flight Simulator database, for years. This is the first time I've
seen a Mac disk (there are apparently three more for the Mac, for Europe,
the Eastern seaboard, and the northeastern US).
The disk covers an area from approximately 100 miles northeast of Tokyo to
Osaka. It's reasonably detailed, with a couple dozen airports, a lot of ILS
approaches, and a bunch of navaids.
The MS-FLIGHT disk can also be used as a scenery disk with Jet. One thing
worth noting is that something I've suspected for a long time is true: the
MS-FLIGHT Learjet is much faster than an F-16. :-) The Learjet flies at about
Mach 2, at full throttle, with the Learjet only about Mach 1.5. :-)
6. Map
Large-scale, covers the scenery disk area. Nicer than the ones that come
with MS-Flight.
7. Booklet
Documents every airport, and actually include ILS approach charts for a dozen
or so approaches.
8. Order form
Apparently targeted at non-Mac owners, intended to give the user the opportunity
to buy a binder to put all of his scenery disks in. :-) Considering that other
computer owners have over a dozen disks to choose from, and Mac owners *four*,
this just emphasizes the blandness of the package.
Summary:
JET is a boring piece of trash, little above the Harrier game in terms of
sophistication and realism (Harrier, in fact, is more challenging :-)).
However, considering that the program can be found for $30 or less, and the
scenery disks go for $24.95 (overpriced at that, though), it probably isn't
such a bad deal, at least on paper.
My Revised Ranking of Flight Simulators.
(best to worst)
1. P-51 Mustang
2. Microsoft Flight Simulator (actually, pretty lousy, but good radio
environment).
3. Yeager Advanced Flight Trainer
4. Fokker Tri-plane
5. Falcon (1.0 and 2.0)
6. Mac Challenger (space shuttle approach simulator) (2)
7. Jet
8. Harrier
Robert Dorsett
Internet: rdd@rascal.ics.utexas.edu
UUCP: ...cs.utexas.edu!rascal.ics.utexas.edu!rdd