Electronic Arts
Stefan Walker
£8.95/£14.95

Chuck Yeager is a real man among men in the often very glamorous world of aviation. Last issue we previewed the game and revealed the man behind the 'bone-dome' (helmet to us land-bound pilots), this issue the Spectrum gets its taste of breaking the sound barrier.

There's far more to Chuck Yeager's AFT than test flying the latest jet aircraft in the odd loop or roll session. Chuck Yeager had to practically fly every new type of plane around, and the simulation allows you to do just that in 14 aircraft types, including the 'Glamorous Glennis' X-1.

Chuck's quite willing to let you loose in anything from a Sopwith Camel to the ultra-fast SR-71 Blackbird reconnaisance plane - just make sure you're strapped in and don't pull that lever marked 'Eject'. A great pity the graphics of each type of plane are limited to all of two types of representation, an F-16 and a bi-plane graphic!

The key to all this flight business lies in the five options (one on the 48K) accessible from the main menu. A nice leisurely Introductory Flight is recommended for novices who don't know their flaps from their altimeter (does anybody?).

If, however, you want to team everything about flying and pretend to qualify for your licence, use the Flight Instruction mode. Here Chuck offers words of wisdom about basic, advanced and aerobatic moves (and he should know!), allowing you either to fly or observe the plane as it spins, rolls and yaws around - an SR-71 or the XPG-12 Samurai looping the loot are not impossible, but not recommended unless you've a qualified instructor like Chuck with you. He'll probably disown you if you do loop a Blackbird!

For 128K owners, the Formation Flying and Aeroplane Racking options really put a pilot's newly learned skills to the test. Keeping from hitting the ground is the least of your worries when the computer-controlled aircraft starts dodging between buildings and performing barrel rolls, Immelmann twins and Cuban eights loops at the same time. Aeroplane racing is much the same, except you try to out-race Chuck around five twisting aerial courses. The choice of a P-51 or F-18 being yours for the attempt.

Although AFT may lack variety in plane and cockpit graphics, the realism behind it is most authentic, with each plane hawing its own unique flight performance levels and flying in its own individual way. The solid 3-D performs very well, the graphics moving smoothly with a fast pace to match.

Half the fun of the game is in learning how each plane operates, although it could get a mite repetitive given time. The instruction mode, formation flying option and aeroplane racing option serve as bonuses on top of what is a highly competent flight simulator. Pity there's no combat in the game.

Electronic Arts
£8.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: David Wilson

Apart from an instruction booklet that's as big as a Jeffrey Archer novel, but infinitely better written, the first thing you encounter in this game is the line about Chuck's AFT being 'designed for advanced pilots who already know how to fly a plane'! This is a warning on the complexity of the game, so don't expect to pick Chuck Yeager up (Oo-er!) and get straight into it. It's the sort of game that requires a lot of practice to master.

Don't be put off by first appearances either. The loading screen is a nice digitised piccie of Chuck himself, but with a big yellow sticker over his mouth and nose! Why would anyone want to smother Chuck in such a fashion? I'll tell you why! Because he is so annoying. Each time you make a tiny error (Like ploughing a field with the nose of your F-18!) he says things like 'You sure bought the farm that time!' and "Nice auger-job'. What is this man talking about?

The graphics on occasion cause optical discomfort and the scrolling is a trifle jerky. The ground is purple and the sky is black. (And they went to sea in a sieve? Ed) When you see your plane from behind against the ground (Yes, you can. I'll explain later!), the clashing pixels make your eyes go wibbly! (This having been said, there is some nicely filled ground detail.) But stick with it, unless you posess a 48K Speccy. If this is the case, then be warned - Chuck is a mere shadow of his former self! When copped from its 16 bit original to 128K, the game is still very big and offers some nice original options. These include the ability to view your aircraft from behind (the chase planes viewpoint) and from the ground (the Control Tower's viewpoint), the choice of flying one of 14 different aircraft (from a 1918 Sopwith Camel to the latest USAF aquisitions such as the F-18 Hornet and the SR-71 Blackbird), and also the option to fly a 'Test Flight', 'Formation Flying', 'Airplane Racing', or 'Flight instruction. Furthermore, within each of these choices, there are even more sub-choices!! in Formation Flying, there is an invitation from General Chuck himself to 'Wax Me' (Good Lord!! Ed). This, in fact, is where you get to chase Chuck in a P-51 Mustang!

Sorry, I digress, back to the 48K version. This version has been chopped so much that you are only able to opt for Test Flights. Furthermore, unlike the 16 bit formats, both versions have lost the 'Direction Finding Radio', a helpful device to help you locate your airport! This makes landing very much a hit and miss affair. Anyway, having mastered the principles of flight (hem, hem) then you can get into the main part of this game, which is the test flights, the racing and the aerobatics. Racing, against another plane, is great fun. The courses send you slaloming around obstacles, or through narrow gates. Testing planes too is thrilling, with Chuck's handy tips and his checklist.

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO FLIGHT SIMS

Oh cripes. Whose idea was this? Couldn't we do it on something else? Nah, we promised. How about putting if off for another month? Or we could make JONATHAN DAVIS do it? Heh heh. Right, where's he got to? Ah ha!

Neeeeeow! Dakka dakka dakka! Kaboom! "Crikey, Ginger, pull up! Over."

"I can't! I think my flaps have gone a bit funny. Over." Neeeow! Boom!

"Bail out! Bail out! Over." Dakka dakka dakka. (Ricochet noises.)

"Er, okay then. Over and out."

Sorry about that, just trying to inject a bit of excitement into this thing because, let's face it, flight sims aren't exactly the most exciting bits of software around.

Or are they?

No, They're not. But there are loads of them about, and people keep buying them. Why is this? Perhaps we'd better investigate.

For thousands of years man has dreamt of flight... (Cut the crap, Ed) Erm, well, perhaps it's because they demand a bit more thought than your average arcade game. Fast reactions are all very well, but what about using your noddle occasionally? Keeping a plane in flight isn't just a matter of wobbling your joystick about a bit, which is the impression that lesser games give. You've got angles of attack to worry about, altitude, navigation, weapons systems, undercarriage... the list is endless. As are the manuals usually. And that's another thing. If you've never played one before you'll need to spend hours wading through one of these breeze-block tomes before you can even get off the ground.

Once you've got the thing up in the air though you're well away. With any luck there'll be lots of scenery to look at and plenty of enemy thingies to 'take out'. You might even like to indulge in a bit of aerobatics to pass the time. The one thing you should always keep an eye on though is the ground. Stay away from this at all costs. Unless you're landing, of course, which is another story altogether.

SO WHAT'S A FLIGHT SIM THEN, EH?

In compiling this guide I was faced with the usual problem - what exactly is a flight simulation? What are the criteria? Where do you draw the line? I decided to seek the advice of one of Europe's leading experts in the field of computer games.

"Er, Matt? (Cough.) Matt?' I ventured.

"Mmm?"

"Would you have said that, say, Fighter Pilot was a flight sim? Huh? Matt?" I enquired cheerily.

"Er, probably," he replied.

"How about Harrier Attack?"

"I expect it is, yes."

"Or Night Raider?"

"Um, look, I've got to go out. To the, er, shops. I'll see you later. Maybe."

Unperturbed. I decided to try Andy, but he didn't appear to hear me. I also tried ringing up a few friends. They all seemed to be out.

So it's all down to me then. Well, I reckon that really, in a flight sim, you ought to be in control of a plane of some sort. Ideally you'd get a 3D view out of the cockpit, but I'll be flexible and allow ones where you see the plane on the screen from the back (like ATF) and even ones where you see the view in 2D (from the top or something).

Another important guideline is the number of keys. Preferably there should be at least 2,452 of them, each with about three different functions. But, again, I'll allow a generous margin of error and set the bottom line at six.

And finally there's the manual. Obviously this should be as large and impenetrable as possible, with lots of incomprehensible acronyms that you have to keep looking up in the glossary at the back. A rough guide to length? Let's say 500-600 pages for a decent one or, if the game comes in an ordinary cassette box, an inlay card that folds out into a thin strip long enough to wrap round Matt's tummy at least two and a half times.

So now we know just what makes up a flight sim, let's take a look at a few…

RATINGS

Once again, the normally-so-versatile YS rating system doesn't really seem too appropriate here (Instant appeal? Addictiveness?). So what we've done is to come up with a revised system, specially tailored to meet the needs of today's flight sim. Let's have a nosey...

The View: Can you see anything nice out of the window? Or is it all just green and blue wiggly lines? And does the scenery glide around smoothly or jerk around like an Allegro with a dodgy clutch?

Realism: This can often be determined by the number of keys the game uses. So that's just what we've done. Counted 'em. As there are 40 keys on your basic Speccy, and each one can be doubled or even tripled up, the maximum comes out to exactly 100. Handy, eh?

Dakka Factor: Is there much to shoot? Or is it all a matter of map-reading, gauge-watching and other such nonsense? And once you've shot whatever it is, does it explode dramatically and plummet to the ground leaving a trail of smoke behind it? Or not?

Net Weight: A crucial part of any flight sim is all the junk that comes with it. So, adding together all the disks, maps, manuals, stickers and the box, what do the YS scales make of it? (All weights are, of course, approximate.) (In degrees.)

Chuck Yeagar's Advanced Flight Trainer
Electronic Arts

So what's this one got going for it? Three things actually. One, it's a proper flight simulation, no question about it. Two, it's got solid 3D graphics. And three, you get a choice of 14 different planes to fly, ranging from a 1918 Sopwith Camel to the SR-71 Blackbird. The cons? Well, Chuck Yeager might be an important historical figure and everything, but his contribution to the game consists mainly of irritating comments after you crash. And the other one is those 3D graphics. They look very nice generally, but sometimes the various shades of grey gang up against you so it's very hard to see what's going on. And they're not as smooth as they might have been either. There's another thing while we're at it too. While the 128K version is absolutely packed with features and things to do, the 48K one has been radically cut down and isn't nearly such an attractive proposition. Assuming you've got a 128K then Chuck Yeager is a stonking flight sim, with everything you could possibly want and a lot that other flight sims don't have (like racing against other planes and 'test flying').

Label: EA
Author: Stefan Walker
Price: £8.95/£14.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

The sky's the limit, or so they say. But is it? If a man builds a machine to take him up into the air, how can he tell how far it will take him? is the sky really the limit? Or will his new X-16784b/7 take him further? There is only one true way to find out, and that's to experiment. Now, a professional aeronautical engineer, highly trained and paid, isn't going to risk his neck going to the edge of the atmosphere to see whether the brand spanking new untested craft is going to fall apart when gravity falls away. That's where good old Chuck Yeager comes in. Test pilot and America's favourite hero. Chuck has test flown just about everything there is, and now he's giving you the chance to try your hand in Electronic Arts latest release.

Fly a choice of 14 different aircraft through some perillous airspace in the mysterious land of EA-world. Some of the craft are old favourites, like the Cessna and the Spitfire. Even my personal favourite, the SR-71 Blackbird is in there, the fastest plane in the sky, so fast it defies radar and has an almost negligible turning rate. Fly along a slalom of huge black monoliths, weave over and under gates along the ground, or why not just try landing?

As you may, or may not, have noticed, Chuck is displayed via filled vectors. Now, to the best of my knowledge, filled vectors can be done, but only at a decent rate if the shapes are simple, with the exception of the opening screen of Carrier Command. The items in Chuck are multi-faceted, and I mean multi. This means that the game moves along at a snail's pace, already damaging the playability. It would have worked if the game had been drawn with hidden line vectors, but no, EA had to try to do filled, and it just hasn't worked as well as it might.

But, back to the game. The first thing you notice is that the controls are slightly odd. In the centre of your viewing window, whichever view you happen to be using at the time, you have a crosshair. On screen you also have a small rectangle. This gives you an immediate pictorial representation of the position of ailerons and rudder, taking the cross hair as centred. You fly by moving the box around the screen, which is decidedly tetchy, but worth getting used to. The first thing you have to learn is that box centred doesn't automatically mean straight and level flight, just that the plane will no longer pitch and yaw. If, however, the plane is banked when you return the box to centre, the plane will continue to bank.

I don't like the feel of Chuck Yeagers, and no that's not a slur on the Spectrum version. I've seen them all, including Chuck 2.0 on a superfast PC, and I still didn't like the feel. It's too easy to overcompensate and reaction times are slow. I just can't see it being an accurate simulation, that's all.

You lucky, lucky 128K owners. For your money, you get all planes and locations loaded in at once, along with a menu of five wonderful things to choose from, including test flying, formation flying and racing against other planes. 48K owners aren't so lucky. For a start, they only get test flying. Also, only one plane can be loaded in at a time. All the other planes are held on tape in a tortuous pergatory of multi-load. That's why I've included two sets of scores for playability and lastability. The first is for the 48 version and the second for the 128.

Chuck wasn't made for a Speccy. Maybe with a bit of a snip and a tuck, the old timer could have taught us some new tricks. As it is, it falls just a little too low on the playability scales to be any fun.