F16 - Fighting Falcon

Not content with Doom, Heroes of Might and Magic 2, Syndicate, Descent, Heretic/Hexen and Abuse, R-Comp Interactive are now working on a port of a PC flight simulator to RISC OS - F16 Fighting Falcon.

Unsurprisingly, the game sees you as the pilot of an F16 jet fighter, flying various missions. The game apparently featuring an extremely realistic physics model, with the physical appearance of the aeroplane reflecting the moves you make - so if you move the foot pedals you see the rudder on the tailfin turn, and when the airbrakes are applied you can see them opening on the back of the aircraft. It's generally a better idea to watch where you're going, however, since jet fighters don't dawdle along at a snail's pace!

Those who like blowing things up will not be disappointed - the game features an impressive arsenal of accurately modelled and highly destructive weapons, including those shown on the screen above. Ground attacks can be accomplished with an external gunpod or internal cannon, whilst M247 anti-tank rockets and AGM-65E laser-guided and AGM-65G infra-red guided Mavericks can add to the land-based mêlée. There are also mine dispensers, cluster bombs, anti-runway bombs and many more.

Air battles are also catered for. AIM-9L infra-red Siderwinder missiles and advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles are both available, or you can switch to the fixed-point 20mm cannon or the hardpoint-mountable gun pod.

Among the game features are a 'quick start arcade mode' for those who don't want to wade through a detailed instruction manual first, as well as multiple war zones and various air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The game uses detailed fully-textured landscapes modelled on Korea, Cyprus and Israel using actual map data from these countries. Each of these three war zones features 10 single missions as well as 20 campaign missions. There are also 20 training missions.

The game features an authentic 'virtual cockpit' with complete instrumentation, including a full head-up-display. The game also has a two-player network option and 16-player death-match and capture-the-flag games, although whether these survive into the Acorn version remains to be seen.

The original game is published by Digital Integration, costing £30 for the PC. Reviews of it were mostly good, although some criticised the need for a high-end PC for good performance, and the lack of an auto-pilot option was also highlighted as a slight deficiency.

No official release date is yet scheduled in by R-Comp, who report that in its current development build it's running at about 7 frames per second on a StrongARM, although this doesn't reflect the speed at which the finished version will run. One thing's for sure, though, and that's that the game will only be playable on StrongARM-equipped machines.

...this page last updated: 16/5/99...
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