Falcon (video game series)

The Falcon line of computer games is a series of simulations of the F-16 Fighting Falcon combat 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. The Falcon series sold 700,000 copies by January 1995;[1] Falcon 3.0 alone accounted for 400,000 sales by March 1995.[2]

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, several years before Origin's Wing Commander used a similar graphics engine. It was ported for the PC, but no longer used bitmapped graphics; instead, the adversaries were displayed using primitive polygon graphics.

The Atari ST version of Falcon

Falcon A.T.

Falcon A.T. (1988), also known as Falcon 2, was one of the first flight sims to use EGA graphics. In comparison to the older game, this version allows external viewing of the player aircraft, enables a "head-to-head" multiplayer mode, and includes the MiG-29 as an adversary.

Falcon 3.0

Falcon 3.0 was claimed to have used flight dynamics from a real military simulator, and required a math coprocessor to enable the high fidelity flight mode. Even in less demanding modes, it was still virtually unplayable in computers running on less than a 386 computer (recommended 33 MHz 486, a top end machine at this time). It was announced well in advance of its actual release date (1991).

Falcon 3.0 based games ("Electronic Battlefield")

Falcon 3.0 was sold as being the first of a series of inter-linked military simulations that Spectrum Holobyte collectively called the "Electronic Battlefield". Two games released in this range were the 1993 flight simulators for the F/A-18 (Falcon 3.0: Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter) and the MiG-29 (MiG-29: Deadly Adversary of Falcon 3.0) 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 AH-64 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, but it was never released.

Computer Gaming World in 1993 criticized MiG-29's new redout/blackout model as unrealistic, and lack of fixes to existing bugs, but approved of the improved modem play and its "new set of challenges designed to broaden Falcon's appeal".[3]

Falcon 4.0 and Falcon 4.0: Allied Force

Falcon 4.0 was the source of much controversy due to source code being leaked from MicroProse in the year 2000.[4] In the years between the source code leak and the release of Falcon 4.0: Allied Force (2005), many "unofficial" tweaks were released by the online community to fix bugs and enhance the game for modern systems.[5]

Many of these enhancements have found their way into derivative versions, namely Allied Force, FreeFalcon and Falcon BMS. Allied Force was the commercial re-release of Falcon 4.0, while FreeFalcon and Falcon BMS are the most current community driven version. As of 2013, only the latter is still in development. The Falcon 4.0 series is one of the longest running game series using the same code base in the PC history, spanning well over a decade.[6]

References

  1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170710215406/https://www.wired.com/1995/01/search-destroy/?pg=4&topic=
  2. ↑ Buchanan, Lee (March 1995). "The Falcon and the Sim Man". PC Gamer US. 2 (3): 124.
  3. ↑ Basham, Tom "KC" (November 1993). "The Russian Revolution". Computer Gaming World. pp. 152–158. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Bertolone, Giorgio (2011-03-12). "Interview with Kevin Klemmick - Lead Software Engineer for Falcon 4.0". Cleared-To-Engage. Archived from the original on 2011-03-18. Retrieved 2014-08-31. [C2E] In 2000 the source code of Falcon 4.0 leaked out and after that groups of volunteers were able to make fixes and enhancements that assured the longevity of this sim. Do you see the source code leak as a good or bad event? [Klemmick] "Absolutely a good event. In fact I wish I’d known who did it so I could thank them. I honestly think this should be standard procedure for companies that decide not to continue to support a code base."
  5. ↑ Hiawatha Bray (2004-01-21). "Diehard pilots keep Falcon flying". Boston.com. Archived from the original on 2004-04-08. Retrieved 2016-06-28.
  6. ↑ SPYHAWK (2013). "THE FALCON EPOPEE" (PDF). sites.google.com/site/falcon4history. Retrieved 2013-09-14.
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