Producer: MicroProse
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Sid Meier

Once again you stroll across the tarmac, don your flying helmet, and climb into your waiting aircraft. But this is no ordinary let fighter - this is the proverbial it, the all-weather air-superiority ground-attack fighter, the frightening F-15. And you being a big macho hero and all, Uncle Sam has asked you to undertake some very important operations.

You're asked to select a mission: to Libya, Egypt, Haiphong, Syria, Hanoi, Iraq or the Persian Gulf. Libya is the simplest, and the Persian Gull damned near impossible (especially at higher levels).

Up to four players can take turns, and there are three levels of play: Arcade, where you can only turn the plane left and right: Rookie; Pilot; and Ace, where such delightful manoeuvres as highspeed yo-yos, lag pursuits, breaks and reverse and scissors can be put to good use.

Once your choices have been confirmed, the next screen asks for an authentication code, which must be entered correctly or none of the weapons systems will work.

Strike Eagle is played from within the cockpit, which incorporates the latest in head-up display (HUD for short). Over the 3-D view details such as speed, altitude, direction, weapons-aiming and messages are displayed.

After HUD perhaps the most useful piece of equipment is the radar, which can easily be changed between short, medium, and long range. And from the Weapons Status Display you can keep tabs on bombs, missiles and flares.

The keyboard controls weapons - guns, Sidewinder missiles, medium-range missiles and bombs - and the throttle.

The mission for this super-duper multimillion-dollar plane is, of course, destructive. You're required to fly in over enemy territories, under their radar, and bomb 'primary targets'.

The enemy send their own fighters and surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) after you. The F- 15 makers thought of everything, though - while you tackle the enemy planes, your flares sidetrack their missiles, and chaff and ECM jamming foils their SAMs. But later it gets much harder to destroy enemy aircraft, because some have their own flares and electronic jammers.

Every minute it gets more dangerous, and less likely you'll return to base for that hero's welcome and your nth medal...

COMMENTS

Control keys: multiple-key input
Joystick: not stated
Use of colour: sensible
Graphics: reasonably fast, smooth 3-D
Sound: very little, weak gunfire FX at most
Skill levels: four
Screens: seven missions

F-15 Strike Eagle is one of my favourite games on the Atari, so I was intrigued to see it on the Spectrum. And considering the vast differences between Atari and Spectrum graphics, it's surprisingly similar in appearance and gameplay. Microprose have done an excellent job on the conversion, though the introscreen tune is a bit weak.
ROGER

People who say all flight aims are the same, 'seen one, seen 'em all', become critically blind when faced with the fiftieth version of THEIR favourite shoot-'em up. If you enjoy good simulations, each has its own flavour and particular problems. A sim should attempt as much authenticity as is possible in a few K of memory, and F-15 Strike Eagle achieves that handsomely. The graphics work smoothly, the displays and instrumentation are fast and involving, and with seven very different missions across four difficulty levels there are many playing hours in this package.
MARK

Flight-simulation games have been with us for many an aeon now, some good, some bad and some indescribable. F-15 Strike Eagle is good. Visually the game is neat: the wire-frame enemy planes and missiles move around the screen convincingly, though the planes are hard to see in a high-speed chase. The instrumentation panel with the head-up display, radar and weapons display is extremely useful, as are the bomb and the air-to-air-missile- targeting boxes. With all its documentation, this is a good game for simulation fans.
RICKY

Microprose
£9.95

Dan diddly dan dan dan diddly diddly dan... you'll be the best. Better than the best. You'll be a Top Gun and you'll even look (and act) better than Tom Cruise. You'll pilot the F-15 Strike Eagle. You'll know it intimately. You could fly it with both eyes shut - though you'd probably crash. You'll have S20,000,000 of specialist equipment under your fingertips, and (this is the clincher) you'll be able to bomb any commie pinko rats who get in your way. Now, to enter this elite, a simple eyesight test. What does it say...?

Aw shucks, I failed the eyesight test. Perhaps it's because I didn't vote Republican. Never mind, I'll play the Microprose version instead. Right, load it in... dum de dum de dum.. Wow! They've printed on the border! Oh, it's just colours. Where are we? Right, this button does this, this button does that and I'm off. Hang on, what the hell is the triangle? It's a plane? Come off it! Lets read those instructions again...

Ahem. F- 15 Strike Eagle is not as good as I expected. Opening the package, I found a 40-page instruction manual, with an extra piece of card explaining the differences between versions for the Commie 64 (die, pinkos) and the good ol' natural-as-mom's-apple-pie Speccy. One of these is the security code. This consists of the numbers 1 to 16 with each number corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. When a number pops up on the screen, you press the relevant letter. That'll really stop the pirates. Anyway, when you start playing the game, you have about 20 different buttons to memorise - as well as the joystick!

So you're ready, are you? Good. Press FIRE and (after deciding which mission to take) you're off. (There are eight different missions, from Hanoi - gooks - to Libya.)

The first thing you see is a triangle. It seems that the planes are triangle-shaped - if they're too far away to be seen, little squares pop up around them. Same with missiles, though they have 'M's inside the box. You're given various means to wipe out these pests, from guns or flares to hellfire missiles!

The graphics are, well, functional. It's hard to get too excited about the game, as there are loads of very similar games around for a similar (or lower) price - Tomahawk springs to mind. Gameplay is slow, and several times I found myself diving towards the ground, unable to pull up. Granted, it's cheaper than the real thing, but after a while there's no real challenge and you get bored. Perhaps this very complex sort of game isn't really suitable for the limited capabilities of the Speccy. Or perhaps it's just boring. My guess is that you'll find it's only the price that 'Takes your breath awayyy...'

Label: Microprose
Author: Sid Meier
Price: £9.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Tamara Howard

Top Secret, Security Level 7. The following information is classified and must not be revealed to unauthorised sources. This review will self destruct in five minutes. And counting...

(This review is to be read in a pseudo-American accent). Hi y'all! How's about a little bit of combat fighter pilot practise? How d'you teel about a little' spin in the lill' ol' F-15 Strike Eagle, the noo sooper flight simulator game, featuring the high-tech, all-weather, air superiority and ground attack fighter, the good ol' Strike Eagle itself? And while we're up an' away in the jet fighter, how's about a littl' ol' raid on Libya, or Tripoli or even the mean ol' Persian Gulf?

Simulation games are hot stuff in the States, and Wild Bill (Microprose head honcho) specialises in sooperior games. These are not games for boys, these are games for MEN an' no messing. So watch out Limey's, Wild Bill an' his jet plane on their way!

(This review has been interrupted for reasons of security. The remainder will be read in a BBC announcer tone of voice).

There is truly nobody to match Microprose when it comes to commitment to simulation games. The man who brought the Americans Conflict of Vietnam and F-15 Strikes again.

F15 Strike Eagle is certainly one of the most complex around. The detail is precise, even down to processing of each fighter pilot's special passcode at the beginning. Without the correct code it is impossible to gain access to all the weapons aboard the aircraft. And what a lot of weapons there are! Shells for the destruction of heat-seeking missiles from enemy bases. Bombs to destroy the aforementioned enemies. Medium, long-range, heat seeking missiles. Radar blocks for all sorts of nasty bits.

And those are just the weapons. There are extras. Before you get to bomb anything, you've got to learn to fly the wretched thing.

And that's not an easy task. There's climbing and diving, banking and turning, windspeed, altitude and acceleration to be considered. Just to keep you going in a straight line.

So it's very sophisticated, very complex. There are various attack missions you can go on and different problems in each.

Each is based on the real thing e.g. bombing Lybia (gulp).

There's no doubt that F-15 Strike Eagle is an intricate, highly detailed and very superior simulator. But any game that comes with a 40-page instruction manual is not going to be easy to get into. Although I willingly give full marks to Microprose for a supreme attempt at producing the definitive simulation. I feel that in the case of F-15 Strike Eagle, some gameplay has lost out to technical detail. Simulation or shoot-em-up, the point behind computer games is ultimately entertainment. Microprose places a lot of emphasis on its games teaching the player something. With F- 15, it's taken that principle a bit too far... Added to the difficulty of controlling the darned thing, there's the problem of the graphics. Having been blinded by science, Microprose seems to have skimped on the graphics, they're really not so hot.

It's a shame that such programming detail game is let down by such simple graphics.