Welcome, my friends, to this month’s episode of Retro Dogfight! This time, Denny, Chase and I discuss Chase’s favorite flight sim, MicroProse’s 1998 magnum opus, European Air War. This is a fascinating sim that I had to come to grips with, my own self.

Originally I didn’t play it much because I unfairly compared it to 1942: The Pacific Air War. Once I put that aside, I was shocked at what an amazing sim this was. All this and more in this episode!

In the next episode, we’ll look at the surprisingly small amount of flight sims focusing on flying legend Chuck Yeager, including:

• Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator
• Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0
• Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat

It should be a fun time, so we can’t wait to talk about these classics. Well, I know I can’t. Have a lovely day everyone, good hunting, and be sure to check your six!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 16 – European Air War first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Welcome to this episode of Retro Dogfight! This time, the three of us discuss Denny’s favorite flight sim, and my favorite WWII sim, 1942: The Pacific Air War, which you can get on Steam and GOG. If you’re unaware, this sim covers much of the air war in the Pacific in 1942, and it’s a game you can play for years, thanks to massive career modes, tons of single missions and a dynamic admiral mode. This is such a wonderful sim, even if it is over thirty years old.

Next time, we’re going to talk about Chase’s favorite flight sim:

• European Air War

Which you can also get on Steam and GOG.

Thank you so much for listening, and be sure to check your six!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 15 – 1942: The Pacific Air War first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello my friends, and welcome to this episode of Retro Dogfight. Side note, this is the first episode we’ve recorded with Riverside! It’s a lovely web-based platform that records from each of our machines individually, so hopefully we’ll sound even better moving forward!

Now, to the episode itself! Since we’ve eschewed going chronologically, and because my brain has been mush of late, I decided that we should cover our favorite sims, starting with mine, 1991’s Gunship 2000, which you can snag on Steam and GOG along with the original! Now, I love this sim, love love love. It’s not only an amazing sim, but also has strategy and RPG elements as well, so I could play it forever. Did my co-hosts agree with my love for the game? Listen to find out!

Next time, we’ll cover Denny’s favorite flight sim:

• 1942: The Pacific Air War

Which can also be acquired from Steam and GOG, and happens to be my favorite World War II flight sim! It’s so good y’all, I can’t wait to get into it!

Thank you, as always, for listening, and we can’t wait to see you next time!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 14 – Gunship 2000 first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hey friends, welcome to this episode of Retro Dogfight! In this episode, Chase, Denny and I tackle something a little bit different. Back in 1997, Digital Image Design released F-22: Air Dominance Fighter, the much-anticipated follow-up to my personal favorite jet sim, EF2000. There was a bit of a hullabaloo at the time as this game shipped with static missions, whereas EF2000 had a lovely dynamic campaign. It did, however, lead to the lovely Total Air War, a year or so later.

Now, all that said, you can imagine our surprise when F-22: ADF, out of the blue, popped up on Steam a few months ago, published by none other than the new folks at MicroProse themselves. Furthermore, this wasn’t just some barely-emulated cash-grab like so many other classic releases. Oh nay nay. This was a fully reverse-engineered, modern Windows program, with new features like head tracking!

So, we have a unique situation here. Not only are we talking about a classic flight sim, but we’re also kind of treating this as a review of a current product, something we’ve not done before. I therefore hope you’ll enjoy this change of scenery, as it were, before we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Speaking of which, next time, as we’re no longer sticking to a chronological format, we’ll be tackling our favorite sims, starting with mine:

• Gunship 2000

Which you can find on Steam and GOG.

Thank you so much for listening! We just love doing this, and we hope you’re enjoying it as much as we are. See you next time!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 13 – F-22: Air Dominance Fighter first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello my friends, and welcome this episode of Retro Dogfight! First off, I have to apologize for my audio. Just before recording, I discovered that Windows had, for some reason I still don’t understand, lowered my gain in the Windows audio settings. I only figured it out about a week or so AFTER recording this, but for this particular episode, my audio is a bit soft, and for that, I apologize.

Now, for the episode itself, we tackle the remaining two MicroProse F-15 Strike Eagle games, namely:

• F-15 Strike Eagle II
• F-15 Strike Eagle III

It’s fascinating how different these two games are, and as such, how different our reactions to them are. Overall, they’re delightful games that deserve your time, and I hope you enjoy our discussion about them.

For our next episode, we’ll be doing something a little different. The folks at the Air Dominance Project have spent the last several years getting several old DID games working under modern Windows, and this has led to the Steam release of:

• F-22: Air Dominance Fighter

Which we’ll be talking about next time, as both a look back and as something of a review. We’re very excited to cover this important Steam release.

Thank you so much for listening. We love making this show and love the community we’re building. See you for the next episode!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 12 – The (Remaining) F-15 Strike Eagle Series first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Welcome, my friends, to this episode of Retro Dogfight! Today, Chase, Denny and I will look back at one of Dynamix’s earliest flight sims, and its sequel:

• A-10 Tank Killer
• Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer II

These games came out almost a decade apart, but you wouldn’t know it from how they played. It’s kind of a shame. I had so much fun, back in the day and now, playing the first game, so we’re left wondering…what happened with its sequel?! It leads to a fun discussion where we have a mostly fun time kinda crapping on the second game, and deservedly so, but you’ll have to listen for the rest.

On our next episode, since we covered the first game a while back, we’ll finish out the F-15 Strike Eagle series, specifically:

• F-15 Strike Eagle II
• F-15 Strike Eagle III

As always, thank you so much for joining us on this, as I like to call it, road trip through these classics. We’re having so much fun revisiting these sims, and I hope you’re having as much fun as we are hanging out with us. Until next time, check your six!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 11 – The A-10 Tank Killer Series first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello, my friends, and welcome to this episode of Retro Dogfight! This time, as it’s the holiday season when we recorded this one, Chase, Denny, and I took a break from playing a game to answer your questions, and my goodness, did you folks have a lot of awesome questions.

Thank you so, so much to everyone who sent in so many amazing questions. We had so much fun answering them. So much so that this ended up being our longest episode yet, at almost two hours long! We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we had recording it!

Next up on the show, we’re gonna tackle Dynamix’s classic A-10 Tank Killer series, which includes:

• A-10 Tank Killer
• Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer II

Again, thank you so much for listening, and we hope you enjoy the episode!

*Art by my wife, Nicole E., done in Canva

The post 10 – Q&A first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello, my friends, and welcome to this latest episode of Retro Dogfight! In this episode, we look at the seminial massively multiplayer flight sim series that began in 1998, the Air Warrior series! This includes:

• Air Warrior
• Air Warrior II
• Air Warrior III

I learned a LOT during this episode. For example, did you know this was the first graphical massively multiplayer game? Before this, it was all text-based games like popular multi-user dungeons, or MUDs. I had no idea!

Even though these were primarily multiplayer games, there’s a lot of single-player fun to be had here, and if you have patience, these can be very educational sims. There’s a lot to love here, and a lot of fun to discover. Air Warrior III, for example, has hundreds of missions and many campaigns, and is definitely worth exploring if you have an interest in flight sims covering the time periods these games cover.

Next time on the show, we’re gonna zag a bit and answer your questions! Thank you so much for sending in so many wonderful questions! We can’t wait to answer them!

Thank you so much for listening, and we hope you enjoy the show!

The post 09 – The Air Warrior Series first appeared on Retro Dogfight.