Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
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Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe is a World War II air-combat flight simulation video game released in 1991 and expanded in 1992 by LucasFilm Games. It is a nearly 5 MByte DOS Game, written in 16 Bits for PC 386 machines.
It was the last of a trilogy of World War II titles by LucasFilm Games, the others being "Battlehawks 1942" (1988) and "Their Finest Hour" (1989). It enabled the player to fly aircraft of the USAAF Eighth Air Force and the German Luftwaffe, including some experimental aircraft that did not see operational service during World War II. Some gameplay elements included, such as the historic missions section, are evident in later Lawrence Holland games including X-Wing. The game was initially released with a codewheel and an impressive 225-page manual, detailing the air war over Western Europe between 1943 and 1945. The game also featured a campaign mode, similar to that found in "Their Finest Hour", where the player had to make the strategic decisions on which targets were be attacked (as USAAF 8th Air Force) or defended (by the German Luftwaffe).
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[edit] Gameplay
SWOTL is focused entirely on the 8th USAAF vs Luftwaffe challenge during World War II, especially about the American Strategic Bombing offensive against Germany, from August 1943 towards the end of war in 1945. Moreover, it is focused more on playability, rather than in complicated Simulation. These are the two reasons because many other aspects and protagonists of the World War II are omitted in this game. But, thanks for these reasons, SWOTL avoid to become a too much complex game for the average Player, resulting lovely to play and not too much dispersive (although the Player has to learn several game concepts, before starting to play).
The beginner Player don't get annoyed from too much complicated Flight controls: SWOTL airplanes can be efficently flown even with a Mouse and Keyboard, or Joystick. But, differently from many others Flight Simulators, the Mouse is really the best Controller to fly airplanes in SWOTL.
About Fighters, Air Battles and Dogfights are very fluid and somewhat Arcade Style; so that the Player don't need to be an expert Pilot in order to put some shoots on the target and survive a mission.
About the B-17 Flying Fortress (the only one heavy bomber simulated in SWOTL) things are a bit more complicated, but a lot of fun.
Playing with SWOTL airplanes, the very challenge is about the German Secret Weapons (Me262, Me163, Go229) with their fast jet propulsion, versus the slower but more numerous American piston engine airplanes. The result of the matches are not always obvious; and the air battles are very challenging. Moreover, the German Airplanes have some interesting weapons to use against the enemy, various types of missiles and bombs.
The expert Player can enjoy long time fun with the Tours of Duty, the Historical Missions, the Mission Builder and the Campaign Battles.
[edit] Flyable Aircrafts
These are the war airplanes simulated in SWOTL, each of them with a little comment (inside brackets) about their historical coherence. However, it should be taken into consideration that SWOTL was a Videogame more than a true Simulator, and it suffered from the Age it was programmed: at that time, in 1990-1991, depending on 16 Bits machines, it was very difficult to work out a true Simulator with good Graphics and good Flight Physics.
for the Luftwaffe:
- Bf 109 Versions G-6 and G-10 (a bit less durable and agile than historical reality).
- FW 190 Versions A-5 and A-8 (excellent, but the D-9 Version would have been needed).
- Me-163 Komet (excellent, and a fun aircraft to play in SWOTL).
- Me-262 Schwalbe (a bit less durable than historical reality).
- Go229 Flying Wing (ecellent, and a fun aircraft to play in SWOTL).
- He162 Volksjager (expansion disk) (good, but only in Dogfights).
- Do335 Pfeil (expansion disk) (a bit under-armed than historical reality).
for the 8th USAAF:
- P-47 Thunderbolt Versions C and D (good, but a bit over-estimated in firepower).
- P-51 Mustang Versions B and D (excellent, and a fun aircraft to play in SWOTL).
- B-17 Flying Fortress (less durable than historical reality).
- P-38 Lightning (expansion disk) (a bit less agile than historical reality).
- P-80 Shooting Star (expansion disk) (good, but only in Dogfights).
But shoud be noticed that some fans have created many other airplanes to be installed into SWOTL, along with modified SWOTL airplanes. They are available for free download at the SWOTL Website.
[edit] Tours of Duty
In Tours of Duty, the Player creates an his own Pilot (or Crew, for B-17 Flying Fortress) and fights in the air war for a limited number of missions (from 25 to 55, according to the historical Squadrons). The Pilot/Crew gains experience points, ranks and decorations; and if he manages to survive his assigned Tours of Duty, he can even start another, without time limitations. The same Pilot/Crew can be deployed by the Player in Campaign Battles, or in Historical Missions or Custom Missions. The missions in Tours of Duty are automatically generated by the same game engine that works for Campaign Battles: the Player engaged in Tour of Duty pratically fights in the sky of an AI Campaign Battle, leaving the game engine to manage the strategic aspect of the battle. The only two drawbacks about Tours of Duty in SWOTL are that:
- The Player is not allowed to change the airplane assigned to his pilot: Weapons and Ordnance can be changed at will, but not the airplane. This means that the Pilot/Crew must fly the assigned arplane for the whole Tour of Duty and cannot leave the Tour.
- The Pilot/Crew (like in real life) has only one life. If he gets Killed in Action (K.I.A.) or Missing in Action (M.I.A, Prisoner of War due to have parachuted over enemy territory) the Pilot is lost forever. But, if the Pilot/Crew gets M.I.A., it may be a little chance to escape from the enemy prison and return back to the Squadron (SWOTL AI rolls dices to see if Pilot/Crew escape is possible).
However, since the Pilot/Crew is a simple file stored in Hard Drive, the trick to re-vive or duplicate the Pilot is very simple: the Player has just to copy it, and create a new pilot file (with different name) inside the SWOTL directory in Hard Drive. This trick virtually allows the Player to create entire Squadrons full of good Clone-Pilots (the same Pilot cloned with different names). But SWOTL fans have created an utility, named PilotED and available in the SWOTL Website for free download, that allow to modify the Pilot/Crew file as the Player wishes... so any parameter (even the assigned airplane) may be changed and the K.I.A. or M.I.A. Pilots/Crews are easily got back alive and in active service.
[edit] Historical Missions
SWOTL features a numerous set of Historical Missions to play. These are pre-built missions designed by the game programmers, and re-create historical air battles, according effectively to historical data. The Mission Briefing of these missions, in fact, is always a narration; for example, this is the original Mission Briefing text related to a SWOTL mission:
THE 100TH BG AT MUNSTER
On October 10, 1943, the Eighth Air Force targeted Munster, a vital crossroads in and out of the industrial Ruhr. Two days before the 100th Bomb Group had suffered heavily against Bremen. The attack on Munster proved even worse as viscious German fighter attacks decimated the lead wing comprised of the 100th, 390th and 95th Bomb Groups. Of thirteen planes in the 100th, twelve planes were destroyed over Munster. For this sad fate it earned the nickname the "Bloody" 100th and became known as a jinx outfit.
YOUR MISSION : "You are the sole survivor of the 100th on your way to Munster. Just ahead of you are remnants of the 390th Bomb Group. Before the next wave of enemy fighter attacks, quickly join formation with them to get some protection from their gunners. Follow them to the target and drop your bombs. Don't try to go it alone!"
Although fascinating, these Historical Missions are not linked each-other, but they are stand alone. It is interesting to notice that the Historical Missions, in SWOTL, are always chosen by Airplane type. The Player is free to use his own Pilot/Crew in the Historical Mission to get experience points. However, in case of K.I.A. or M.I.A., the Player loses the Pilot/Crew assigned to the Historical Mission, as if he was in normal Tour of Duty or Campaign Battles. For this reason, SWOTL Veteran Players usually do not use named pilots in Historical Missions (the game allows the use of unnamed AI pilots).
[edit] Mission Builder
Like many other Air Combat Simulations, SWOTL features a Mission Builder. Although not a complex one, the Mission Builder is enough flexible and allows to create on the map exciting missions. The most interesting function among the SWOTL Mission Builder is the "Waves" function, that allows to automatically replicate, up to 9 times, any planned non-bombing Flight; so that is possible to simulate, for example, several waves of enemy interceptors against a Bomber formation, planning a single Flight of interceptors and setting the "Waves" option as desired. This function is very important, because since SWOTL is an old Dos game, written in 16 Bits code, the game engine does not allow more than 16 airplanes flying at the same time. So, with the "Waves" function, is it possible to simulate large air battles involving hundreds of airplanes, with a maximum of 16 airplanes per time on the sky.
The "16 airplane limitation" may seem hateful, but considering that SWOTL is a Simple Player game (On-Line gaming is not allowed), the Quality of missions is more interesting that the Quantity of airplanes involved.
Of course, the Mission Builder allows for full Fight Planning: Way Points, Orders, Airplanes Camoufage, Skill levels, Weapons and Ordnance for each Squadron involved, Mission Orders, Altitude, Time, etc... The custom Mission Builder is one the most responsable to SWOTL success as a Videogame, and gave rise to a thriving SWOTL on-line community where user-created custom missions could be posted for others to play.
[edit] Campaign Battles
Campaign Battles are the heart of SWOTL. As an unique feature even now, differently from all the others Air Combat Simulations where Campaign Battles are normally a set of Story-Driven pre-built missions, SWOTL allows the Player to plan missions inside the Campaign Battles, using the Mission builder. This feature allows the Player to literally plan his own way to fight the Air War, without any limitations. For example, playing a Luftwaffe Campaign in the German Side, the 8th USAAF will attack with Strategic Bombing, but the Player is not forced to schedule ONLY defensive missions against the incoming enemy bombers... the Player may freely choose, for example, to organize a counter-offensive at the same time; or organize an ambush for enemy escort fighters before they reach the bombers; or using V1 or V2 missiles; or attack an enemy airfield to prevent the enemy from using it. On the other Side, playing an 8th USAAF Campaign in the American Side, the Player can freely choose to perform Strategic Bombing missions, to destroy the German Industry or the Luftwaffe Airfields and Industries; or perform Tactical Bombing Missions to help the Ground Troops (Afther Normandy Invasion in June 1944) in pushing ahead the Frontline against the German Ground Forces.
Whatever is the Player tactics, the success or defeat are determined by several overall Winning/Losing condictions. In particular, there are 8 factors which make up the German war economy in SWOTL:
- GERMAN FIGHTER PILOTS
- DEPLOYED GERMAN GRUPPEN (LUFTWAFFE GROUPS)
- AVIATION FUEL
- JET FUEL
- GASOLINE IN STOCK
- MUNITIONS IN STOCK
- BALL BEARINGS IN STOCK
- TRANSPORTATION CONDITION
Of these 8 factors, only the first 4 have direct impact on the Luftwaffe. The last 4 factors are general war industries, and so they affect only the German ground forces. American Campaign Battles will have as a goal the destruction of the war industries (Strategic Bombing), the Luftwaffe (D-Day Air Superiority), or both (Final Victory). German Campaign Battles will concern the defense of the same elements. (The victory or defeat conditions have been quoted directly from the game manual).
[edit] Videos and Quality
These videos are on YouTube from a SWOTL player, showing some game sessions:
Bf-109G hunting B-17s: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=9eosVhMLr1A
A little demonstration of Campaign Battles: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbFxVpfExA&feature=related
It is interesting to notice that Graphics (VGA 256 Colors, 640x480 Pixels) in SWOTL were good quality and some of the best around in 1990-1991, for 386-based machines; while Sound was a common 8 bits, not the best around at all. However, just at that time, the very new 486-based machines were becoming available for programmers, and they were 32 Bits machines, much more powerful than PC-386s. So, SWOTL could have been realized even in better quality, if it had been developed for the very new PC-486s instead of the PC-386s. But, for commercial reasons, SWOTL was written in 16 Bits code to keep full compatibility with 286-based and 386-based machines (the most widespread PCs at that time).
In order to save RAM and CPU speed, SWOTL Graphics are "mixed": all the airplanes are really 2D bitmaps (sprites), while the landscape (World) is effectively 3D polygons. Neverthless, among 386s machines, SWOTL scored as one of the best videogames in 1991 (Award Winning). The last patch (V 2.2) was released in 1992, in order to allow SWOTL running properly on the faster 486-based machines. However, SWOTL experiences malfunctions when installed on PCs even faster than 486s, such as the Pentium family.
In order to make SWOTL running properly in a modern PC, that is much faster than a 386-based or 486-based CPU, it's strictly necessary to run it inside a DOS Box Console: http://www.dosbox.com/
[edit] The Myth of SWOTL
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe is a rare sight in Videogames History. Some of its features are still unmatched: since 1991 till now, very few other WWII-based air combat flight simulations have rallied a number of so deeply fascinated fans, such as SWOTL fans. In the following years, many other WWII flight simulations resulted better than SWOTL, under many points of view; but very few of them managed to become "mythical videogames" such as SWOTL. For example, still today the SWOTL Website is an active fansite with Mods and Add-ons, although so many years have passed since SWOTL birth. Considering the factor that the game is a nearly 5 MByte, old DOS Game, written for PC-386 machines, this is becoming a "Long Life Record" in Videogames History.
Which is the reason of this historical success? Most probably, a lucky combination of several factors:
- The very complete and involving SWOTL Manual, including an exclusive interview to Prof. Williamson Murray, a World War II historian from Ohio State University.
- The Cartoon Style graphics, worked on digitized photos.
- The somewhat Comics Style Briefing and De-Briefing before/afther Missions.
- The powerful and detailed Mission Builder, that worked both for Custom Missions and Campaign Battles, allowing the Player to completely manage the flights during the Campaign, both deploying airplanes and flight tactics. This feature is pratically unique: afther SWOTL and till now, no any other of the WWII Air Combat Simulators had the Mission Builder inside a Campaign Battles system.
- The deep Strategy game, with the possibility (playing on the German Side) to manage the Industrial Production, the Secret Weapons Research; and even launch V1 and V2 Missiles for Strategic Bombing (Again, this feature is unique among the WWII Air Combat Simulators).
- The absolute freedom for the Player, in Campaign Battles, to decide his own tactics and strategy to win the war (Again, this feature is still unmatched by any other WWII Air Combat Simulators). The dynamic Frontline effectively moved accordingly the overall Player performance in the game (and not simply due to the success or defeat on a single Mission).
- The exciting match between the German Secret Weapons versus the huge 8th USAAF Air Power.
- The Player was allowed to fly fighters but also the B-17 Flying Fortress.
- The Player was not "forced" to follow a Story-Driven game, but could literally "re-wrote" the WWII Air Combat History, day afther day.
Surprisingly and despite the success, the LucasFilm (now LucasArts) never produced a sequel for this excellent and Award Winning videogame. Instead, LucasArts abandoned definetively the WWII Flight Simulators videogames, focusing mainly in Star Wars Film-related videogames.
The father programmer of SWOTL, Lawrence Holland, tryed to produce a SWOTL sequel in 2003, by his own Softwarehouse named Totally Games. The resulting game was named Secret Weapons Over Normandy (SWON), but it can't be considered a true SWOTL sequel, because it's a very different product under many points of view: a Story-Driven game in the Allied Side, without any strategic Campaign Battles, a game driven with Built-in Missions (really, a videogame much more closer to Wing Commander II style, rather than SWOTL style). Accordingly to several Games Forum discussions, old SWOTL fans are still waiting for a true sequel, many of them still occasionally playing with SWOTL.
[edit] Credits & Sources
Credits (partial)
- Created and Designed by Lawrence Holland
- Programmed by Lawrence Holland and Peter Lincroft
- Artwork by Martin Cameron and James McLeod
- Original Music by Michael Land
Sources
- Secret Weapons Of The Luftwaffe - Game and Manual
- The SWOTL Website : http://home.comcast.net/~swotl/
- SWOTL at MobyGames : http://www.mobygames.com/game/secret-weapons-of-the-luftwaffe
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