Previous Next

If you've ever fancied your chances as a jet pilot, then Digital Integration's Fighter Pilot should appeal to you.

This aircraft simulation puts you in the pilot's seat of an USAF F15 Eagle jet fighter, with options to allow straight-forward flying or air to air combat with enemy fighters.

From a menu of options you may choose to start your flight from take off position or landing approach. My disastrous attempts at landing soon convinced me that it was much easier to opt for take off.

Taking either of the combat options starts you off in mid-flight around 20,000 feet. You may select combat practice, where you are positioned two miles behind the enemy plane at approximately the same height.

If you can keep tail on the enemy, it will appear in your gunsights at a distance of one mile, at which point with a little bit of luck you can blast it out of the sky.

In practice mode the enemy doesn't fight back, but with some experience you may like to attempt true air-to-air combat.

With this option you will track the enemy with the help of your on-board computers before shooting it down. Be warned though, the enemy returns your fire, and it becomes a real dogfight.

If you really want to live dangerously you can lob in crosswinds and air turbulence, not to mention a blind landing in foggy conditions.

The screen display is excellent. The top section is the pilot's cockpit view, in which you see the horizon, the runways on approach to landing, and of course the enemy if you are in combat mode.

The lower half is taken up by the instrument panels. There is quite a lot of detail to digest her and one soon learns the importance of keeping an eye on the most important instruments.

Quite often I found myself carefully holding a correct course while paying no attention to the fact that altitude was rapidly approaching zero.

The cockpit view can be changed to display a map of the area on which can be seen the four runways and various nagivation beacones, and so on. Any enemy aircraft in the area are also identified if you are in combat mode.

I must confess to being a flight simulator addict, and I was particularly pleased with this program. The instructions are adequate, all the available options are described together with the instruments and controls, and there's a little technical information to help you gain some flying experience.

The program also incorporates one of the latest innovations aimed at thwarting software pirates - Lenslok. For the uninitiated, this is a plastic lens that is folded and placed against the screen in order to read a security code.

It is quite easy to use and there's an optional tutorial mode to help you if you're at all uncertain. The protected program will only run if you enter the code correctly, and a different code is generated each time the program is loaded.

Hopefully developments like this will help to reduce software piracy. I certainly hope so because the program authors deserve their just rewards. It's a fine program and I enjoyed it immensely