F-19 Stealth Fighter (IBM-PC)

designed by Sid Meier with Arnold Hendrick (credits)

released 1988

genre combat flight simulation
game size 777 kb
archive size 442 kb

related game F-117 Stealth Fighter 2.0

supports

VGA, MCGA, EGA, Tandy 1000, CGA, Hercules, PC Speaker, Joystick.

A minority of vocal hard-core flight sim fanatics will try to convince you that anything prior to Falcon 3.0 is closer to a jazzed-up arcade experience than a true simulation. How ironic it is, then, that MicroProse's later F-117A flight sim hasn't held up nearly as well as F-19 Stealth Fighter, which was published before the government's announcement of the real-life F-117 stealth fighter. As with his later Red Storm Rising, Sid Meier showed in F-19 Stealth Fighter that he could make a simulation - using declassified data augmented with a sound physics model and some shrewd guesswork - that was accurate enough to please the enthusiast and a great enough game to make flight sim fans out of everyone else. F-19 Stealth Fighter hearkens to an earlier age when a 1MB PC (notably the Amiga) was the hottest gaming machine on the market, and though its gloss is somewhat faded now when compared with more recent Gouraud-shaded simulators, F-19 Stealth Fighter still offers one thrilling ride. Without the multifunction joysticks and throttles of today, pilots of the mythical F-19 had to manage with keyboard overlays and hot keys; yet the game still provided challenges unique to flight simulations of the day. Although the F-19 was adequately armed (free-fall and guided bombs, Vulcan 20mm cannon, and over a half-dozen missile types for land, sea, and/or air), the electronic profile and stealth elements were so well done that it was often more fun to avoid a dogfight than to engage in one. So, even considering the holes in the simulation - keep in mind that the real stealth fighter wasn't yet built - the game took on the nature of a "thinking man's sim," a real departure from the reflex-heavy simulators of the time. The missions in particular were especially well-designed, as they involved sneaking around through a variety of enemy defenses. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the game was how surprisingly similar it was to actual Desert Storm sorties years later. -- © 1999 GameSpot


download (442 kb -- rename f19-rar.pdf to f19.rar)

. additional files F-19 Stealth Fighter Keyboard Controls . other games designed by Sid Meier Civilization Covert Action F-15 Strike Eagle F-15 Strike Eagle II Gunship Pirates! Railroad Tycoon Red Storm Rising Silent Service

. related links Sid Meier's thoughts on his game . other versions Commodore Amiga

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MicroProse Abandonware Archive © 1999 point-two