Falcon 4.0
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| Falcon 4.0 | |
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| Developer(s) | MicroProse |
| Publisher(s) | MicroProse |
| Release date(s) | Dec 12 1998 |
| Genre(s) | combat flight simulator |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA: 11 years |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows) |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| Input | Joystick, Keyboard, Mouse |
Falcon 4.0 is a modern air combat simulation originally released on December 12, 1998 by MicroProse. It is a realistic simulation of the Block 50/52 F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter in a full scale modern war set in the Korean Peninsula. Falcon 4.0's dynamic campaign engine runs autonomously. Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, an enhanced version of Falcon 4.0 by Lead Pursuit, was released on June 28, 2005. This version has the Balkans as a new campaign area.
The game's war starts in the early 1990s with North Korean forces invading the Southern Republic of Korea. The United States deploys extensive support to the South, including military aircraft, armored cavalry and naval vessels. The rest of the game's war plays out depending on the player's actions, potentially involving China, Russia, Taiwan and Japan.
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[edit] Gameplay
Falcon 4.0's gameplay parallels actual fighter pilot combat operations. First, over 30 training scenarios acquaint the player with F-16 maneuvering, avionics operation and various USAF protocols. After training, the player may start the primary gameplay mode in the campaign, which simulates participation in a modern war. Alternatively he or she may engage in dogfight mode which provides an individual air engagement without any continuous context, or create what are effectively minature campaigns, known as "Tactical Engagements".
[edit] Campaign
Campaign gameplay has two primary stages, briefings and missions.
[edit] Technology
[edit] Campaign
Unlike its static counterpart, a dynamic campaign has no set game path. Missions and the rest of the game world develop as the game progresses, affected in part by the player's behavior. Dynamic campaigns can present a more random and diverse game experience, but are more difficult for programmers to implement.
[edit] Graphics
Falcon 4.0 originally featured 3d graphics with multitexturing support.
[edit] History
The game was originally designed and produced by Steve Blankenship and Gilman Louie and published under the MicroProse label. The game was rushed to the market in order to make the 1998 Christmas selling season. Unfortunately, Falcon 4.0's first release contained numerous bugs. The final official patch (version 1.08) fixed most of them. After completion of 1.08 patch, the original development team was laid off by Hasbro Interactive. Nevertheless, Falcon fans still sought further improvements of the game. Early modifications altered the game's multimedia and the executable by editing the hexadecimal code. After the game's source code leak, a Falcon 4.0 player optimized the game further by re-programming parts of the game's original programming code.
Through its lifetime, Falcon 4.0 has received ongoing fixes and enhancements from various groups of volunteers, which have enhanced the detail and complexity of the simulation over the years to its current state, as well as mended the numerous errors in the original release and its patches. Much of this comes as a result of the source code being available to the developers of modifications. However, game publisher Atari later issued a cease and desist order against all executable modifications, and thus many modifications were not hosted by websites.
There have been several groups who have modified different parts of Falcon 4.0. Some groups and many individuals created new "skins" or paint schemes for aircraft, while other modified the data and code to be more realistic. Still others have worked to create new theaters (e.g. a Desert Storm Theater) for Falcon 4.0. Thousands of hours have been spent by hundreds of people for the goal of making Falcon 4.0 the most immersive and realistic jet combat sim possible. In late 2006, a new community modification emerged, called the RedViper1package.zip. The current patch for this is FF4Fix1_1.0.0.4.zip, which includes fixes for Vista users.
A company called Lead Pursuit which has been formed around many known names of the Falcon modding community has gained a license from Atari to continue Falcon 4.0 development. Falcon 4.0: Allied Force (link) was released on June 28, 2005, and is largely a compilation and unification of existing modifications over the original Falcon 4.0 and the official patches, but at the same time shows several major new features never before seen and is a huge leap forward in stability, especially regarding online Multiplayer gaming.
Lead Pursuit, Inc. has been updating the game with new patches, considerably enhancing the functionality of the simulation as they have released them_particularly in the multiplayer aspect which now allows extremely smooth close-up formation flying for players across the world. One of the most popular online Allied Force servers is Multivipers which runs real-time campaigns lasting days. Players jump into missions—whatever missions they like—and their success or otherwise determines the course of the campaign.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Lead Pursuit, the current developer.
- Graphsim, the current producer and license holder.
- Frugal's World, a simulation fan site with an active Falcon 4.0 community
- FreeFalcon
- Falcon 4.0 Headquarters, news, downloads and forum
- Falcon 4.0 Wiki requires registration for editing
- Falcon5.nl A dedicated Dutch Falcon 4 site
- Falcon History A timeline presenting the history of Falcon 4.0
- FalconLog Offline and online logbook information for Falcon 4.0 Allied Force
- AMVI - Aeronautica Militare Virtuale Italiana The first and bigest Italian multi simulator squadron
- ESAF Escuadrón Sudamericano Allied Force
- 56th VFW 56th Virtual Fighter Wing. Established in the late 90's one of the Falcon communities oldest and friendliest VFW's.
- PMC Tactical is the one and only Falcon 4 Theater HeadQuarters, home of Afghanistan, Europe, Operation Desert Storm, Vietnam, Nevada and Iran theaters. This site hosts the theater tutorials to build new theaters, also extensive forums are available.
- Thrustmaster HOTAS™ Cougar, a full-metal throttle/stick controller set that are an exacting reproduction of those found in the actual F-16 Block 40/50.
