Maybe some of you have heard of the CRPG Book Project. Inspired by Felipe Pepe’s initiative, I was thinking about creating something similar for military flight simulators.
In Felipe’s words: “The CRPG Book Project is a collaborative, non-profit effort to create a free & easily available ebook on the history of Computer Role-Playing Games.”
I’ve compiled a list of flight sims that I believe are worthy of inclusion, along with some ideas for additional chapters. I’ve also created a to give you an idea of what this project could look like (note: the placeholder text is AI-generated).
I’m currently seeking opinions and gauging interest in this project. Would anyone be interested in contributing by writing a chapter or a review?
Nice list. I can help at least with DID games: EF 2000, F-22 ADF, and F-22 TAW.
Missing (addons because significantly modify a base game):
1996 TACTCOM free addon for DID EF-2000
1996 Super EF2000 (EF 2000 + TACTCOM, Win95)
1997 Su-27 Flanker Mission Disk (Flanker 1.5)
1998 DID F-22 Total Air War (dynamic campaigns)
2001 Flanker 2.5 free addon for SSI Flanker 2.0
2005 Flaming Cliffs addon for Lock On: Modern Air Combat (= Gold version)
2003 IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles + Ace Expansion Pack (semi-dynamic campaign)
2004 IL-2 Sturmovik: Pacific Fighters (semi-dynamic campaign)
Cool idea. There are plenty of sims missing though. Of the top of my head:
Novalogic sims:
1996 F-22 Lighting II
1997 F-22 Raptor
1998 F-16 Multirole Fighter
1998 MIG-29 Fulcrum
1999 F-22 Lighting 3
from Mission Studios
1997 JetFighter III
1998 JetFighter Full Burn
2000 JetFighter iV Fortress America
from Simis
1992 AV-8B Harrier Assault
1995 Ka-50 Hokum
1998 Team Apache
2000 Ka-52 Team Alligator
from EA
1995 Marine Fighters (expansion for USNF)
1996 Jane’s Advanced Tactical Fighters (+NATO Fighters expansion)
1996 Jane’s USNF’97
other:
1995 Black Knight: Marine Strike Fighter
If I recall more I will add them later, also I would be willing to write some reviews.
Edit:
from Thirdwire
2004 Wings over Vietnam
2006 Wings over Europe: Cold War Gone Hot
2008 Wings over Israel
and their Strike Fighters 2 updated versions (don’t forget North Atlantic)
from Microprose
1996 Top Gun: Fire at Will!
2001 Gunship!
Edit2:
from Rowan Software
1993 Reach for the Skies
1994 Overlord
1995 Navy Strike
1995 Air Power: Battle in the Skies
1997 Flying Corps
1999 Mig Alley
2000 Rowan’s Battle of Britain
I think I can help but will need someone, like @damson, with the ability to take screenshots to avoid copyright violations. While I don’t have access to my old games, I still have many of the manuals and boxes. I might also be able to find some of my old writeups.
I could write few reviews for the games I’m most familiar with and actually have completed or played thoroughly like US Navy Fighters / Marine Fighters / Jane’s ATF / NATO Fighters / Jane’s USNF’97 / Jane’s Fighters Anthology, Top Gun: Fire at Will!, Fleet Defender, F-15 Strike Eagle III, F/A-18 Interceptor, F-16 Combat Pilot. But if someone wants to cover them feel free to post. I’m not a native english speaker so the quality of my reviews may not be outstanding technically. However I played many of those games (still playing them actually), and I’m very familiar with their features, so I could fact-check and redact other reviews. I could also grab screenshots for many of the games on the list as @trevorr610 suggested, since I have plenty of those running on my hardware.
Just a few words in general. This will be a long term project which might take years to complete. Felipes CRPG Book project startet in 2014 and the first PDF release was in 2018. But I’m really convinced that this will be something worth working on
And what about current WIP titles such as Tiny Combat Arena, Helicopter Gunship DEX, Nuclear Option? Maybe put a section that covers upcoming but already playable flight sims?
