F-16 COMBAT PILOT

 I thought it'd be a long time before anything even beginning to approach the
depth, complexity, and realism of Spectrum HoloByte's FALCON would appear again.
Imagine my delight and surprise when I discovered another air combat simulator
that not only equals FALCON in performance, but goes many steps further! F-16
COMBAT PILOT is probably the best F-16 simulator currently on the market, and it
incorporates a number of important new capabilities missing from previous flight
simulation software. (This review is based on the Amiga version; Atari ST and
Commodore 64/128 version notes follow.)

 You begin the program in the crew room. By clicking the mouse on various
images, you can: obtain technical data on all available weaponry; review full
technical information on all enemy planes; examine a file of pilot logs;
initiate a full demonstration; enter a "Quickstart" mode; specify keyboard or
joystick/mouse control; and select mission assignment -- which sends you out the
door to an overhead view of the Pentagon, where missions are available.

 At any time, you may engage one of three modes (training, full missions, or
head-to-head), but you're well advised to start with the "Training Squadron."
There are five missions in either full or training mode: "Scramble" is
air-to-air interception; "Watchtower" involves secret Reconnaissance;
"Tankbuster" is battlefield close air support; "Hammerblow" is a full offensive
counterair operation; and "Deepstrike" is an interdictor strike. Each mission
offers its particular challenges and configurations; there is no deliberate
increase in difficulty from one to the next, although I found Hammerblow and
Deepstrike to be the most difficult.

 In Training mode, you'll have an opportunity to learn how to handle the plane
in both Free Flight and Landing modes. F-16 COMBAT PILOT sacrifices nothing in
terms of flight and control realism: The plane is really tough to fly and land,
even more so than in FALCON. You're encouraged to learn how to control the plane
via the mouse or joystick, but I found both to be much too "twitchy" for smooth
handling; keyboard control is simpler. I should mention, though, that in a real
F-16, the fly-by-wire control stick is pressure-sensitive: You don't really move
the stick; you just push it slightly in one direction or the other. The
joystick/mouse control in F-16 COMBAT PILOT emulates this characteristic as
realistically as possible. (Advanced Gravis has recently released a device
called The MouseStick -- a highly sophisticated, highly configurable
analog/digital joystick. I haven't tried it yet, but properly configured, the
MouseStick would probably work quite well as a control-stick analog.)

 It's apparent that the designers of F-16 COMBAT PILOT didn't expect you to walk
in off the street and just start flying. They've provided extensive and
extremely useful Air Traffic Control (ATC), a major first for flight simulators
of any ilk, civilian or military. Contacting ATC at departure gives you
clearance for takeoff, and when you return to a friendly airport for landing,
you may: a) use the ILS system to land manually; b) contact Ground Control to
talk you down; or, c) turn on an automatic landing mode (once you're locked onto
the ILS cross-hairs) that guides you safely onto the runway -- although you'll
still have to bring your nose down and come to a halt before the runway ends.

 The Ground Control talk-down involves first contacting the tower from within
adequate range, then selecting the Ground Control option, and then following the
series of instructions displayed in the communications window of the "Up Front
Control Panel." Ground Control leads you through a full (civilian) "pattern" --
a series of maneuvers used in real flight to safely position the plane for its
"final approach." This can be confusing for beginners, because GC's instructions
might first direct you _away_ from the airport in order to initiate the approach
pattern. However, the manual does mention the process, so careful preparation
before flying (by closely reading the entire manual) should make things clearer.

 Another major first in F-16 COMBAT PILOT is the full Electronic Strategic
Display (ESD). Before take-off, you can file a flight-plan (consisting of up to
five different "waypoints"), and can engage various controls to display or
remove eight different types of enemy targets on the ESD. For instance, if
you're heading in for reconnaissance, you can plot a course that will take you
past SAMs and around mountain ranges for greatest invisibility; then you can use
the waypoint computer in-flight to fly from point to point. This works somewhat
like its equivalent in Microprose's GUNSHIP and F-19, except that the
information available is much denser, and the waypoint plotting is performed
_before_ starting a mission.

 At the ESD, you may also read your mission objectives, gather intelligence
reports on enemy positions and status, and determine weather conditions. You
have the option of configuring weather here, as well; the factors include cloud
level, wind direction and turbulence, and time of day (day or night). Both day
and night missions are possible, and there is special equipment that allows you
to use infra-red (IR) detection during night flights.

 Upon leaving the ESD, you can go to the weapons selection screen, which works
much like the one in FALCON (except that full technical info on each system is
available during selection). If you so choose, ground crew will offer you a
recommended configuration for each type of weapon; otherwise, you can
custom-configure your combination of weapons, special instruments, and extra
fuel tanks. There are five save/load positions available to store any custom
configurations you design, for use on future missions.

 Finally, it's time to take off and execute your mission. The instrument
displays are far too numerous to describe in a short review; suffice it to say
that they're highly competitive with those available in FALCON. A few of the
technical features in FALCON's HUD are missing from the HUD in F-16 COMBAT
PILOT, but only a few. This simulation also offers some improvements over FALCON
in radar display and configuration possibilities, and the availability of
weapons and special instruments is enhanced, as well.

 I always make a point of completely finishing a game or simulation before
writing my review. However, due to F-16 COMBAT PILOT's difficulty and realism, I
haven't yet reached the "Operation Conquest" squadron mode. Therefore, review of
that function -- perhaps one of the most important and innovative in the
simulation -- will have to be postponed. To briefly summarize its operation: If
you successfully complete all five missions in full mode, you're made Squadron
Commander. At that point, you can participate in the first of a series of
squadron-level raids; these raids make up the full-scale war that's built into
the hundreds of square miles of territory within the simulation. You choose
which of the five planes in the squadron you're going to fly for each mission,
and specify which of the five missions each of your planes will handle during
the raid. I look forward to testing this aspect of the program; if it's as
thoroughly designed as the rest of the simulation, it should be quite amazing.

 The program is distributed on one copy-protected disk that can remain
write-protected. F-16 COMBAT PILOT can be neither copied to, nor installed on, a
hard disk. The on-disk copy protection is supplemented by a word-lookup
copy-protection scheme as well. The program requires 512K of RAM, one floppy
drive, and a blank disk for your pilot logs; a joystick is recommended.

 F-16 COMBAT PILOT is not an arcade game; it's a very complex simulation. If
you're looking for something that's easy to fly, yet offers the thrill and
exhilaration of the sheer motion of flight, look to JETFIGHTER, F-15 STRIKE
EAGLE II, or F/A-18 INTERCEPTOR. Graphically speaking, these programs are also
more "beautiful," although the out-the-window graphics in F-16 COMBAT PILOT are
very striking (and a definite improvement over FALCON's). However, if you want
an air combat simulator as technically sophisticated and as realistic as FLIGHT
SIMULATOR 4.0, F-16 COMBAT PILOT won't disappoint you. In fact, the ATC and
flight-plan options available in this program _far_ surpass anything equivalent
in FS4, and the instrumentation, flight and landing characteristics, and control
are as satisfying as those you'll find in the best flight simulators anywhere.

 ATARI ST VERSION NOTES

 Although F-16 COMBAT PILOT for the Atari ST functions much the same as the
Amiga version, it's not a game that will replace either FALCON or OPERATION
COUNTERSTRIKE (both from Spectrum HoloByte). You'll need 512K, a color monitor,
and a blank, formatted disk for the Pilot's Log. You can configure F-16 to work
with either mouse or joystick, although the equivalent keyboard commands are
always available. Good thing, too, because I've yet to see a flight simulator
with a controller more effective than a keyboard.

 Flight and combat are predictably tricky due to all the cockpit activity. The
arrow keys provide views out of the cockpit; the keypad controls throttle,
pitch, roll, and rudder. Function keys control the multi-function and up-front
panels. The tab key selects weapons; the spacebar locks targets and fires
weapons. Either joystick or mouse can be used in place of pitch/roll/rudder
keystrokes.

 The ST F-16 COMBAT PILOT package comes with two copy-protected disks, a
complete and well-written instruction manual, and the "Pilot's Kneepad," a list
of all flight controls.

 While "ten squadrons" is merely "ten difficulty levels" spelled differently,
these levels and the strategic element of Squadron Commander add great depth to
what could have been Yet Another Cockpit Game. Graphics of the ST version are
mostly very good (especially the pre-flight screens), and the craft responded
reasonably well. The most obvious graphic glitches were the breakup of the
ground terrain -- something we should be used to by now -- and a HUD window that
sometimes seemed to be coming apart. These imperfections are minor cosmetic
flaws that won't detract from your enjoyment, and this ST version of F-16 COMBAT
PILOT has more than enough muscle and strategic depth to hold its own as a
combat simulator.

 COMMODORE 64/128 VERSION NOTES

 Despite many changes from the original Amiga program, the Commodore 64/128
version of F-16 COMBAT PILOT emerges from its translation in good shape. The
graphics are excellent, and the flight animation is about as sluggishly smooth
as we can expect on a small machine. What's more, the program disk is not
copy-protected, an unexpected bonus.

 While some features of the original program have been outright eliminated from
the C64 version (due to machine limitations), others have been incorporated into
different parts of the simulation. The Squardon Crew Room has been dropped
completely, and the first screen to appear after the title page is the Mission
Selection screen.

 Quick Start and Pilot's Log options are on this screen; Recall Game has been
incorporated in the Operation Conquest mission selection; Demo mode and the
two-player Gladiator option have been eliminated; and there is no Free Flight or
Landing practice, although you can use the five missions for training. To use
the Pilot's Log, you'll need a previously-formatted disk, but note that the
command line indicated in the C64 Pilot Kneepad (Command Summary card) will not
format a disk from Commodore BASIC.

 The Preflight Briefing screen dispenses with the Met Office; weather conditions
are now in a message window below the Electronic Strategic Display. There are no
Geological features on the ESD. At the Weapon Selection screen, you cannot Store
a preselected configuration of weapons, although the Ground Crew can fit the
F-16 with a configuration suitable for the current mission. Information about
the various weapons cannot be found on this screen; you'll have to read about
them in the manual.

 Perhaps the most notable changes in this version are the deletions of the Left
and Right Cockpit panel and Rear View displays. In fact, without these displays,
the C64 version of F-16 might even have a bit more muscle than the
graphics-laden 16-bit versions: No gaping or sightseeing, boys, just fly the
plane.

 The C64/128 F-16 COMBAT PILOT package comes with one disk that's not
copy-protected (there will be a documentation check), a complete instruction
manual, and the Pilot Kneepad, which in this case concerns the C64 version's
controls. A mouse is not supported, nor is keyboard steering; you'll need a
joystick.

 A flight simulator is a flight simulator, no matter what the developers would
like you to believe; what makes or breaks a simulation is what you can do with
it. The C64/128 version of F-16 COMBAT PILOT is as complicated as any good
flight simulator. It looks really good, and it has enough strategic depth to
justify its inclusion in your software library.

 F-16 COMBAT PILOT is published and distributed by Electronic Arts.

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