Combat Flight Simulators PC (Early 1990s, 16 bit)


Combat Flight Simulators



Combat Flight Simulators are PC and microcomputer games that simulate aircraft flight or spaceflight in combat scenarios.

Due to their simulation accuracy some 16 bit flight sims constitute high-points of 1990s Computer Game History.


16 bit combat flight sims -- indeed, combat simulators of any kind -- almost always employed 2D bitmap graphics for cockpit, GUI and HUD, but 3D wireframe, flat-shaded or texture-mapped polygon graphics for objects and environments. Contrary to some early-80s and early-90s computer game journalism, since the environments are constituted by geometric objects in 3D space, such computer games do not feature screen-scrolling, which is a coding routine that shifts 2D graphics images, such as tiles.

Flight sims were at the forefront of early-90s 3D engine development until the advent of Doom and Quake, but it was mostly the advent of Quake that caused 3D rendering engines to take off.

It is interesting to note that mid-90s texture-mapping uglified flight and vehicle simulators due to low-fidelity texture-tiles whereas purely flat-shaded sims hold up even in 2024. Flat-shaded graphics are also much clearer due to their line-work / hard edges that define objects and boundaries. It would have been great to have played sequels with increased polygon-counts on objects and terrain, yet remaining flat-shaded but displaying in square-pixel SVGA 640x480 while running at 60 FPS. Perhaps with flat-shaded shadow-casting, light-sourcing, 3D explosion cores and 3D particle effects. But instead, we got ugly texture maps that slowed down performance for many players.

Control in flight sims is driven by keyboard, mouse and/or digital or analogue joystick. Regardless of control method, memorizing a number of hotkey functions is mandatory.

These days 3D immersion is taken for granted but back in the day playing flight sims was a new and exhilarating gaming experience for many (late 80s). Simply taking off from a runway or aircraft carrier blew people's hair back, and they would switch to rear-cam to watch the take-off point fade away into the distance. I recall that the physics of banking fighter jets at high speed wowed people as well, let alone sending that missile hurtling into enemy aircraft.

It was impressive how flight sim coders pushed microcomputers with 7-8 MHz processors and 500 KB RAM (such as the Amiga) to represent fixed-wing aircraft dogfighting and bombing in fully realtime 3D environments.

8 bit and 16 bit combat flight sims are technical feats because they were developed on strictly limited microcomputer hardware whose CPU and chipset life-cycles far exceeded those of today.

Computer games that push static and restrictive hardware to the limits are special; relative to tech, many such games are more impressive than current gen ones. And they are also just as playable for those who know how to set them up properly. Flight sims are no exception. In cRPG History you can read more about yesteryear tech-dearth + obvious talent versus present-day tech-excess + questionable talent. 

To save me repeating myself in each article, in most combat flight simulators players do the following:

  • Make profiles
  • Select a combat scenario or combat theatre
  • Choose and arm an aircraft
  • Engage in a single mission or undertake a full-fledged campaign

As players progress in the campaign, they attain ranks and ribbons (decorations) based on their performance in theatres of war. A campaign is a series of related missions staged in a specific theatre aka geographical region (Panama, Libya etc.)

Ground-breaking Motorsport aka Auto Racing Simulators



Geoff Crammond is the king-coder of 8 and 16 bit autoracing sims; his authentic racing sims are as technically impressive as flight sims of the era. In my book Crammond is up there with Braben, Meier and Molyneux.

As regards American racing sims, Papyrus Design Group developed the highlights from 1989-1996.


Arcade-sim Autoracers: Super-scalers


There were several stylish arcade-sim autoracers released in the late-80s and early-90s. However, these employed a combo of sprite-scaling and geometry or were 100% sprite-scaled (super-scalers).


And while such games were fun to play as a rule (Lotus especially), they were nowhere near F1GP level in terms of simulation. To be fair, they were not trying to be sims.

MotoGP Simulators



Of the MotoGP sims (motorcycle simulators), Accolade's Team Suzuki (1991) was the first to be fully 3D; most of the others employed sprite-scaling.

The Atari ST and Amiga ports of the Super Hang-On coinop were incredible in 1988; even better than Indy 500 of 1989 in terms of speed-conveyance. This was due to SHO's sprite count + super-smooth scaling. There were very few 1988 computer games that could match the controls, graphics and playability of SHO.


WWI Combat Simulators


WWI dogfighting simulators hit their high-point in 1990.

  • Red Baron Dynamix 1990
  • Wings (Cinemaware, 1990)
  • Blue Max (Artech Digital Entertainment, 1990)
  • Knights of the Sky (Jeff Briggs, 1990)

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