F-15 Strike Eagle (video game)

F-15 Strike Eagle

Cover art
Developer(s) MicroProse
Publisher(s) MicroProse
Designer(s) Sid Meier
Platform(s) Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy, PC-8801, Sega Game Gear, MSX, NES, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum, Arcade
Release date(s) 1985
1986 (Amstrad CPC), 1987 (ZX Spectrum).[1] 1991 (Arcade)
Genre(s) Combat flight simulator
Mode(s) Single player
Distribution Tape, floppy disk, cartridge

F-15 Strike Eagle is an F-15 Strike Eagle combat flight simulator first released in 1985 by MicroProse for the Amstrad CPC in 1986 and ZX Spectrum in 1987. It is the first in the F-15 Strike Eagle series comprising also the sequels F-15 Strike Eagle II and F-15 Strike Eagle III.

Gameplay

ZX Spectrum screenshot

The game begins when the player selects Libya (much like Operation El Dorado Canyon), the Persian Gulf, or Vietnam as a mission theater. Play then begins from the cockpit of an F-15 already in flight and armed with a variety of missiles, bombs, drop tanks, flares and chaff. The player flies plane in combat to bomb various targets including a "primary" and "secondary" target while also engaging in air-to-air combat with enemy fighters. The game ends when either the player's plane is destroyed or when the player returns to base.

Reception

F-15 sold over 1.5 million copies,[2][3] and was MicroProse's best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987.[4] Computer Gaming World in 1984 called F-15 "an excellent simulation" with "excellent documentation". It stated that "the action is fast and furious ... the graphics are excellent".[5] The game won the "Action game of the Year" in the magazine's 1985 reader poll.[6] Compute! listed the game in 1988 as one of "Our Favorite Games", stating that it "makes jet fighter combat nerve-wracking and fun at the same time".[7]

References

  1. ↑ Strike Eagle at World of Spectrum
  2. ↑ "Management, Trevor Chan". Enlight Software. n.d. Retrieved 27 August 2007.
  3. ↑ "2006 Walk of Game Inductees, 2006 Lifetime Achievement, Sid Meier". Walk of Game. n.d. Archived from the original on May 29, 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2007.
  4. ↑ Ferrell, Keith (December 1987). "The Commodore Games That Live On And On". Compute's Gazette. pp. 18–22. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Battles, Hosea Jr. (December 1984). "F-15 Strike Eagle". Computer Gaming World (review). p. 39.
  6. ↑ "Game of the Year". Computer Gaming World. November–December 1985. pp. 32–33.
  7. ↑ "Our Favorite Games". Compute!. May 1988. p. 12. Retrieved 10 November 2013.

External links