B-17 Flying Fortress (video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article or section reads like a review and may need a cleanup.
Please help improve this article to make it neutral in tone and meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
B-17 Flying Fortress
Developer(s) Vektor Grafix
Publisher(s) MicroProse
Platform(s) DOS, Atari ST, Amiga
Release date 1992
Genre(s) Flight simulation
Mode(s) Single Player
Rating(s) N/A
System requirements For PC Minimum 286 IBM compatible at 16 MHz
Input methods Keyboard, Joystick and Mouse


B-17 Flying Fortress or B-17 Flying Fortress World War II Bombers in Action is a flight simulation/role play video game released in 1992 for DOS on the IBM PC compatible personal computer by MicroProse. Commodore Amiga and Atari ST versions were released a year later. The game simulates training, combat missions and sorties in a tour of duty in the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces in the European Theater of Operations aboard a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber during World War II.

Contents

[edit] B-17 Flying Fortress

Some aspects that the player has control over are inflight crew management (a crewman might become injured during combat and temporary medical aid inflight given to him whilst another aircrewmen tends another crew position)(better to heal the fallen men as soon as possible!) , manning an onboard .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun against enemy fighters, and releasing the B-17 Flying Fortress's ordnance on the target as well as piloting or copiloting the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. All 10 aircrew positions could be controlled either manually or under A.I. computer control, however the main character and captain is the primary pilot. His successes, failures, capture, injury or death affects the direction and conclusion of the campaign. The simulation player could pick out his chosen bomber with its particular nose art and was shown target briefing information and briefing films in the simulation before entering on any mission with his crew. A map of the flight path and Waypoints were also shown in the simulation. Although a mission is assigned to the crew before every sortie, the player may break formation and roam freely around Europe if desired, looking for and attacking targets of opportunity. The success of this decision relies on the skill of the crew, particularly if the navigator is skilled enough to navigate Europe on his own and the crew is able to withstand stronger Luftwaffe and Flak attacks due to being alone. The most difficult but prestigious targets were the Nazi strongholds in and around Berlin. If the player's Fortress is severely damaged, the player may drop out of the formation and continue the mission on one's own or attempt to return to England, in which one can land on any Allied runway and be taken back to the home base at Alconbury. In terms of the artillery, the player is unable to damage his or her own plane using the guns, however, dropping bombs at a low altitude would destroy the plane. The player is also able to shoot down ally Flying Fortresses as a result of friendly fire. An ill-timed shooting of a Luftwaffe fighter may cause the enemy to lose control and collide with one's Fortress or others in the formation.

The graphics are very simple (MCGA and VGA) and the requirements are meager when running on an antiquated IBM PC compatible Personal Computer; a Intel 80286 microprocessor based (or comparable AMD) based PC is required at 16 MHz with DOS 5.0 (a soundcard is desirable). However a 80386 or better microprocessor is recommended for this software] with at least 640k of RAM. The P.C. version came out in several media types floppy disk (5- 5.25" high density disks), compact floppy disk(4-3.5" high density disks) and CD-ROM versions.

Graphics were crude by today's standards, but different targets could easily be discerned from the bombsight, whether a factory or a U-boat pen. Terrain graphics though were very minimal. Luftwaffe forces are also easily seen through the eyes of the gunner. B-17 Flying Fortress came with a 230 page manual which details how to play the simulation, in addition to an in-depth historical section with numerous illustrations and photographs. The simulation also included a keyboard overlay so that the function of keys on the players computer keyboard wouldn't be so confusing during gameplay. For a while B-17 Flying Fortress (DOS version only) was released with permission as freeware by Microprose on the Internet website http://bombs-away.net. Its sequel came out in the year 2000 and B-17 Flying Fortress as freeware was made into a Microsoft Windows 9x running application from the DOS based version for the P.C. platform. Shockwave Productions has since bought the rights to the code. It can sometimes be found at different abandonware websites on the Internet although the legality of downloading from these sources is questionable.

[edit] B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th

B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th
Image:B-17 Flying Fortress - The Mighty 8th Coverart.png
Developer(s) Wayward Design
Publisher(s) Microprose/Hasbro Interactive
Platform(s) PC Platform with Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME
Release date 2000
Genre(s) Flight simulation
Mode(s) Single Player
Rating(s) Teen (13+)
System requirements Minimum requirements Pentium 2 @ 300 MHz or Celeron/K6-2 @ 400 MHz, Memory 128 MB RAM, Free Hard Drive Space 700 mb, CDROM 8X, Video 8mb Vram
Input methods Keyboard, Joystick and Mouse

The sequel B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th was developed by Wayward Design and sold by Microprose owned by Hasbro in 2000. It was released in the United States on December 13, 2000. It was designed for the Windows 9x series of operating systems, but is also compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The sequel had much improved graphics for Intel Pentium III and AMD Athlon processors and added fairly realistic but slightly simplified Norden Bombsight/navigation procedures and operation as well as Pilot and Copilot controls in the combat flight simulation. Other allied or axis aircraft like the P-38, P-51, P-47, Bf-109, FW-190 or Me 262 could be flown as well. The emphasis in this simulation was on successful B-17 Flying Fortress aircrew training and skill improvement, successful navigation, survival from enemy Flak batteries as well as German Luftwaffe fighters, and correctly and accurately bombing the right target (aiming point) and making it back to the home base airfield through a simulated tour of duty in the Eighth Air Force while trying to survive.

B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th: nearly 2 squadrons of B-17's in formation over England
B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th: nearly 2 squadrons of B-17's in formation over England

Since this simulation is complex, only a squadron or 2 squadrons of B-17 bombers could be featured rather than an entire group or even wings of bombers in aerial combat box formations with partial escort fighter coverage, in contrast to Microprose's earlier P.C. WWII E.T.O.(European Theater of Operations) aerial combat PC simulation European Air War which did feature air armadas in flight. One of the faults with this simulation is that Multiplayer game play on the Internet was not added, though it was planned at one time, and the printed (or later a PDF file) manual (152 pages) as well as the simulation was developed under time and monetary constraints so some other planned features and improvements were missing from the original software release. The boxed sequel came with a very handy 2 sided color reference chart detailing the layouts of the aircraft cockpits instruments and controls of different military aircraft in addition to displaying control keys for the players computer keyboard.

The software also was sold later on in a 3 pack of Microprose simulations which also included Gunship (2000) and European Air War (1998).In addition the software is still available through a couple of websites as a download.[B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th had several software patches later on to fix issues with the simulation and the B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th support community at Bombs-Away.net created other add ons, fixes and had tutorials and discussion groups on their Internet forum. B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th is very similar in its gameplay to the original B-17 Flying Fortress simulation except that the controls are a lot more detailed, complicated and realistic in addition to the vastly improved computer graphics and multimedia sound effects(with support for Aureal A3D driver sound).The sequel even has a decent emulated Norden Bombsight which features synchronization and drift.B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th is also very difficult for a novice or average player and takes a lot of time to master.

The simulation is so complex that the player has to have some of the same knowledge (yet only partial and simplified) as the aircrews performed as Pilots, Copilots, Bombardiers, Navigators, Flight Engineers, Radio Operators and Aerial Gunners during that historical time frame. As an interesting sideline note one of the technical advisors to the development of the simulation was Major Joseph N. Worsley (USAAF, USAF Retired) one of the top bombardiers in the USAAF trained in the use of the Norden as well as Sperry bombsights on Boeing B-29's. Dominic Robinson, Technical Director for B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th also was listed in the software credits for the original title and Andrew Walrond was the Managing Director in the sequel. The sequel B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th was eventually acquired by Atari.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

B-17 Flying Fortress

B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th

Languages