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:
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
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:53 — 63.1MB)
I loved Gunship 2000 – probably the best flight sim I played on my Amiga 500 back in ealry 90s. THen played the hell out of it on PC mid-90s with the expansion and really late tried the PS1 version which also slapps. I finished the game (completed full career till retirement) on both Amiga and PC with expansion, will have to do it still on PS1 version though. I don’t know what version did one the co-hosts played, but some helos were restricted by rank – both Comanches were available from 2nd or 1st Lt, and the Longbow was awarded when you reached Captain (or Major), can’t remember precisely now. It’s MMW Hellfires were just OP.
Some of my thoughts:
– the realistic flight model was indeed horrendous, I usually prefer realistic flight models in flight sims but not in GS2000
– IIRC the latest version of GS2000 (.80 or .85) introduced proper joystick throttle and rudder support, so you don’t need additional software if you want to use 4 axis on your joystick to be in full control
– to counter the criticism of it being simple (fly, shot, run out of fuel argument), for the time it was probably the best helo flight sim on the market
– apart from the changing objectives mid-mission, of the cool things I wasn’t aware of untill the late 2010s was that your FARP on the map can get overrun by the enemy mid-mission! Which can ruin your battle plan, especially if you flew those deepstrike missions from outside the map.
– earlier PC versions were more difficult by default, only after .6 (or .3?) the base difficulty was lowered, perhaps that’s why Chase’s recollection of the enemy reacting instantly to the player’s presence even on Green Opponents setting
– I suspect Chase played the early version, because I remember that in that early release there was some map related bug, like the map mismatch between the zoomed in/out maps in F10 view – that’s why he probably seen hills where they were none
Rally glad you’ll put that GS2000 guide to IA, it’s a rarity – deserves to be preserved. Thanks Brian!
Hah, I’m gonna be honest. I loved when a FARP got overrun/destroyed. Added a lovely bit of tension to the mission. Agree with all your other points too. 🙂