Falcon 3.0 1991 Flight Sim
Falcon 3.0 is a combat flight simulator released by Sphere Inc. for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in December of 1991.
Falcon 3.0 was conceived and designed by Gilman Louie of Falcon 1987 fame. The simulation was coded by Erick Jap, Gary Stottlemyer, Kuswara Pranawahadi and Les Watts.
A non-trivial evolution on Falcon 1987 Falcon 3.0 marks the point at which flight sims ramped up in terms of CPU clock-speed, RAM-size and FPU demands. Most notably, this resulted in no Atari ST or Amiga versions of Falcon 3.0 [1].
Falcon 3.0 Recommended Specifications
- >=25 MHz 80386 or 80486 CPU
- 6 megs of RAM (614,400 bytes of free conventional RAM and 4 megs of EMS RAM)
- Expanded memory manager (EMM 386, QEMM, 386MAX)
- 8087 floating-point coprocessor or 486/Pentium (High Fidelity flight model handling)
- 256-color VGA 320x200 graphics
- 11 megs of hard disk drive space
- Double-speed CD-ROM drive
- Sound Blaster and either a Roland MT-32 or Roland LAPC-1 sound card
- Control: Keyboard, Joystick, dual joysticks, CH FlightStick Pro, ThrustMaster Flight Control System (FCS), Kraft Thunderstick, rudder pedals (MAXX pedals), ThrustMaster Weapons Control System (WCS)
Falcon 3.0 was distributed on 4x 3.5" 1.44 MB HD diskettes and 1x 3.5" 720kB DS DD diskette and extracts and installs via the Falcon 3.0 Installation program. The install size is 10 megs and consists of 462 files.
Falcon 3.0 Features
- Pilot the F-16 Falcon and command an F-16 Squadron in 3x campaigns
- Displays in 256-color VGA 320x200
- 3D flat-shaded rendering engine
- Sprite-based explosion cores and smoke trails
- 270,000 square miles of contoured terrain based on real-world maps
- Tailorable terrain polygon-count and draw distance
- Hardware mouse cursor navigation of interface
- 4x flight models: Simplified, Moderate, Complex, High Fidelity
- 8-lesson Air Combat School training
- 3x Theatres of Conflict: Kuwait, Israel and Panama
- 11x mission types
- Mission creation via Red Flag
- 13x HUD indicators
- Threat Warning, AOA and RPM indicators
- Radar Electro-optical display (REO)
- 6x in-cockpit views
- 7x external views with zoom and rotation
- 2x ILS modes: directional and beacon
- Blackout and redout status governed by pilot G-force tolerance
- Sunlight causes glare
- Day/night cockpit tinting
- 17x Wingman commands and AWACS
- Time compression
- Viewable stats and 3D rotating models for all units
- Digitized images and FMV insets
- ACMI (Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation)
- 3x add-ons [2]
- 2-player duel/allied via Null-modem serial cable or modem
- 2-8 players via Novell NetWare IPX v3.10 or NETX / EMSNETX v3.22
The detail level option shown below impacts terrain polygon-count and draw distance.
Day/night tinting of the Falcon 3.0 cockpit:
Arming the Falcon fighter. The statistics for and 3D rotating models of each and every allied and enemy ground and air unit can be viewed.
Angled and switchable cockpit views as well as views external to the cockpit, which can be zoomed, rotated and tracked:
All interior angles feature drop-away panels. Those coming off Falcon 1987 were astounded by the angular tracking of targets in Falcon 3.0. I would also estimate that super-smooth framerates and increased view distance doubled the immersion and realism of flight.
And as it pertains to fighter control, the High Fidelity flight model-handling facilitates realistic banking that leaves other flight sims of the era in the dust.
So basically, Falcon 3.0 marks the point at which MS-DOS becomes the clear-cut best platform on which to play flight sims; the point at which the ST/Amiga flight sim aficionado must go out and purchase a PC if they want to play the most advanced flight sims with the best performance and visuals.
Note however, that Falcon 3.0 was not easy to set up on original hardware: you had to configure your soundcard(s) and joysticks, find free memory, configure the memory and maybe even make a boot disk with autoexec.bat and config.sys -- stuff that microcomputers with custom chipsets did not demand of end-users. That said, the rigmarole was worth it.
Falcon 3.0 Campaign
There are three campaigns or theatres of war in Falcon 3.0: Kuwait (vs. Iraqis), Israel (vs. Syrians) and Panama (vs. "Central American States Alliance"). Each theatre has a resupply date and resupply time as well as a number of aircraft and ordnance stores.
The default targets, routes and waypoints can be edited by the player before take off. As with Gunship 2000's multi-helicopter command, up to eight wingmen from 18-strong squadrons can be assigned based on interpretable stats, such as pilot dogfighting and bombing skills.
The theatres offer 11 mission-types; a combo of air-to-air and air-to-ground. Missions include shooting down enemy aircraft (mostly MiGs), bombing SAM sites, and bombing other enemy installations such as bridges, runways and comms.
- Scramble
- Air Superiority
- Front Line Screen
- Combat Air Patrol
- Escort Transport (Milk Run)
- Escort Strike or Bombers
- Close Air Support
- Ground Strike
- SEAD (Suppression and Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses)
- Bomb
- Tactical Air Reconnaissance
Falcon 3.0 ACMI
ACMI (Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation) is an advanced feature of Falcon 3.0 that allows players to replay and review their combat missions via the in-flight AVTR (Airborne Video Tape Recorder). You can play back your recordings at any angle and even step through them frame-by-frame.
Falcon 3.0 Armament
- M61A1 Cannon: 1-mile-range 20mm Vulcan (six-barrel gatling gun-style)
- Air-to-air missiles: AIM-9P Sidewinder, AIM-9M Sidewinder, AIM-120 AMRAAM
- Air-to-ground missiles: AGM-65B/-65D Maverick, AGM-45A Shrike, AGM-88A HARM, LAU-5003A rocket launcher
- A-G Bombs: Mk82, Mk82HD, Mk83, Mk84, Durandal, CBU-84, GBU-15
- 300-gallon external fuel tank or ALQ-131 ECM pod
- Chaff and Flares
Falcon 3.0 Medals & Awards
- Purple Heart
- Air Force Cross
- Distinguished Flying Cross
- Air Medal
- Air Force Medal of Honor
- Silver Star
- Bronze Star
Falcon 3.0 Allied Aircraft
- A-4 Skyhawk
- UH-60 Blackhawk
- B-52 Stratofortress
- AH-64 Apache
- F-4 Phantom
- Panavia Tornado
- F-117A Nighthawk
- A-10 Thunderbolt
- F/A-18 Hornet
- F-14 Tomcat
- F-111 Aardvark
- Kfir-C7
- F-16 Falcon
- C-130 Hercules
- F-15 Eagle
- E-3 Sentry
Falcon 3.0 Enemy Aircraft
- Mi-24 HIND
- Mirage III
- TU-22 Blinder
- MiG-23 Flogger
- MiG-19 Farmer
- MiG-21 Fishbed
- MiG-27 Flogger
- MiG-29 Fulcrum
- MiG-25 Foxbat
- Su-24 Frogfoot
- Su-24 Fencer
- Su-27 Flanker
- Mirage 5
- Mirage F1
- An-12 Cub
- SA 342 Gazelle
- Il-76 Mainstay
Falcon 3.0 Allied Ground Forces
- M1 Abrams Battle Tank
- M198
- M60A3
- Wildcat
- M2 Bradley
- Jeep
- AMX-13
- M113
- Shahine
- Walid
- Truck
- Roland
- Patriot
- M163 Vulcan VADS
Falcon 3.0 Enemy Ground Forces
- G-30
- Jeep
- T-80
- BMP-1
- SA-8 Gecko
- T-64
- T-72
- BRDM-2
- SA-6 Gainful
- BTR-70
- ZSU-57-2
- ZSU-23-4 Shilka
- ACRV
- Truck
- SS-1 Scud
Falcon 3.0 manual: 250 pages.
Falcon 3.0 Add-ons [2]
Spectrum HoloByte released three add-on expansions for Falcon 3.0 in 1992-93:
- Operation: Fighting Tiger was released in 1992
- MiG-29: Deadly Adversary was released in July of 1993
- Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter was released in November of 1993
Each add-on was distributed on 3.5" 1.44 MB HD diskettes, but all three add-ons were eventually distributed via CD-ROM in Falcon Gold of 1994. The install size of Falcon Gold is 20 megs and consists of over 1,000 files. Falcon Gold is run via three exes: FalconCD, MiGCD and HornetCD.
In Operation: Fighting Tiger players pilot the Japanese-modified Falcon FSX in Japan, Korea and India-Pakistan theatres.
In MiG-29: Deadly Adversary players pilot the Soviet Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum.
In Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter players pilot the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet in the Balkans for the U.S Navy or Marine Corps. The Hornet add-on features carrier landings.
Falcon 3.0 CD-ROM of 1995 extracts and installs via Spectrum Holobyte Falcon 3.0 Installation Program. The install size of Falcon 3.0 is 10 megs and consists of 700 files.
[1]
The Amiga 3000 25MHz 030 of 1989 could have handled Falcon 3.0. Amiga 1200s and Atari Falcons (Atari ST microcomputer successor) also could have handled most of Falcon 3.0's hardware requirements, but the problem is they didn't come out until 1992. And when they did come out they didn't take off anyway, being too little, too late. [2] Moreover, not enough Amigans owned 020/030-accelerated older-model STs or Amigas to warrant ports (A2000, A3000). Not to mention the general lack of HDDs on ST and Amiga setups.
In addition, the VGA color palette exceeds the Amiga and ST palettes around this time (256 colors vs. 32 vs. 16), allowing for fancy stuff such as digitized images and FMV insets. Even in 2D flight sim presentation terms, the PC is taking off with hardware scrolling and the ability to switch between big bitmaps without breaking a sweat. And for the purposes of playing flight sims, PC analogue joysticks were superior to ST/Amiga digital micro-switched joysticks, which are only better for arcade games.
[2]
I am mostly talking in the context of 3D flight sims. In terms of arcade action games (2D games), the Amiga would remain competitive for several more years. And at a competitive price-point. But the Amiga (1985 tech) was not suited to advanced 3D games due to its planar display and lack of raw processing power. Even AGA Amigas struggled with Falcon 3.0-level 3D.
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