The Falcon line of computer games is a series of simulations of the F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft. The games were developed and published by Spectrum HoloByte (later MicroProse). They were noted for their high level of realism unseen in contemporary simulation games.
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There were seven major versions of Falcon:
Falcon was originally designed and produced by Gilman Louie and programmed by Les Watts for the MSX (1984), under title of "F-16 Fighting Falcon") and Macintosh (1987 as "Falcon"), and used bitmapped 3D MiG-21s as adversaries. This was several years before Origin's Wing Commander used a similar graphics engine. It was ported to the PC later, but no longer used bitmapped graphics. Instead, the adversaries became primitive polygons instead.
In the original Falcon, users had their choice of flying one of 12 missions - with awards for flying missions at higher skill levels. The user had a choice of different ground attack and air-to-air weapons, although these were also limited by several factors. For dogfighting, AIM-9J missiles were not as reliable as newer AIM-9L missiles - and were useless for head-on attack - but were typically the only missiles available. Because they were guided, AGM-65 missiles were easier to use than "iron dumb bombs" like the Mk 84, but ineffective against strengthened targets. An ECM pod provides defense against enemy missiles, but occupies an external hardpoint that could be used for additional weapons or fuel. The enemy occupied the western areas of the game's playable map - itself a large square divided into 9 smaller squares. Enemy targets were fixed sites on the ground. For defense, the unnamed enemy was limited to MiG-21 interceptors, and ground launched missiles - either the SA-2, which was launched from identified and fixed sites on the ground, or SA-7 missiles which could be fired from portable launchers, and could therefore appear anywhere.
Falcon AT claims to be one of the first flight sims to use EGA graphics. In comparison to the older game, this version allowed external viewing of the player aircraft, and included the MiG-29 as an adversary.
The Atari ST and Amiga versions of Falcon are completely separate products from Falcon AT and Falcon 3.0. They have two "mission disks" for them, Operation: Counterstrike, and Operation: Firefight. Both featured a semi-dynamic campaign where you can roam the airspace, sweep for hostile aircraft, and attack ground targets. Destroyed buildings and SAM sites remain destroyed for fixed period of time, and hostile and friendly forces engage each other on the ground back and forth.
Falcon 3.0 claims to have used flight dynamics from a real military simulator, and required a math coprocessor to enable the high fidelity flight mode. In less demanding modes, it was still virtually unplayable in computers running on less than a 386 CPU. Falcon 3.0 offered "padlock" view - in which the player's POV will be slewed in the direction of a selected target, scanning around the cockpit if necessary. Falcon 3.0 also offered players more naturally looking topography than was available in existing commercial PC flight simulation - with mountains, hills, valleys and other features having their own unique shape. In older games, the user typically had to settle to ranges of uniformly shaped or sized mountains on flat ground, with areas or lines of blue for lakes and rivers. This version retained its reputation as the most realistic flight simulation game for years. It also has a "dynamic campaign" mode where you can contribute to the war effort by performing missions. This version was announced well in advance of its actual release date.
Falcon 3.0 was sold as being the first of a series of inter-linked military simulations that Spectrun Holobyte collectively called "the Electronic Battlefield". Several further games were released in this range: flight simulators for the F/A-18 and the Mig-29 that could be played as stand-alone games or integrated into "Electronic Battlefield" network games. Further games in the range were expected - rumours abounded of a simulator for the Apache helicopter gunship, and even one or more tank simulators. The only one the company actually admitted to working on was a flight simulator of the A-10 Thunderbolt. However, this was never released.
An expansion pack was released, under the name "Operation Fighting Tiger" which contained several additional scenarios, including a future skirmish between Japan and Russia, which gave the player the Japanese F-16 variant - the "FSX".
A video tutorial that teaches aerial dogfighting basics - "Art of the Kill" - used Falcon 3.0's built-in ACMI recorder to reconstruct engagements, explain tactics and counter-tactics. Falcon 3.0 was also the subject of dozens of aftermarket books, some written by actual F-16 pilots. Only Microsoft Flight Simulator series spawned more books.
Falcon series was re-released in 1994 as Falcon Gold a compilation which included the previously mentioned "Art of the Kill" video digitized on the CD collection, along with "Operation Fighting Tiger" and the announcement for Falcon 4.0.
Falcon series were noted for their early multiplayer support, as even the first version supported two players via a null modem serial port connection.
Falcon 4 had been in production since 1992, and was finally released in 1998, making it one of the longest games in development. Falcon 4 offered even more improved graphics (allowing the user the ability to customize the appearance of both player and non-player aircraft) and demanding gameplay. The campaign mode was set in an hypothetical war between the Republic of Korea and the west.
Falcon 4 was the source of much controversy due to source code being leaked from MicroProse in the year 2000. In the years between the source code leak and the release of Allied Force (2005), many "unofficial" tweaks were released by the online community to fix bugs and enhance the game for modern systems.
Many of these enhancements have found their way into Allied Force, Free Falcon and Falcon BMS. Allied Force is a commercial re-release of Falcon 4.0. Free Falcon and Falcon BMS are a freeware community add-on that requires an original 1998 Falcon 4.0 install.
The IBM micros and compatibles version of 1987's Falcon was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[1] The Lessers reviewed the MS-DOS version of the game in 1989 in Dragon #142, and gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[2]
The Lessers reviewed Falcon 3.0 in 1992 in Dragon #188, giving the game 5 out of 5 stars.[3]