After Hours – Microprose F-15E Strike Eagle ill

The HUD gives the answer in several ways. The waypoint has been set to the target, and the HUD caret gives the direction-15 degrees left. The target has also been set in the weapons computer system before takeoff, and there is a small diamond projected onto the ground over the target. There is also a distance and time to the target.

Pulling the caret to dead ahead, I see the target through the HUD. There is a line of guard posts and I jink a bit to spread as many of the CBU-87’s 202 bomblets as I can along the fence line. The reticle drifts up to the guard post and I press the pickle button at 600 feet as the “death dot” passes though the centre of the structure, then rotate up and away from the frag envelope with 100% military power – there might be some SA-7s down there looking for a hot AB so I avoid the risk. I pop a couple of flares and jink, just to be sure.

On my back again pulling down to the safety of the mud. While inverted, I select the next waypoint and slide out of the dive towards the next target 30 miles (55km) away.

This time it will not be as simple. They now know I’m coming, and a glance at the TEWS shows that we are entering the lion’s den of AAA, SAMS and MiGs. Here we are in MIG alley, just like in 1952, but this time with some better firepower and a clearance across the Yalu River.

Time for a MIG search. I select an AIM-7 and in a couple of paints on the air-to-air mode of the AN/APG-70 radar the HUD shows a target almost dead ahead. “Launch, launch,” cries the WSO, this time not so calmly. The TEWS shows the missile dead ahead, so I wait for a couple of seconds and pop flares and chaff, then break right to defeat the missile lock.

Levelling the wings I thumb the hat on the stick and look left to find a dot at 10 o’clock. I pull hard left until the lock box is inside the ASE circle for the AIM-7. The shoot lights are flashing insistently, so I try a quick shot. The big Sparrow launches, but after a few seconds, finds mud. “Damn!”. I pull up to 500 feet putting the target right at the centre of the sight. Another Sparrow is on its way, only seconds before the “X” “Where is the secondary target?” I look at the heading caret and turn towards it, only to find I am too close to the target for a release. Extend away and get ready to turn back. Now the sky is filled with red tracer as AAA looks for my wings. This is pucker material, but I reassure myself that the chances of a hit are statistically low. But I move the Eagle about to make the gunner’s job that much harder.

“We’re hit,” announces the WSO as the flash of an AAA round clipping the wing penetrates the cockpit. The Master Caution light is on, but I have other things to do before I see what the damage is – the WSO can take care of it for the moment.

Turning back to the secondary target, I see we are only three miles out. The remaining CBU-87s are selected, and I twist and turn to find the Fan Song radar where we hope to install a permanent “off” switch. “Is that it?”, I think as I see a blurry target on the ground. “To hell with it, it’s too hot to stay pickle the last of the CBU-87s. here any longer!” I force the CCIP reticle over the target, and In the confusion, I turn the wrong way off the target, and tracking though 270 degrees toward home, fly back though the smoke of the fireball. We go temporary IFR in the smoke.

Centring the home plate caret, I turn towards home, balls to the wall. We make 760 knots at 150 feet, which is a relief, as not much will catch us down here at this speed. I give a moment’s thought for the centreline tank and hope it will stay with us. Fuel is no problem on this mission.

The TEWS tells me all is not well. There is a MiG in my rear quarter, but at Mach 1. 2 in the weeds he cannot close. SAM sites are all around us and if we pull up to engage our pursuer, we will face a fusillade of missiles, each one with our name on its warhead. Keep cool and exit towards home at max rate, and hope the MiG cannot get a firing solution at this speed. Thumbing the hat on the stick, I keep looking nervously at my six, waiting for the Atoll launch.

This tactic works and the MiG-23 on our tail loses ground. Out of range of the SAMs, I select an AIM-9M, having run out of AIM-7s, then break left at 160 feet to face the MiG. Lighting up the radar, I get a lock-on immediately, and pull the target box into the HUD. Learning from my previous grounding of the Sparrow, I pull up to 500 feet and launch the ‘winder at the MIG. Another spectacular fireball and another kill! I break for home and reach 770 knots. “Fence out,” calls the WSO and we seem to be safe. I never trust an enemy not to pursue, so we keep up the Mach. In a couple of minutes, Seoul’s Telecom tower (which is almost the same design as Canberra’s) comes up at 11 o’clock. We scream over Seoul at Mach 1. 2 plus there will be some glass to replace, but fortunately I’m not paying the bill.

South of Seoul, I ease up to 5000 feet and breath normally for the first time in the past 30 minutes. We have destroyed our assigned targets and have two more MiGs to grace the side of the cockpit. Coming up to home plate, I slow to 250 knots, select Nav mode and 8 miles (15km) out, lower the gear. From there, it is a simple matter to follow the ILS onto the runway, especially as the autopilot grabs the aircraft and lands it on short finals. Well, that’s Strike Eagle in essence. You may have gathered from my description that this simulation is superb at generating excitement. If I can get off my adrenaline high for a moment, let me descend to a more mundane description of this excellent piece of work.

I won’t repeat my detailed description of how Microprose go about their trade – read the issue of Australian Aviation featuring the review of F-117A Stealth Fighter (refer p38 May 93 AA). There are some new technical developments in Strike Eagle III that I must report as they are landmark improvements that up the ante for Micropose’s competitors.

The fanciest addition is the ability to pan your viewpoint around the cockpit. Press F4 to select the mode then hold the joystick button while you point the stick where you would like to look. On the Thrustmaster system, you use the “hat” switch on the top of the stick. This view system works smoothly although you get a surprise as the pan continues though the 6 o’clock position back to the front – you think your head will be screwed off! You can also pan up to look straight up.

For some strange reason, you cannot pan down into the cockpit, but you can in the normal F1 mode, which only lets you look up, normal, down and aft. The most interesting feature of the pan is that the HUD displays stay active throughout the turn, so you can look left or right and keep a wary eye on any targets coming up. This is a jump on the opposition.

The aircraft systems are thoroughly modelled. I wrote to Microprose and find it has something of a fetish about accuracy of the way they represent the actual aircraft in the simulation. In this work, you have the added bonus of a “Wizzo” in the back seat, and you can hop between cockpits with the touch of a button. There is even a facility for two people to operate the front and rear seats simultaneously via a modem. I discussed Strike Eagle III with Sean Trestrail, formerly a RAAF Hornet driver. He said that all of the representations of the systems and instrumentation were very accurate and realistic. Strike Eagle is one of his favourite simulations.

The software uses a combination of the pixel graphics found in Comanche Maximum Overkill (refer p36 June 93 AA) and the more usual polygon graphics. Speed of processing is very fast, giving high frame rates and smooth controls as a result, especially if you choose the simpler displays from the menubar, which is different from the difficulty menu accessed at the opening scene.

I found that it was very easy to complete a “real” bombing pop-up, where you pull from mud to the sky to get some ground clearance, roll inverted, then pull the CCIP reticle smoothly onto the target. If the frame rate is low and the controls jerky, this method simply does not work.

There is quite a long learning curve for this game and it takes time to learn all the settings well enough so that you can access them during the heat of battle. Having to learn the front and rear cockpit layouts adds some more learning time, but allows you to have all the flight information available at the touch of the “hop cockpits” button.

Setting the various parameters between Standard and Authentic gives the player the opportunity to mould the game to meet individual requirements. For example, Iset “No Crashes so I could fly in the weeds and concentrate on the excitement of air combat and air to mud weapons delivery. (I justify this by calling it a “combat TFR mode!) Damage is progressive, and I have taken a hit on each hot mission, but have managed to use the surviving systems to get bombs on each target, plus take out a couple of MiGs on the way home.

There are a couple of weaknesses in the simulation, but the seriousness depends on where you gain your pleasure from this activity. I like to learn a new aircraft by flying circuits, but Strike Eagle III does not depict this aspect of flying very well.

Pixilated graphics are used to represent the runway where polygon graphics give a better feel for the approach angles and speed. Slow flying does not feel “real”. However, circuits are not the main thrust of the simulation and this criticism should be considered to be minor in the overall assessment.

Neither is training strong, but setting all the modes to the easiest level ensures you stay alive long enough to find where all the controls are. Using the “Quickstart” function and the manual gets you going fairly smartly.

I particularly like the difficulty gradient and your control over it. After setting easy levels while learning, I have progressively been switching functions from Standard to Authentic mode as I master each system. The capability of the opposition can be adjusted in four steps. Although I feel in command, I am far from mastering the whole simulation, and know that this fine work will hold my interest for several months.

To conclude, Microprose crafts its games very well and it shows in Strike Eagle III. You feel as though you are actually there. To generate this experience there is a highly competent interaction between the PC platform, the systems modelled and the state of the game play, plus the usual opening scenes where you select your pilot, the theatre of operations and the difficulty level.

Ranking this game, I set it on a par with Falcon 3. While Strike Eagle does not have the amazing record mode of Falcon 3, it does model the battlefield and weapons system with great competence, fly controllably accurately at low speeds and simply blows all other games away with the ability to pan around the sky with the joystick. Now for some scores.

Factor Training Controls Reality Complexity Excitement If you compare these scores with the numbers for Falcon 3, you will see that the emphasis of the simulations is slightly different, but both games are on the top of the heap. The bottom line is this: Strike Eagle III stays on my PC until Microprose delivers Strike Eagle IV, or something even more professional and exciting.

Opposite: (1) The options screen where you select theatre, pilot, authen- ticity etc. Note the “Bald Eagle flight commander! (2) Mission briefing-there is even a video of the targets. (3) Hmm? Is three x two CBU-87s enough to kill three targets? You only get one choice and it’s here. (4) Looking down to see that we are on track. (5) Hey Mum, look-no hands. That’s me fellas, inbound and ready to rock and roll. (6) A target of opportunity-A Fan Song radar (which actually turns). I try to destroy it but miss. (7) An action replay Iget a MIG-29. (8) Nice echelon formation. This is a video clip, not me flying.