BF109G 30 Year Challenge!

[VA_Kamicosmos]

After seeing some of my IL2GB screenshots, a friend mentioned one of us Old Gamer's favorite games recently, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, better known simply as SWOTL. I found that you can actually play it online via a browser! So I hopped in a 109 and took a screen cap. Then I thought, oh I should get a screenshot of a 109 cockpit from a modern game! Then I realized SWOTL came out in 1992. 30 years ago...when I graduated High School! So...now I feel super old, but...anyway. here's my BF109G 30-Year Challenge!

[ATAG_Headshot]

Small difference there... heh

[40plus]

Was SWOTL made by the same blokes as "The Battle of Britain - Their Finest Hour" because it looks very similar....I cut my flight sim teeth on BoB. Never played SWOTL

[Skycat1969]

^

Yes.

List of LucasArts games - Wikipedia

"Their Finest Hour" was released in 1989. 

[Biggus]

The campaign in SWOTL was truly enjoyable.  Setting production of engines and airframes, directing sorties, your own success or failure in the air determining the success of the other parts of the campaign.  Was really enjoyable.

[I./JG52_Woutwocampe]

Diff graphics, same AI.

[sevenless]

The one thing I enjoyed most in SWOTL was the strategic aspect of its campaign. Destroying those factories or saving the bombers on their way to the target really made a difference. Ahh the good old times...

 

[PatrickAWlson]

For 30 years ago that is really not bad.  Had a lot of fun with Red Baron, SWOTL,  and the Aces series.

[Eisenfaustus]

Obviously the simulation part (flying/fighting/visuals) has advanced a lot. Yet I really miss some game design elements of old. The strategic concept of SWOTL (which I never played) sounds extremely fun. BoB2WoV had a great real-time wargame running that gave your sorties meaning. 

[Strewth]

7 hours ago, Skycat1969 said:

^

Yes.

List of LucasArts games - Wikipedia

"Their Finest Hour" was released in 1989. 

I also pretty much got into Flight simming with Their Finest hour.
In the day, it was great. Monotone engine noise and all.
Years later, I discovered my old disks and loaded them onto my current computer at the time. I think maybe late 90's or so. When I tried to play it on the newer system, the newer processor ran the actual game at the equivalent to warp speed and it was unplayable.
I have since lost the disks.
Good memories though.

[Dauntless]

1942 Paw!!

 

 

[Guster]

15 hours ago, Kamicosmos said:

After seeing some of my IL2GB screenshots, a friend mentioned one of us Old Gamer's favorite games recently, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, better known simply as SWOTL. I found that you can actually play it online via a browser! So I hopped in a 109 and took a screen cap. Then I thought, oh I should get a screenshot of a 109 cockpit from a modern game! Then I realized SWOTL came out in 1992. 30 years ago...when I graduated High School! So...now I feel super old, but...anyway. here's my BF109G 30-Year Challenge!

SWOTL is obviously the superior game because it reminds you of the type of plane you're flying!

[=RS=rulezcz]

This brings me kinda worrying question: Was I really wasting my time when I used to fly those things ?

I used to call it flight simming, but...well...i am not so sure now

[343KKT_Kintaro]

8 minutes ago, =RS=rulezcz said:

This brings me kinda worrying question: Was I really wasting my time when I used to fly those things ?

 

 

No! You weren't! I started playing combat flight simulators 30 years ago too ("Their Finest Hour", "Chuck Yeager's" & "Secret Weapons", all three the same year in 1992) and by "playing those things" you and me contributed to support the 1990's developers, thus allowing the flight combat gaming discipline keeps existing and still exists in the present day. All the games we love now ow this to old scholl PC flight sims (tis is 2022 my friend, and four games are in my PC: DCS, Rise of Flight, Cliffs of Dover & Great Battles).

 

 

8 minutes ago, =RS=rulezcz said:

I used to call it flight simming, but...well...i am not so sure now

 

 

By the early 1990s Secret Weapons was already considered as NOT being an arcade... so, yes, it clearly was a flight simulator. And this is how we called it at the time. Further more, I think that terms like "survey simulator", "study simulator" & "arcade game" were already commonly and distinctly used by the early 1990s. In this instance, I'm pretty sure Secret Weapons was in the survey category.

 

 

[Irishratticus72]

Surprised no one has mentioned Rowan software's 1994 "Operation Overlord ", amazing sim for its time. 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Irishratticus72

[40plus]

1 hour ago, =RS=rulezcz said:

This brings me kinda worrying question: Was I really wasting my time when I used to fly those things ?

I used to call it flight simming, but...well...i am not so sure now

Racing a F1 = racing a Ferrari = racing a Civic = racing a lawn mower. It's all racing just like simming on a relatively primitive product is just as valid as the high fidelity sims we have now. . . . .and whatever comes next 

[=RS=rulezcz]

Thanx guys for explaining. I feel better now :-), the truth is that we can at least fully appreciate the high fidelity as you call it and I guess we are not moaning about every tiny problem in our cherished Il-2.

 

In the end, I can clearly remember that while playing Their finest hour:BoB on a public PC in my elementary school it had to be kindly pointed out to me by an older coleague that He-111 is not a dive bomber, when he saw me diving 90 degrees as that was the most succesful bombing strategy I discovered ?

 

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by =RS=rulezcz

[MOtt]

I remember crashing into the ships all the time because they never got bigger ?. 1000m or 0m and they stayed the the same size.

The 190 page manual was pretty sweet as well; 1/3 about the game 2/3 history of the planes and battles.

 

Obligatory box shot

 

[40plus]

2 hours ago, MOtt said:

I remember crashing into the ships all the time because they never got bigger ?. 1000m or 0m and they stayed the the same size.

 

 

Funny, I don't recall that particular quirk in BoB but admittedly it was a long time ago. I used to love dive bombing the ships in a Stuka....mmm, nostalgia.

Edited February 8, 2022 by 40plus
Spelling is hard

[JG4_Moltke1871]

I had no Computer at home…. Must waste my coins in game hall or bar ?

 

 

[Biggus]

Oh wow, that photo with the boxes certainly brought some memories flooding back to me.  The manual that was included in SWOTL had some excerpts from Williamson Murray's Strategy for Defeat.  I recall being drawn into his work in that manual (I vaguely recall an interview with him at the end of it) and several years later (when I was probably about 16) was lucky enough to find a copy of it in a military bookshop.  While SWOTL wasn't my first simulation rodeo, it certainly generated a bit of a military history obsession.

[Strewth]

20 hours ago, Dauntless said:

1942 Paw!!

 

 

Wow!
I forgot about that one.
Also a great game in its day.

[grcurmudgeon]

My introduction was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-15_Strike_Eagle_(video_game) on the Commodore 64.

[I./JG52_Woutwocampe]

23 hours ago, JG4_Moltke1871 said:

I had no Computer at home…. Must waste my coins in game hall or bar ?

 

 

 

I had this game on colecovision!! And I loved it.

 

First PC 'sim' though was Red Baron

 

 

 

[DeBo238th]

Spent numerous hours in the different gunner positions in the B17… crazy how I could tell what type of German fighter was coming back then. Now it is just a pixel and I have no idea what it is until it’s really close. Strategic campaigns were a blast. I figure out back then that if an airfield had 9 squadrons on B17’s then when you transferred the squadrons they multiplied into nearly unlimited squadrons.

[=420=Syphen]

3 hours ago, I./JG52_Woutwocampe said:

 

I had this game on colecovision!! And I loved it.

 

First PC 'sim' though was Red Baron

 

 

 

 

I played so much SWOTL and Red Baron back in the day on an IBM clone 286.  Using keyboard and a 3 button roller ball mouse. 

[SOLIDKREATE]

[Guest deleted@83466]

I played Their Finest Hour and Swotl, back in the day.  Can’t believe I was captivated by some of these things, and how many hours I spent, and how low-fi it all is now..  The “Meta”verse is all relative I guess.

 

I played Their Finest Hour with a mouse, the kind that had a rubber trackball in it, not a laser, and I wore the mouse out on that game.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by SeaSerpent

[I./JG52_Woutwocampe]

These 2 got me into ww2 aircrafts.

 

 

European air war. Great variety and solid dynamic campaigns.

 

 

 

Around the same time we got Janes WW2 fighters. It had awesome graphics, great sound engine, more advanced AI, for the time it was impressive.

 

 

I think the year was 1998. Or maybe 1999.

[=RS=rulezcz]

12 hours ago, I./JG52_Woutwocampe said:

 

I had this game on colecovision!! And I loved it.

 

First PC 'sim' though was Red Baron

 

 

 

 

 

Red Baron was great. I am wondering if they are able to somehow include the ace mechanic into Flying Circus Vol.2 ? 

 

I can remember in Red Baron being challenged for a one-on-one dogfight by Lothar von Richthofen. I accepted and then he turned up with 2 other Dr-1s by his side !!  That was an exciting moment.

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by =RS=rulezcz

[VA_Kamicosmos]

Red baron and Knights of the Sky before it!  In Knights I laughed even then about how I single handedly wiped out the Luftwaffe several times over!

But yeah the Challenges and meeting the Ace for a duel was an awesome mechanic.  And, really boosted my introverted, low self-esteem teenaged self's ego: "I beat the Red Baron one on one!!"

 

And yes, Jane's WWII fighters.  Not to get away from WWII much, but also the F117 game by microprose, and I think I had a Jane's F-15 a few years later.  Oh and who can forget LONGBOW!  First helicopter sim for me, and one of the first true multiplayer Co-ops.  I remember me and my roommate (same friend as in my original post) spent hours just trying to fly the dang thing straight and launch weapons!  LoL, good times!

 

My first 'proper' flight sim was actually even older than most mentioned here.  I had a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a and it had a Red Baron game that was super basic, in vector graphics!  Ground was green, sky was blue, planes were black wire frame.  Only scenery that I remember were some wire frame houses, the Effiel Tower, and I think maybe the front lines/no man's land was a brown 'river' across the ground, perhaps?  I honest don't remember if you could even do a full roll or loop in it.  Way Way back in the memory banks for that one!

Edited February 10, 2022 by Kamicosmos

[Skelthos]

So many memories in these old flight sims.  My first PC game was the original Microprose Gunship on a Tandy 1000.  Also played the Lucas Films games  BOB Battlehawks 1942  SWOTL, all the Sierra Dynamix titles Red Baron  AOP and AOE, most of the Janes series.

[I./JG52_Woutwocampe]

I spent countless hours playing Red Baron II / 3D in 1997/1998.

 

The campaigns were so great, I remember I introduced one of my friend to this game, he started an english Spinning incinerator career.  After a couple of missions, he engaged a bunch of Eindeckers. I was next to him, and I told him, careful man, these guys are good, I think I saw a green Eindecker out there....

 

He dismissed that, he had no idea what it meant.

 

He died.

 

 

 

 

[Higaluto]

On 2/8/2022 at 2:41 PM, Dauntless said:

1942 Paw!!

 

 

I remeber looking at this game at my local pc gamer store back im the 90s, i must have been around 10years old. And the pictures on the back was black and white to mimic old pictures probably.

 

So I asked in the store if this game was in black and white lol.... ??