Jane's AH-64D Longbow

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Jane's AH-64D Longbow

Developer(s) Origin Systems
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Director(s) Will McBurnett
Paul Stankie (art)
Producer(s) Andy Hollis
Programmer(s) Tsuyoshi Kawahito, Donavon Keithley, Will McBurnett, Steven Muchow, Chris Norden, Wendy White
Artist(s) Gary McElhaney, Carol Roberts, Brian Smith, Paul Stankie, Chris Yesh
Composer(s) Barry Leitch
Series Jane's Combat Simulations
Platform(s) PC (DOS)/(Windows)
Release date(s) 1996
Genre(s) Combat flight simulator
Mode(s) Single player
Distribution CD-ROM

AH-64D Longbow is a realistic combat flight simulator of the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. Released on May 31, 1996 for the PC, this simulation was developed at Origin Systems. AH-64D Longbow was the second simulator released under the Jane's Combat Simulators line from Electronic Arts.

A mission disk Flash Point: Korea was released as an add-in in 1996, and a compilation pack, Longbow Gold was released in 1997. A sequel, Longbow 2 was released in late 1997. In 1998, Longbow Anthology was released, which included the whole Longbow series.

Gameplay

The game had the most authentic flight model for a helicopter for its time and every aspect of the electronics systems were meticulously detailed. The weapons had realistic operational ranges and limits, and all friendly and enemy units were strictly based on their real-life counterparts. A wingman helps the player, and the player takes on Russian equipment in multiple single missions and campaigns, as well as a handful of historically accurate missions in which it is possible to 're-live' memorable battles.

Flash Point: Korea was released on November 30, 1996. It features a new campaign set in Korea, the addition of the co-pilot position, improved wingman commands and many bug fixes.

Development

Release

Longbow Gold came out in March 1997. It is a compilation pack featuring the AH-64D Longbow and Flash Point: Korea add-ons. It is also fully patched and updated to include a Windows executable, so DOS is no longer necessary. Also included is the 3Dfx update, which adds a Glide renderer.

Longbow Anthology was released in 1998 and is a compilation of Jane's AH-64D Longbow, the mission disk Flash Point: Korea, and Longbow 2 in one box, with an abbreviated manual. All included simulators are fully patched to the latest versions.

Reception

Longbow, in its various forms, sold over 1 million copies.[citation needed]

Longbow won many awards, including "Flight Simulation of the Year" (1996) from PC Gamer,[citation needed] Computer Gaming World,[1] and Computer Games Strategy Plus.[citation needed] In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the 100th best game of all time for being "the first helicopter sim to match its fixed wing counterparts for realistic play."[2] That same year, it was also ranked as the 73rd top game of all time by Next Generation, for being "an unbeatable marriage of graphics, gameplay, and armor-blasting fun."[3]

References

  1. ↑ CGW 154 (May 1997)
  2. ↑ CGW 148: 150 Best Games of All Time
  3. ↑ Next Generation 21 (September 1996), p.48.

External links

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