Games we are playing

It was made by Digital Image Design, the guys behind F-29 Retaliator, TFX, EF2000 which basically transformed from pure fun arcade flight game into high fidelity flight sim with dynamic campaign engine. F-22 ADF didn’t had dynamic campaign implemented only canned missions, but they fixed that one year later with F-22 Total Air War. At the time it was the best F-22 flight sim on the market, there was Interactive Magic’s iF-22 and Novalogic’s F-22 series. None of those could compete with DID IMHO.

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Where do you get copies of these games @damson? Have you had them forever and replay them or do you have a source for them? They always seem to run really well on your videos but I have the devils own time trying to get things to run smoothly. HIND is a prime example. The gog version I have has no digital speech. Crashes constantly and is just a PITA to play. Apache vs hokum etc exactly the same.

I like revisiting these but it’s such a nightmare. Any advice gratefully received mate.

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I have a pretty big flight sim collection. I started it around 1995 when I switched from Amiga 500 to PC. I do buy GOG and Steam releases to support the effort of bringing old titles to digital platforms but play mostly my own big box retail versions as those available online are usually poorly setup. I will sometimes get something on ebay which I was unable to get in the past. Like I just got Red Sea Operations expansion for F-22 ADF.

For DOS games I use DOSBox hand configured and tweaked for every title for my own liking. They pose no problem when you know how to properly configure DOSBox. Early Windows games are usually most problematic to run. Either you go with retro PC, virtual machine or hope that new OS will handle it well with the help of some tweaks and a glide wrapper. I’m really surprised that Windows 10 runs really good amount of those games without many tweaks needed.

Regarding your problems I can get you my dosbox config I use with Hind (tomorrow at the latest), but you have to remember that with DOS games you need to configure sound card settings usually separately with the external setup program (select card type, address, IRQ, DMA). In Hind it’s hidden in settings menu - I don’t know how it’s preconfigured in GOG’s release.

Apache Havoc is a no-go on newer PCs. I get random “rubber-banding” when the game will fast-forward at light speed for a short while then drop back to proper speed, makes the game unplayable. Tried many things to combat this: running on single core, limiting FPS with NVidia Inspector, running in different compatibility settings, nothing works. Comanche Hokum doesn’t suffer from this issue.

Ok I think I may need to start putting more effort into dosbox as opposed to just letting it run and accepting that some titles dont run properly. I’ll look up a few how to guides and see if I can improve my abilities a bit.

Thanks @damson appreciate it.

I bought this off Gog as well and it wouldn’t even start which was disappointing. But it’s the nature of it in suppose. Things age. Sometimes irreparably :sleepy:

You should be able to run all of Apache Havoc’s content through Comanche Hokum. They were designed to be integrated.

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Yes, but you will lose those nice 2D cockpit artwork and some of that nice in-engine loadout GUI.

Wifey and I just started ‘conarium’ courtesy of the epic games store giveaway last week.

Its incredible. We aren’t far into it but we are thoroughly hooked. We really enjoy playing these sorts of chilling spooky games together and this is perfect.

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Funny enough, I played F-29, TFX, and EF2K, but I never played F-22.
I think it was because it came out after NL’s F-22, which was meh, and iF-22, which I put a ton of time into including its desert expansion.
Then ADF/TAW came out and by then I was F-22’d out and I seem to recall I was playing Origin’s F-15 and then F4 and Flanker 2.
Likewise I missed EA’s F18, because I’d just been playing iF/A-18E. I’d gotten tired of the crashes which I only found out years later was due to a default FOV bug that was easily fixed by just changing it 1 degree. :frowning: So I was in no mood for another Hornet sim at the time, especially when the promised A-10 sim had vanished.

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The 1997-98 was the time when many flight sims started to pop out. We got F-22 Raptor from Novalogic, iF-22 and iF/A-18 from Interactive Magic, F/A-18 from Digital Integration, F/A-18 Korea from GraphSim, Jane’s Longbow 2, Janes F-15 and Jane’s F/A-18 by EA, Joint Strike Fighter by Innerloop, DIDs F-22 ADF and TAW, Apache Havoc by Razorworks, Falcon 4 and European Air War from Microprose. So many good games. From the bunch that depicted F-22 the ones from Digital Image Design were the best in my opinion.

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With Microprose back will also DID find their way back to flight sims? :wink:

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Main brain behind the games from DID - Martin Kenwright moved on to other things. After leaving DID with few coworkers, he setup Evolution Studios (WRC for PS2, Motorstorm for PS3 or Drive Club for PS4) so I doubt he would get back to less profitable flight sims. If you wonder how DID made without him - take a look at Eurofighter Typhon…
But it would be cool if he joined forces with Ed Scio (they both from UK) and could help develop dynamic campaing for CAP2 as EF2000 and TAW already had those implemented.

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I remember about Martin but forgot totally about the Driveclub.

I knew they had some troubled start. Did they, Evo Studios, eventually live through it?

No clue.

FORTES FORTUNA ADIUVAT

Freespace 2 free on GOG.COM for a limited time!
-20% Freespace 2 on GOG.com

Plus Interstellar sale!

…and Swat 4 for 4$. :smiley:

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It’s been a fantastic month for free games this month! I got free space 2 yesterday and the metro 2033 redux this morning! Looking forward to trying that out as I loved the books and the first game.

*correction metro 2033 redux is free from today but hasn’t actually started the giveaway. I just checked and it’s not live yet. Apologies. I’ll update once its live.

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In my burst of retro collecting, I found what may be a gem from the 5th generation:

Rescue Copter

So far, I’m pretty surprised with this game’s model fidelity. Obviously, it’s no DCS. But, it’s admirable for a game on the original Playstation. This game fell into obscurity mostly because it saw a North American release in 2003. Yeah, a Playstation 1 game in 2003. That’s a sure fire hit and JB Weld would’ve seemed appealing aboard the RMS Titanic, no doubt.

What else probably didn’t help? The cover art:

The bright colors, the arrangement, and even the name all make most of us cynical games consumers think “Oh this is some kid’s game and/or shovelware.” But the moment you boot it up? The music and aesthetic betrays its origins; this game is Japanese. Sure enough, this is a localized version of a game called Jet Copter X.

Now, that’s a cover!

I purchased a copy, still sealed, for $10. Change the flight model to its most realistic setting and it’s pretty great, thus far. A lot less stiff than in the above video.

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Metro 2033 and Last Light are great games, really nailed the claustrophobic feeling in those tunnels and some genuinely scary moments (looking at you Librarians!).

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And they’re looking at you, too. Very very closely, in fact!

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They are genuinely terrific monsters. That whole section had me so worked up.

I really want to read 2034 but haven’t gotten around to it yet

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