Falcon (computer game)
Encyclopedia
The Falcon line of computer games is a series of simulations
of the F-16 Fighting Falcon
fighter aircraft. The games were developed and published by Spectrum HoloByte
(later MicroProse
). They were noted for their high level of realism unseen in contemporary simulation games.
and programmed by Les Watts for the MSX (1984), under title of "F-16 Fighting Falcon") and Macintosh (1987 as "Falcon"), and used bitmapped 3D MiG-21s as adversaries. This was several years before Origin
's Wing Commander
used a similar graphics engine. It was ported to the PC later, but no longer used bitmapped graphics. Instead, the adversaries became primitive polygons instead.
In the original Falcon, users had their choice of flying one of 12 missions - with awards for flying missions at higher skill levels. The user had a choice of different ground attack and air-to-air weapons, although these were also limited by several factors. For dogfighting, AIM-9J missiles were not as reliable as newer AIM-9L missiles - and were useless for head-on attack - but were typically the only missiles available. Because they were guided, AGM-65 missiles were easier to use than "iron dumb bombs" like the Mk 84, but ineffective against strengthened targets. An ECM
pod provides defense against enemy missiles, but occupies an external hardpoint
that could be used for additional weapons or fuel. The enemy occupied the western areas of the game's playable map - itself a large square divided into 9 smaller squares. Enemy targets were fixed sites on the ground. For defense, the unnamed enemy was limited to MiG-21 interceptors, and ground launched missiles - either the SA-2, which was launched from identified and fixed sites on the ground, or SA-7 missiles which could be fired from portable launchers, and could therefore appear anywhere.
Falcon AT claims to be one of the first flight sims to use EGA graphics. In comparison to the older game, this version allowed external viewing of the player aircraft, and included the MiG-29 as an adversary.
The Atari ST and Amiga versions of Falcon are completely separate products from Falcon AT and Falcon 3.0. They have two "mission disks" for them, Operation: Counterstrike, and Operation: Firefight. Both featured a semi-dynamic campaign where you can roam the airspace, sweep for hostile aircraft, and attack ground targets. Destroyed buildings and SAM sites remain destroyed for fixed period of time, and hostile and friendly forces engage each other on the ground back and forth.
Falcon 3.0 claims to have used flight dynamics from a real military simulator, and required a math coprocessor
to enable the high fidelity flight mode. In less demanding modes, it was still virtually unplayable in computers running on less than a 386 CPU
. Falcon 3.0 offered "padlock" view - in which the player's POV will be slewed in the direction of a selected target, scanning around the cockpit if necessary. Falcon 3.0 also offered players more naturally looking topography than was available in existing commercial PC flight simulation - with mountains, hills, valleys and other features having their own unique shape. In older games, the user typically had to settle to ranges of uniformly shaped or sized mountains on flat ground, with areas or lines of blue for lakes and rivers. This version retained its reputation as the most realistic flight simulation game for years. It also has a "dynamic campaign" mode where you can contribute to the war effort by performing missions. This version was announced well in advance of its actual release date.
Falcon 3.0 was sold as being the first of a series of inter-linked military simulations that Spectrun Holobyte collectively called "the Electronic Battlefield". Several further games were released in this range: flight simulators for the F/A-18 and the Mig-29 that could be played as stand-alone games or integrated into "Electronic Battlefield" network games. Further games in the range were expected - rumours abounded of a simulator for the Apache helicopter gunship, and even one or more tank simulators. The only one the company actually admitted to working on was a flight simulator of the A-10 Thunderbolt. However, this was never released.
An expansion pack was released, under the name "Operation Fighting Tiger" which contained several additional scenarios, including a future skirmish between Japan and Russia, which gave the player the Japanese F-16 variant - the "FSX".
A video tutorial that teaches aerial dogfighting basics - "Art of the Kill" - used Falcon 3.0's built-in ACMI recorder to reconstruct engagements, explain tactics and counter-tactics. Falcon 3.0 was also the subject of dozens of aftermarket books, some written by actual F-16 pilots. Only Microsoft Flight Simulator series spawned more books.
Falcon series was re-released in 1994 as Falcon Gold a compilation which included the previously mentioned "Art of the Kill" video digitized on the CD collection, along with "Operation Fighting Tiger" and the announcement for Falcon 4.0.
Falcon series were noted for their early multiplayer support, as even the first version supported two players via a null modem
serial port connection.
Falcon 4 had been in production since 1992, and was finally released in 1998, making it one of the longest games in development. Falcon 4 offered even more improved graphics (allowing the user the ability to customize the appearance of both player and non-player aircraft) and demanding gameplay. The campaign mode was set in an hypothetical war between the Republic of Korea and the west.
Falcon 4 was the source of much controversy due to source code being leaked from MicroProse
in the year 2000. In the years between the source code leak and the release of Allied Force (2005), many "unofficial" tweaks were released by the online community to fix bugs and enhance the game for modern systems.
Many of these enhancements have found their way into Allied Force, Free Falcon and Falcon BMS. Allied Force is a commercial re-release of Falcon 4.0. Free Falcon and Falcon BMS are a freeware community add-on that requires an original 1998 Falcon 4.0 install.
#132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the MS-DOS version of the game in 1989 in Dragon #142, and gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
The Lessers reviewed Falcon 3.0 in 1992 in Dragon #188, giving the game 5 out of 5 stars.
Combat flight simulator
Combat flight simulators are video games used to simulate military aircraft and their operations...
of the F-16 Fighting Falcon
F-16 Fighting Falcon
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multirole jet fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force . Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft. Over 4,400 aircraft have been built since...
fighter aircraft. The games were developed and published by Spectrum HoloByte
Spectrum HoloByte
Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher originally based in Alameda, California.The company was founded in 1983 and was most famous for its simulation games, notably the Falcon series of flight simulators and Vette!, a driving simulator from 1989...
(later MicroProse
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
). They were noted for their high level of realism unseen in contemporary simulation games.
Major Versions
There were seven major versions of Falcon:- "F-16 Fighting Falcon" (1984)
- Falcon (1987)
- Falcon AT (1988)
- Falcon (for Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
1988 & AmigaAmigaThe Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
1989) - Falcon 3.0 (1991)
- Falcon 4.0Falcon 4.0Falcon 4.0 is an air combat simulation originally released on December 12, 1998 by MicroProse. It is a realistic simulation of the Block 50/52 F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter in a full scale modern war set in the Korean Peninsula. Falcon 4.0s dynamic campaign engine runs autonomously...
(1998) - Falcon 4.0: Allied ForceFalcon 4.0: Allied ForceFalcon 4.0: Allied Force is an F-16 based combat flight simulator created bycompany Spectrum Holobyte and further developed by MicroProse and now by Lead Pursuit. Lead Pursuit was formed after gaining a license from Atari to continue Falcon 4.0 development...
(2005)
Version trivia
Falcon was originally designed and produced by Gilman LouieGilman Louie
Gilman Louie is technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then ran the CIA venture capital fund. He graduated in 1983 from San Francisco State University. He attended the while at Harvard Business School in 1997....
and programmed by Les Watts for the MSX (1984), under title of "F-16 Fighting Falcon") and Macintosh (1987 as "Falcon"), and used bitmapped 3D MiG-21s as adversaries. This was several years before Origin
Origin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...
's Wing Commander
Wing Commander (franchise)
Wing Commander is a video game media franchise consisting of space combat simulation computer games from Origin Systems, Inc., an animated television series, a feature film, a collectible card game, a series of novels, and action figures...
used a similar graphics engine. It was ported to the PC later, but no longer used bitmapped graphics. Instead, the adversaries became primitive polygons instead.
In the original Falcon, users had their choice of flying one of 12 missions - with awards for flying missions at higher skill levels. The user had a choice of different ground attack and air-to-air weapons, although these were also limited by several factors. For dogfighting, AIM-9J missiles were not as reliable as newer AIM-9L missiles - and were useless for head-on attack - but were typically the only missiles available. Because they were guided, AGM-65 missiles were easier to use than "iron dumb bombs" like the Mk 84, but ineffective against strengthened targets. An ECM
Electronic countermeasures
An electronic countermeasure is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar or other detection systems, like infrared or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting information to an enemy...
pod provides defense against enemy missiles, but occupies an external hardpoint
Hardpoint
A hardpoint, or weapon station, is any part of an airframe designed to carry an external load. This includes a point on the wing or fuselage of military aircraft where external ordnance, countermeasures, gun pods, targeting pods or drop tanks can be mounted.-Rail launchers:Large missiles and...
that could be used for additional weapons or fuel. The enemy occupied the western areas of the game's playable map - itself a large square divided into 9 smaller squares. Enemy targets were fixed sites on the ground. For defense, the unnamed enemy was limited to MiG-21 interceptors, and ground launched missiles - either the SA-2, which was launched from identified and fixed sites on the ground, or SA-7 missiles which could be fired from portable launchers, and could therefore appear anywhere.
Falcon AT claims to be one of the first flight sims to use EGA graphics. In comparison to the older game, this version allowed external viewing of the player aircraft, and included the MiG-29 as an adversary.
The Atari ST and Amiga versions of Falcon are completely separate products from Falcon AT and Falcon 3.0. They have two "mission disks" for them, Operation: Counterstrike, and Operation: Firefight. Both featured a semi-dynamic campaign where you can roam the airspace, sweep for hostile aircraft, and attack ground targets. Destroyed buildings and SAM sites remain destroyed for fixed period of time, and hostile and friendly forces engage each other on the ground back and forth.
Falcon 3.0 claims to have used flight dynamics from a real military simulator, and required a math coprocessor
Floating point unit
A floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root...
to enable the high fidelity flight mode. In less demanding modes, it was still virtually unplayable in computers running on less than a 386 CPU
Intel 80386
The Intel 80386, also known as the i386, or just 386, was a 32-bit microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were used as the central processing unit of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time...
. Falcon 3.0 offered "padlock" view - in which the player's POV will be slewed in the direction of a selected target, scanning around the cockpit if necessary. Falcon 3.0 also offered players more naturally looking topography than was available in existing commercial PC flight simulation - with mountains, hills, valleys and other features having their own unique shape. In older games, the user typically had to settle to ranges of uniformly shaped or sized mountains on flat ground, with areas or lines of blue for lakes and rivers. This version retained its reputation as the most realistic flight simulation game for years. It also has a "dynamic campaign" mode where you can contribute to the war effort by performing missions. This version was announced well in advance of its actual release date.
Falcon 3.0 was sold as being the first of a series of inter-linked military simulations that Spectrun Holobyte collectively called "the Electronic Battlefield". Several further games were released in this range: flight simulators for the F/A-18 and the Mig-29 that could be played as stand-alone games or integrated into "Electronic Battlefield" network games. Further games in the range were expected - rumours abounded of a simulator for the Apache helicopter gunship, and even one or more tank simulators. The only one the company actually admitted to working on was a flight simulator of the A-10 Thunderbolt. However, this was never released.
An expansion pack was released, under the name "Operation Fighting Tiger" which contained several additional scenarios, including a future skirmish between Japan and Russia, which gave the player the Japanese F-16 variant - the "FSX".
A video tutorial that teaches aerial dogfighting basics - "Art of the Kill" - used Falcon 3.0's built-in ACMI recorder to reconstruct engagements, explain tactics and counter-tactics. Falcon 3.0 was also the subject of dozens of aftermarket books, some written by actual F-16 pilots. Only Microsoft Flight Simulator series spawned more books.
Falcon series was re-released in 1994 as Falcon Gold a compilation which included the previously mentioned "Art of the Kill" video digitized on the CD collection, along with "Operation Fighting Tiger" and the announcement for Falcon 4.0.
Falcon series were noted for their early multiplayer support, as even the first version supported two players via a null modem
Null modem
Null modem is a communication method to connect two DTEs directly using an RS-232 serial cable. The name stems from the historical use of the RS-232 cable to connect two teleprinter devices to modems in order to communicate with one another; null modem communication was possible by instead using...
serial port connection.
Falcon 4 had been in production since 1992, and was finally released in 1998, making it one of the longest games in development. Falcon 4 offered even more improved graphics (allowing the user the ability to customize the appearance of both player and non-player aircraft) and demanding gameplay. The campaign mode was set in an hypothetical war between the Republic of Korea and the west.
Falcon 4 was the source of much controversy due to source code being leaked from MicroProse
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
in the year 2000. In the years between the source code leak and the release of Allied Force (2005), many "unofficial" tweaks were released by the online community to fix bugs and enhance the game for modern systems.
Many of these enhancements have found their way into Allied Force, Free Falcon and Falcon BMS. Allied Force is a commercial re-release of Falcon 4.0. Free Falcon and Falcon BMS are a freeware community add-on that requires an original 1998 Falcon 4.0 install.
Reception
The IBM micros and compatibles version of 1987's Falcon was reviewed in 1988 in DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the MS-DOS version of the game in 1989 in Dragon #142, and gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
The Lessers reviewed Falcon 3.0 in 1992 in Dragon #188, giving the game 5 out of 5 stars.
External links
- Falcon 4: Allied Force at Graphsim Entertainment