Digital Integration
£14.95/£19.95
128K Only

It's tally-ho chaps with the latest Digital Integration air combat game, F-16 Combat Pilot. There are plenty of missions to fly, including five warm-up ones, all of which must be completed before tackling the biggie, codenamed Operation Conquest.

After the controls have been set, a second option screen appears. Here you can switch on the training mode (which prevents the enemy from harming you), log into the pilot roster and select a mission; you can choose from Scramble, Hammerblow, Deepstrike, Tankbuster and Watchtower. You then receive your pre-flight briefing to identity your targets.

Before taking off, pick up a selection of weaponry from the hangar. Choose from a Vulcan 20mm six-barrel cannon, Sidewinder and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, Maverick and HARM air-toground missiles, and chaff and flares for defence You can load the weapon pods yourself or leave the ground staff to choose the most effective load for the selected mission. Then off into the wide blue yonder to kick some butt (after a quick read of the hefty control manual, of course).

As with most flight sims, the joystick is only used to steer the plane - most of the HUD (heads-up display) operations are accessed by the press of a key. Control of the plane is very good, scrolling is fast and though ground detail is sparse, cockpit displays are detailed.

I was able to keep the plane in the sky more easily than with previous flight sims, although make no mistake about it, the live preliminary missions are just a taste of what's to come in Operation Conquest.

F-16 Combat Pilot is more for simulation aficionados than general gamesplayers, so it's a case of you either loving it or getting very confused by it all. Personally, I love it.

MARK [85%]

If you're like me and think most flight simulations are the same, you wouldn't be far from the truth. Looking at the main section of F-16 Combat Pilot it's a lot like endless games I could mention. There are a variety of missions to fly and you can choose day or night, cloud or clear. The truth is that whichever options you select you'll spend the majority of your playing time staring at blank green ground, straining to make out what the cluster of blobs below are meant to represent. F-16 has some impressive presentation and option screens, which puts it ahead of its competitors. The damage control and weapon select are particularly good. Flight sims never work that well on the Spectrum, but Digital Integration have packed a hell of a lot in and have done a first class job.
NICK [83%]

Digital Integration
£14.95 cassette
£19.95 disk
Reviewer: Linda Barker

Oh dear. I've got a bit of an admission to make here - I've never actually played a flight sim before. Luckily though there's a very handy little Complete Guide To Flight Sims in a recent issue of YS, so if you don't mind hanging around I'll settle down with it and a few selected games and do a bit of research. It won't take long, so see you in a few minutes.

...Erm, sorry about that. It took a little longer than I thought (three days longer in fact) but at least I know what I'm talking about now.

Right, from what I can gather from the YS piece, flight sims are infamous for their high boredom factor, ie most people don't find them very interesting at all. You have to take that with a pinch of salt, I guess (after all, JD wrote the piece and he finds all games boring on principle) but there's an element of truth in it - compared to your average Speccy game they can be ultra-technical, very hard to get into and in the end not really all that exciting once you've got there. I have to say though, that's not the impression I got from F-16 Combat Pilot.

Right, so where do I start? Well first off, a warning - this game is incredibly complicated. In fact, you'd be better off not thinking about it as a game at all, or certainly not a game in the Pang/Gazza II/whatever sense - this is about as close as you're going to get (with a Speccy at least) to the real thing. If you're mainly into coin-op conversions you can play without the need for instructions then it won't be your cup of tea at all.

For those who are still interested though, a brief history lesson. Spec-chums with long memories may remember a handful of Digital Integration flight games from the dim and distant past - the (really, really) ancient Fighter Pilot for instance, or the (marginally) more recent half arcade/half flight sim ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighter). They've been quiet on the Speccy front since but that doesn't mean they disappeared totally - there were their various 16-bit successes for instance, the greatest being (you guessed it) F-16 Combat Pilot. And now (at last!) F-16 has made it down to the Speccy and - whadaya know? - it's jolly good indeed.

Exactly as you'd expect, the game puts you in the cockpit of an F-16 Fighting Falcon (one of the most manouvreable combat aircraft around). As you progress through the game you get assigned to different squadrons - each based in a different part of the world - and have to carry out a mission for them. There's the training squadron of course (where you get to familiarise yourself with the aircraft) and then there are the five combat missions - Scramble (an air-to-air interception mission), Hammerblow (a selection of ground attack missions on military targets), Deepstrike (ground attack on bridges, factories and so on), Tankbuster (anti-tank missions - very dangerous) and Watchtower (low-level, high speed reconnaisance). You pick your mish from an icon screen showing an overhead view of the Pentagon - each side of the building representing a different one. The central section is something else though - this represents Operation Conquest, a much more involved strategic option, which crunches elements of all the other missions together. The computer will only let you have a go at this once you've completed all the others though.

The idea with Conquest is to force your enemy to surrender by reducing his fighting ability and morale. You're in command of various squadrons, and assignment of targets and effective use of available aircraft is all down to you. Watch out though! He'll be trying to do exactly the same to you, so it's no good going for, say, an all-out attack on a series of enemy factories if it leaves your own fuel depots sadly vulnerable. As commander of the operation it doesn't matter if the aircraft you are flying happens to get shot down (you can transfer your command to another if you've any left) - the overall success of the operation that counts.

After each successfully completed Conquest you'll be offered promotion to another, better squadron, though beware - with each promotion the stakes get higher and the enemy tougher to beat. Each game of conquest can take a massive amount of time - eight hours isn't uncommon - so luckily they've put an 'R&R' option in here to give you some well deserved mid-mission leave (ie it lets you save the game so you can go for your dinner and then come back for more).

Phew. That's the basic gist of it. Now let's take a closer look at the plane and how you fly it. Once you've chosen your mission and have your targets, you pick the basic weather conditions (night/day, clear/cloudy) and then load the weapons. There's a very wide choice and of course it's up to you what you take (though for absolute beginners it might be best to go for the 'groundcrew recommended' option which will load the plane automatically).

Now you're in the cockpit and - blimey! - what a lot of controls. You can play it on keys (though that's a bit of a nightmare) or on the joystick option where you really want two sticks. One is the throttle (and you have it on one side of the Speccy) while the other actually controls the direction of your aircraft. (This is pretty close to the real set-up on an F-16 apparently, though I wouldn't know). Then there's the vast array of utilities on the control panel - a moving map display which shows you where you are and also shows targets; radar which shows you where enemy aircraft are as well as other targets; a weapon status screen and a digital artificial horizon (so you always know how your F16 is oriented). Other displays show altitude, airspeed, rate of climb, fuel status, and the speed and altitude of enemy aircraft and so on.

Blimey. Now you can start flying, and this is the difficult bit. The F16 can do so many things - the rather massive manual outlines all sorts of clever combat manoeuvres - that although bombing along in a straight line is fairly easy, making the proper use of the plane in a dogfight situation takes some doing. That's not to say you don't get any help though - as in the real plane, lots of things are done automatically. Enemy aircraft are tracked for you, your targets are logged into the plane's computer (as is your flight route) and if anything's wrong you'll be told.

It's not just the incredible detail and correctness of F-16 that makes it impressive - graphically it's a bit of a treat too. Like in ATF all the topographical features and targets are indicated by grid lines. Daytime flying has a green landscape and blue sky (never!) with enemy aircraft, airfields, targets and hills in a paler blue. Night flying, thanks to the infra red, is all red and black. Occasionally cloud cover will mean that you're flying blind (eek!) which can be a bit scary.

There are some really nice little touches too - like the fact that if you turn too swiftly the blood drains away from your head and you black out. The screen goes completely black for a while and when you come to the picture returns. (Hopefully you won't have crashed in the meantime, but if you do - and this is another good bit - blood drips down to cover the whole screen.) All the opening screens have excellent graphics and bags of colour too.

Writing a conclusion for a game review like this is really difficult. It's an incredible feat of programming and has an added strategy element that takes it beyond most flight sims. The term 'game' is really a bit misleading - this is more like a pilot training programme! Once you've mastered this I've no doubt you'd be completely at home in the cockpit of a real F16. The flight manual even goes into the correct flying attire - this is a serious business!

And there you have it. Provided there aren't any major bugs in it - and I haven't seen any so far - this has to be the most complete Spectrum flight sim yet. Perhaps the most impressive we'll ever see. (Mind you, I'm glad I'm not an F16 pilot. I've a horrible feeling that all that tipping and turning would make my insides go wobbly if the truth were known.)

SUPER GAME GUIDE

Following on from last month's frollicking funderland of fabbo games still available for the Speccy, Mark 'Cor Blimey Guv' Patterson gives us the lowdown on another batch of game greats from the pages of the world's most SU-per Speccy mag. The sheer number and variety of games is bewildering but since bewilderment is Marky's lot he's definitely the best man to give 'em a go...

F16 COMBAT PILOT
Label: Action Sixteen
Memory: 48/128K
Price: Tape £3.99 / Disk £9.99
Reviewer: Mike Patterson

Take to the skies in one of the hardest aircraft in the world. You're given a generous amount of weapons and plenty of targets to unload them on. The action comes thick and fast and it's very realistic.

This is the best flight-sim on the Speccy and one of those games you just have to have in your collection.

Label: Digital Integration
Price: £14.95/£19.95 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jason Naik

Yeeeeeharr!!!! I circled back over the funeral ground of my opponents Mig, my F16 badly damaged, having lost it's communications systems due to enemy fire (an air to air guided missile, the dirty swine). Now I gotta limp back to base, relying on my computer map to get me home, and my crack (or is that cracked?), pilot's flying skills to land me safely. Still, any landing......

Now pay attention y'all. Synchronize those Micky Mouse watches. You start the game by selecting one of five missions. These are Scramble, Hammerblow, Deepstrike, Tank Buster and Watchtower.

Scramble is air-to-air interception. Having said that there's always the possibility of going into close combat with enemy planes and snuffing them (or yourself), in each mission. Hammerblow is about offensive counter-air operations. This means knocking out enemy military installations (radars, runways - you know, little inexpensive things like that), whilst being offensive (thumbing your nose, etc).

Deepstrike means taking out enemy support installations (power stations, factories, union leaders). Tank Buster is as the name suggests, the art of being very nasty indeed to people who happen to drive tanks. Watchtower is nothing to do with the Jehovahs witnesses (unless they happen to have been take prisoner in one, in which case those Red's have some sense), but is the reconnaissance mission, where you steal the facts from 'over' the noses of the enemy!

You can let the crew choose your weapons, or choose them yourself, cos' you don't like anyone messin' with your baby. You have a variety of air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles to choose from, as well as extra fuel, and a reconnaissance pod (ATARS, advanced tactical air reconnaissance system). All of the options (mission and weapon), are selected by clicking an arrow on the relevant icons.

Having satisfied Tactical Fighter Command that you are capable holding your own with the best of the reds by completing all five missions, then you will take command of your men in Operation Conquest, an all out 'death or glory' joy ride in a squadron of F16 Fighting Falcons armed to the wingtips!

Once in the cockpit you're faced with an impressive array of displays, including the head-up with it's automatic targeting system, the 'passive' radar, the.. (ugh, arrgh, that button was a fag-lighter!!!). Enough of this. Suffice to say that if you want thrills, spills, and excitement galore then buying this game would go a long way to giving you that, no probs. The graphics are excellent, the line graphics working well and the cockpit display being interesting without being complicated. In fact this can be said for all aspects of F16 Combat Pilot, lack of this quality probably being the worst falling of most flight simulators. The attempted recreation of an authentic jet-engine sound is good. The controls are responsive, maybe even delicate but there is a definite sense of real ism to this simulator.

I could have spent hours on F16 Combat Pilot. Definitely 'The Right Stuff'.

Label: Action Sixteen
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape, £9.99 Disk
Reviewer: Steve Keen

The amount of detail that's packed into some Spectrum games never ceases to amaze me. How anyone can knock the old cat sized coffin after seeing a game like F-16 is beyond me. Let's face it, it's time to put down your Action Man, take the jet by the throttle and head off into the wild blue yonder!

Not even a drunk, bow legged, Outer Mongolian Feudal lord, with a PHD in Kamikaziism, could wish for more missions. Just when you think you've earned a rest, when you've finally completed the first five sorties, there are a whole lot more waiting to be discovered. Bomb enemy installations, cut off radar transmissions, locate and destroy whole battalions of tanks and enter dog fights 2000 feet above ground in pitch darkness, with infra-red heat seeking missiles. Every conceivable scenario has been catered for. Then finally, once you've mastered your own fighter, you can lead an entire squadron on a plethora of missions!

The sim can be as in-depth or instantly accessible as you want. There is even a special facility called 'Quick Start' that lets you bypass all the preflight briefing and get straight down to the fight. In fact most options can be controlled by the computer, leaving your hands free for the important parts of the game like picking off an enemy EWR site with a radar-guided anti-radar missile.

On the techie side there's a fun, switchable Head Up Display unit (HUD) and enough on screen LED's to make the crew of Star Trek Jealous! All systems are fully monitored with switchable screens, whilst below, a comprehensive damage menu makes sure you're always home in time for tea, if you keep tabs on it that is!

F-16 was a great buy nine months ago and now it's a steal. Rumor has it that the program taught Chuck Yeager everything he knows, personalally I don't believe this rumour, but it sounds good enough to include here. On disk or cassette this is an essential addition to any collection.

ALAN: I did grill a burger, but couldn't pull myself away for long enough to eat it. Still Tina didn't complain, until she discovered it wasn't a veggie burger! From the outset, and the initial introductory screens to the end, there's no mistaking that F16 is a first class product. An outstanding flight sim, and nice to see that it's out on Disk as a budget too!

Digital Integration
Spectrum £14.99

It took its time, but at last the Speccy version of the brill flight sim is here, and it's the tops! Fast and furious, this'll keep sim freaks glued to their rubber keyboards for many a while. A bit pricey, but check it out.