Previous Next

Tired of flying your dinky little Sinclair/Psion Flight Simulation program? Ready for something with a bit more muscle? How about an F15 Eagle USAF air-superiority jet fighter? Yours for less than eight quid with this program, guv. No questions asked.

Fighter Pilot is nothing short of state-of-the-art stuff for the Spectrum. A really impressive instrument panel is displayed along the lower portion of the screen, with a full 3D-effect cockpit view taking up the rest of the display. Runaways and enemy aircraft are rendered in excellent hi-res graphics.

The instrument panel itself is a masterpiece of graphics with scrolling and rolling displays, showing up those cop-out all-digital read-outs of some other simulations. It really conveys the 'feel' of being at the controls of a real aircraft.

So what can it do? Pretty much everything short of severely damaging any property or life. There are options for take-offs and landings (blind and with cross-winds if you like), flight (with or without turbulence), combat practice and actual air-to-air combat. It's even fully aerobatic - looping the loop is great fun!

Instruments include artificial horizon, flight computer, radar, compass, ILS, thrust indicator and ammo count. Everything needed to track down the enemy and give him a severe thrashing.

In fact, there are so many features included in the program that they cover two full information sheets and make fascinating reading.

In reality, Fighter Pilot can't be regarded as "just another computer game", it is a total experience. It has been devised by experts in the field of flight simulators aided by guys who fly planes like the F15 for a living.

The program runs in 100% machine code and is compatible with all the major joysticks. At the moment it's in a class of its own... and I reckon it'll take some beating.