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Often touted in the pre-release hype as the flight sim that will finally dethrone Falcon 3.0 as the King of Hardcore Sims , Su-27 Flanker seemed to be a dissapointment for many... at the first glance, that is. This sim lacks a campaign, doesn't have any "multimedia dazzle", has decidedly retro graphics and poor sound effects. It doesn't help that the final release (Flanker 1.0) was rushed for Christmas and therefore contained some bugs and left out some promised features. Upon closer inspection, however, Su-27 Flanker proved to be a delight for hardcore flight sim fans. The flight modeling, weapons modeling and avionics are simply among the best out there. And the AI had to be seen to be believed. Also, while the sim lacks campaign, the mission planner included in the sim is excellent, allowing creative fans to create intricate and challenging missions and share them via the Internet.
There are 3 major releases of Flanker 1:- Version 1.0: Win95 only, many bugs, many unimplemented features
- Version 1.1: Win95 & DOS, most bugs squashed, virtually all features implemented. The Win95 version is then patched to 1.2 (and then 1.2a) version.
- Version 1.5: A.K.A. the Squadron Leader Edition. Further bug fixes, additional features and lots of additional missions.
I own the 2nd printing of the game (Version 1.1). The DOS half of this version is playable under DOSBox (I used CPU cycle=9000 and frameskip=0 on my Ubuntu box). The Win95 half should be playable on any Windows 9x or XP box. In a pleasant surprise, the Win95 half is also playable under Linux using Wine (I used Wine 0.9.27) as long as you remember to copy MFC30.dll to your Wine's Windows directory. I couldn't get the sound to work properly, though. Fortunately, since the sound effects in Flanker is abysmal, this is not much of a loss (for more information about Wine, go here).
It's been a while since I last played Flanker. So, in order to re-familiarize myself with this complex sim and to give an impression of how the sim plays, I have constructed a simple mission. This is a simple round trip from Sevastopol airbase and back. To spice things a bit, we will pass a training area (the boxed area below). Somewhere within this box is a MiG-23 that I have to intercept and shoot down.
The mission starts at around 4.30 local time. To the east the dawn is just breaking. Strapped in my Flanker, I eagerly awaits clearance from the tower to take off. I am carrying a full load of medium- and short-range missiles for this mission. After getting clearance from the tower, I ease the throttle forward to full military power, while stepping on the wheel brakes. The nose dips as the thrust builds up. When the RPM shows 100%, I release the wheel brakes and my Flanker starts its take-off run (most Eastern Bloc pilots, unlike their Western counterparts, do not use afterburners during take-off to conserve fuel). At approximately 300 kph, I ease the stick to my lap and the Flanker starts climbing. I quickly cleaned up my aircraft and follows the HUD cue to the first waypoint.
When I reached waypoint 2, I turned on my radar and change my HUD mode to DVB (BVR) mode. The MiG-23 is a relatively small aircraft, so my radar could not pick it up at first. Finally, at a range of approximately 96 km, my radar detected the MiG and I started to set up my intercept geometry.
After closing up to approximately 20 km, I lock the bandit and immediately launch an R-27re missile.
Simultaneously, I get indication that the bandit has locked me up. Had the bandit carried medium-range missiles, this will soon be followed by a PUSK (launch) indication and I will have to honor the threat by maneuvering against his missiles. This in turn will force me to break lock and my R-27 missile, being SARH, will have gone ballistic. Welcome to the world of long range missile battle in Flanker! Fortunately, in this scenario the MiG-23 carries only R-60 short-range missiles so I simply ignore the warning and keep on guiding the missile.
The bandit, upon detecting that I have launched my missile, breaks hard right while simultaneously releasing countermeasures. Apparently the chaff confuses the missile, causing it to fall short. The explosion from the near miss apparently causes some slight damage, however.
The chaff released by the bandit also managed to break my radar lock. As you can see in the picture below, there are now 2 target returns. One of them is the real target while the other is a chaff cloud. Which is which is a matter of guessing at this moment.
I waited for a few moments for the chaff return to disappear, and then easily managed to reestablish radar lock on the bandit and launched my second R-27re missile. This time, however, the bandit managed to outmaneuver my missile. The missile missed him and streaks harmlessly by.
By now we are entering visual range and I lost the lock on my radar. Fumbling for the radar switches, I suddenly saw the MiG. So I immediately switch to FIO (boresight) mode and maneuver my aircraft so that the MiG enters the R-27's seeker's FOV.
I locked him and immediately launched my third missile. The missile guided perfectly and destroyed the MiG. As his aircraft disintegrates, the pilot just manages to use his ejection seat to escape.
In retrospect, I should have switched to my R-73 dogfight missiles when we merged. In such a close range, the R-73 would have had a much better chance to hit the bandit. But during the engagement, I was to confused to even think about this. Luckily the R-27re hits its target. After destroying the MiG I switch to NAV mode for an uneventful RTB flight.
Falcon 3.0 is undoubtedly one of the best flight sim ever created. Even today, this 15-year old game still have features that are either omitted or not as well implemented by newer games. This game can be played using DosBox, and as noted in my DosBox review, you should play around with 'frame-skip' parameter to get missiles performing properly. On my Ubuntu box, frame-skip = 4 seems to be the sweet spot.
Today, we will join Col. Sheehan, callsign Redrum, on a Red Flag A-A mission. Col. Sheehan is the CO of the Swamp Fox squadron, flying F-16C Falcons. The objective of this mission is to kill 3 bogeys in the training area. Two of the bogeys are Mirage 3s and the last one is a MiG-23. The training scenario calls for a stealthy sneak attack on the first bogey, with complete GCI control up to engagement point. The detection and engagement of the last 2 bogeys are left to the pilot.
Redrum enters the training area at Nellis at high altitude, approximately 25000 feet, completely under GCI control with his radar off. GCI controller guided him into the "saddle" of the first bogey. Now Col. Sheehan picks up the story.
"The GCI controller put me in a perfect position behind the first bogey. He is completely unaware of my presence, so I'd close up to within 3 miles, arm my Sidewinder, get a solid lock and tone and then launch. He tried to evade the missile, but it's already too late and I got my first kill."
"The second bogey was a different story. Since now I'm on my own, I fired up my radar in search mode and picked him up from a range of approximately 40 miles."
"Since the AMRAAMs will only lock on at about 15 miles, I decided to stay in search mode in order not to spook him too early. So I'd waited until he get to approximately 12 miles and then switch to TWS mode. At this instant, I received a message that the enemy is using ECM. This means that any radar lock will be unreliable and the performance of the AMRAAM missiles will be greatly reduced. When I'd launched my first missile, the lock is immediately broken and the missile missed. Foolishly, I wasted another Fox 1 on the bogey. The second missile also missed. Realizing that my AMRAAMs are now useless, I switched the radar to ACM mode and armed a Sidewinder. I didn't really hope that the radar would be able to lock on the bogey. Instead, I'd be using my Sidewinder's seeker head to get the bandit. We are now within visual range and after a couple of high-G maneuvers I managed to get a Sidewinder lock (still no radar lock) and launched a Fox 2. The missile tracked him correctly, but seems to explode just short of his tailpipe. He seems to be damaged from the shrapnel."
"I still have a healthy bogey somewhere, so I disengaged and try to find him. It proved to be quite easy. I'd detect the MiG-23 at approximately 30 miles, close up to approximately 13 miles then lock him up and immediately launched a Fox 1. This time, since there is no ECM activity, the missile guided perfectly and the bogey blew up into a smoky orange fireball."
"Having dispatched the MiG, I turned around to check whether the damage caused by the near miss had brought down the second bogey. I swung my jet around and fire up my search radar. Apparently the bogey was not downed and I detected him again at about 40 miles out. My first missile might have damaged his ECM gear, though."
"I then closed up to about 15 miles, locked him up and confirmed that his ECM is down. Then I performed a textbook AMRAAM intercept, launching a Fox 1 at about 11 miles. Without his ECM, my final missile hit him amidships and he simply disintegrated into a million pieces."
"After confirming that I have neutralized all opposition, I got a vector out of the training area. During the debriefing, I got 3 confirmed kills. Mission accomplished."
Why would anybody play old games? Why play a 15-year old game when new games are released every couple of weeks? I have two answers. Both are correct, but one sounds better so it goes first.
The first reason is that a classic is a classic. It doesn't really matter when the classic game is released. If it is a classic, it will have that certain factor that keeps you coming back. You will be able to easily look past the dated VGA (or even CGA) graphics, suspend your disbelief and get sucked in. Newer games on the subject may improve the graphics or sound or add tons of new feature. But that single factor, the "game-lock" factor, the sheer addictiveness, the brilliant design, is not so easy to improve or even to repeat.
The second reason is the hard fact that for some of us it is simply impossible to keep up with the constant flow of newer games. It all boils down to one word: money. We simply could not afford to upgrade our machines to keep up with the technology (or real-life simply dictate that we channel the funds elsewhere). Newer graphics card, newer processor, more memory, newer controllers... etc. What good would it be to purchase the latest flight sim if all it would give is a slide show on our old PC? For people like that, older games provide the necessary thrill without having to spend more money.
DosBox is the single most important piece of software for retro-gamers. This is especially true when you are currently using non-Microsoft OS (Linux or Mac OS). But even for people using Windows XP, DosBox would still be a blessing since most game won't run properly (mostly sound problems), if at all.
DosBox is an x86 emulator complete with DOS. This software allows you to run old DOS-based games on your Windows-, Linux- or Mac OS-based computer. DosBox supports DOS-extender games (e.g., Doom), so virtually any game ever released before the age of Windows is playable. Their site contains a game database, so you can see for yourself whether your game is supported and how playable that game would be under DosBox. Using DosBox, you can play games in a window or full-screen. In the latter case, your games should be virtually indistinguishable from one running under native DOS.
One inherent limitation to any emulator is speed. The documentation admits that DosBox will give the performance of a 386 or 486 machine on most Pentiums. So, don't expect blazing speeds, especially if your machine isn't up to snuff, in simulations or action games (This would not be much of a problem in turn-based games). However, this would not be a problem for the majority of old games out there, being originally written when 386 PC's were kings. Actually, in some cases you would like to slow down the emulation speed. Some games perform erratically if the emulation speed is too high. For example, the missiles in Falcon 3.0 seem to have problem hitting their target in this case. DosBox offers 2 adjustable parameters, namely CPU cycles and frame skipping (no need for external slow-down programs like MoSlo). By properly adjusting these parameters, you should be able to run most games correctly. The only catch is that finding the correct setting is a matter of trial and error.
I have tested DosBox on 2 different computers. One is an old laptop (Pentium IV 1.7 GHz, 256 MB RAM) running Windows XP SP2 and the other is a desktop (Pentium IV 2.8 GHz, 512 MB RAM) running Ubuntu 6.10. In both cases DosBox performs very well, sound and all, out of the box (i.e., I hardly have to touch the configuration file).
In conclusion, if you are into retro-gaming and most of the games you'd like to play are DOS-based, then you should definitely give DosBox a try (download it here).
Welcome to Retro Gamez!
What is Retro Gamez? It's a place for old gamers to reminisce about old games. Games that have attained the status of all-time classics. Here you'll find my notes about some classics that I still play. Reviews, tricks to get old games running on your hot-rod new machine or simply after-action reports (AAR's) from the front. You won't find any games or other software to download here. If you'd like to get into retro-gaming, here are some interesting places that you'd want to visit:
The first 2 sites hold lots of old games (classics or otherwise). The final site holds a software that is your ticket to get old games running on your system.
Okay, that's all for now. Stay tuned for further posts. Happy retro gaming!
