Combat flight simulators are video games (similar to flight simulator or amateur flight simulation software) used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These video games are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for military flight training which consist of realistic physical recreations of the actual aircraft cockpit.
History:
Prior to the rise of video games, Sega produced arcade games that resemble video games, but were in fact electro-mechanical games that used rear image projection in a manner similar to the ancient zoetrope to produce moving animations on a screen.[1] One such electro-mechanical game by Sega was Jet Rocket, a flight simulator featuring cockpit controls that could move the player aircraft around a landscape displayed on a screen and shoot missiles onto targets that explode when hit.[2] In 1975, Taito released an arcade video game simulator, Interceptor,[3] an early first-person combat flight simulator that involved piloting a jet fighter, using an eight-way joystick to aim with a crosshair and shoot at enemy aircraft that move in formations of two and scale in size depending on their distance to the player.[4] Atari Inc.'s Red Baron used QuadraScan graphics and sound effects to simulate first-person flight combat.[5]
The earliest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982) had crude graphics, simple flight models – and a combat option, with "dog fighting" in a World War I Sopwith Camel. This feature was removed in the simulator after v4.0, though the Camel itself remained as one of the standard aircraft for some time. Shortly after Microsoft Flight Simulator was released for the 8-bit computer, Microsoft released Jet in 1985. This simulator used simple filled wire frame graphics and a small generic battle space to allow players to fight MiGs in an F-18 or F-16. The five or six frames per second refresh rate was barely playable. There were also titles released for the Atari 2600 that attempted to simulate flight combat. Two of the more successful examples are Mattel's Air Raiders (1982) and Milton Bradley's Spitfire Attack (1983). However, flight controls are limited on these as the 2600's controller consists of a joystick and a single button.
The early 2000s saw several rival publishers such as NovaLogic with titles like the Comanche Series that simulated helicopter combat and later Jane's WWII Fighters which had small features that the Microsoft titles lacked, such as more detailed visible damage. A breakthrough occurred when Namco launched Air Combat, for the original PlayStation, which would go on as the Ace Combat series. The series would continue with sequels for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Although mass interest has waned in recent years the genre is still popular today with many titles specialising in certain types of aircraft or historical periods or wars with Microsoft remaining one of the market leaders.[citation needed] Microsoft currently has three combat flight simulators: Combat Flight Simulator WWII Europe Series (1998), Combat Flight Simulator 2 WWII Pacific Theatre (2000) and Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe (2002). Ubisoft is now a leading publisher in the genre[citation needed] with the acclaimed IL-2 Sturmovik series,which some claim to be more realistic than other games in the genre, the first of which was first released in 2001
