Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31845 in Video Games
• ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
• Platform: Windows
• Format: 5.25 inch diskette
• Dimensions: 2.00" h x 8.00" w x 11.00" l, 2.25 pounds

Customer Reviews

Jurassic Sim!!!
Though I wouldn't play it until after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this game was for me a very late 1980's affair, a relic of the cold-war. Based on Testors/Italieri's conceptual design model kit of the then-still-classified "stealth fighter", the game allowed you to fly missions in hotspots all over the world: Iran, Cuba, Libya (it wasn't enough to hate Khaddafy, the game ridicules Libya by giving it the easisest missions) and scariest of all, the Soviets' arctic redoubt of Murmansk. The latter was already well known for anybody who'd read either "Hunt for Red October" or "Red Storm Rising". For those of us still in HS, "F-19" was the closest we'd get (or want to get) to the epic action of those books or the host of copycats.

The thrill of F-19, and what makes it a fun idea today, is that it was the sim that most effectively dealt with the one-man-air force conceit of pre-"Falcon 3.0" sims, in which your jet does the work that would occupy an entire air wing. Here, you use your limited invisibility to sneak into enemy airspace, locate specific targets and destroy them. You can't rely on wingmen because solitude is part of your elusiveness. You're on your own, but this sim doesn't correspondingly make things easy for you, and once you've crossed the line between myaerospace and hell, the difference is palpable.

F-19 not only offers thousands of square miles of busy and unhospitable (if poorly modeled) terrain, but a host of counter-air and ground-attack weapons with distinctive attack profiles. HUD symbiology and weapon effectiveness are distinct. Use the wrong weapon on a target and even the best marksmanship will prove useless.

Ofcourse all this simming will require a fast and modern computer!

Hahhh. I;m sorry about that, but I had to do that. Fats computer, get it?

Anyway, if you've got a working 486, or even a 386, you can hook it up to one of those CRT's that people are leaving on their curbs for special pick up. Along with "Red Baron" and Virgin's "Shuttle", this is a great excuse to dust off your legacy pre-Pentium system.

A Great One!!!!
It's been about 12 years since I last played this game, but it was my favorite on the old Tandy 1000. I loved this game, really ahead of its time! I wish this game would be revised for the newer machines!

The First and Best
Ok Yes it's a really old game. We are talking Dos 5.0 Windows 3.1 VGA OLD!

BUT!! Like Janes F/A-18 this game was ahead of its time! I logged in enough hours as a kid on this game to fly it in my sleep. It was great fun and even though physics were none existant back in thoes days and texture mapping was only a dream It was hyper realistic.

The F-19 "Frisbee" (or what we now know as the F-117 "Wobblin' Gobblin") are the two aircraft available to fly in this. Of course they are both exactly the same thing. The Frisbee was a conceptual design that didn't take. However a cute little twist in the game went as follows. The option was to us the US AirForce "Version" of the plane or the Microprose "Version. The funny part was the one you would think was the real one (the AF version) was actually the fake.

In any event they both flew exactly the same. Mission planning was for Air to air or Air to ground missions. A fair brief was given, Even in the Air to Air missions you would actually have two mission objectives. One was the Air Target (usually a fighter orbiting an airfield or an An-72 Coaler transporting a big wig) and the second was always a ground target although sometimes you would get lucky and have a secret mission to drop a package off at a secret airstrip.

The game could get fairly intense and you actually could fly the plane till the wings came off. (you just couldn't land if you were damaged too much) Damage affects your flight profile as it should. Weapons Delivery and chosing the right munitions for the job were there as well. It was a challange to drop the slicks right on target even with the CCIP operating.

Operating a stealth fighter of course doesn't mean your simply invisible to enemy rader of course. The game models Pulse and Doppler radar systems and each has to be delt with differently. The manual explains how to defeat each system. You don't just fly low you actually have to approach each system properly to maintain a low EMV(electro magnetic visability) Radar ID's and Visual ID's are to be avoided at all costs and it can be quite a challenge. Do a mission right and the enemy won't even know your there. Do it wrong and get ID'd and the sky's light up with SAMs and MIGs of all kinds. For this level of operational detail was incredible in the early 90's.

Now of course there were some liberties taken. For instance operations included carrier take offs and landings. Obviously this fighter isn't ment to operate off carriers but it does add a fun challenge to the game. It may not be as difficult as say Janes F-18 but it isn't easy either.

My few complaints were that if the enemy level was set to top notch you would actually get shot at in some places before you even take off. Iraq was one such place when departing from Kuwait. You would get Radar ID's before leaving the tarmac, and that would be followed by SAM launches at you and possibly even enemy fighters vectored your way all before your airborne. And if your counting on Friendly assistance from Allied forces think again. Thoes F/A-18s that orbit the green airfields and carriers just do that, Orbit. Occationally you may see one peel off and fly away but they never engauge. Friendly Radars never launch SAMs to cover you when your being persued and them distroyers never bother to assist either. Your on your own in this one.
Last issue is the promotion system. Your rank is increased depending on your number of missions completed. Now of course the catch is after you survive 30 missions and you are a major and your feeling pretty hot about it lets say you bail and die. Well my friend as the say these days your SOL. There is no restart on this one. If you die your pilot goes from Active on the Flight Roster to KIA and you can't fly him anymore. (unless you don't mind starting from the very bottom again with a clear record!)

Altogether i'd say this was an amazeing game and i would deffinitly play it again!