Proflight


Title           Proflight
Game Type	Flight Sim
Players		1
Compatibility	Any Amiga
HD Installable  Yes
Company		HiSoft
Submission      Seppo Typpö (groucho@pp.inet.fi) Profiled Reviewer

Review
I really managed to miss this flight simulation first time around. With
sims like F19 Stealth Fighter, F16 Combat Pilot and Falcon flying around
on Amiga screens all over the world it was quite easy to overlook some of
the 'smaller potatoes' in the field. Years later, when the new Amiga
flight sims got rarer than fresh water in the Sahara desert I managed to
get a copy of Proflight into my grubby hands. I was about to be pleasantly
surprised.

Proflight is a flight simulation of the Panavia Tornado multi-role fighter
plane. Aimed for fans of serious flight simulations, it comes with a
nicely indexed 174 page manual (which explains everything from the theory
of flight to the complex avionics and air combat tactics) a key guide and
a nice cutaway drawing of the jet. The manual is very well written
(obviously by people who know their stuff) with good tutorials and
interesting facts in easily readable form.

The sim comes on one disk. It can be installed to hard disk for faster
access and works flawlessly with my 68040 BPPC accelerator. There's one
slight flaw - once started, the player does not have an option to quit to
DOS without rebooting the machine.

After starting the game and getting past the manual protection the player
is transferred straight into the cockpit of the Tornado. All the game
screens and options are accessed from here, using a set of pull down menus
easily operated with the function keys (F1 to F10). The menus can be
opened at any time during the game which offers a smart and user-friendly
way of controlling the various features this sim offers (like weather,
flight model realism, layout of the HUD etc) 'on the fly'.

On the subject of controls, the key-guide reveals that almost every key on
the keyboard has some function attached to it. The arrangement of controls
is quite logical and easy to learn for any experienced flight sim player
but can be quite bewildering stuff to a novice. The excellent tutorials in
the manual help the player to learn them properly but be warned it still
takes lots of time and patience to master the beast.

Proflight has quite good graphics for its time (early 1990's). The cockpit
is nicely drawn with a good layout, while the scenery of the battlefield is
quite detailed with mountains, cities, rivers, lakes and roads. What's
more important than looks is speed - the screen updates with impeccable
pace (at least on 68040) which makes flying a very smooth experience
(especially with mouse control). It makes life a lot easier when the
player is able to concentrate on actual flying manouvres instead of
wasting time trying to pre-empt the sticky frame updates.

Unlike the graphics, the sound effects are a bit disappointing. White
noise as engine sound and a very limited set of warning sirens offer very
little aural delights although they manage to do their job adequately.

After the obligatory flight lessons, Proflight offers combat flights in
the form of a very simple campaign. The goal of the campaign is
straightforward - wipe out all the enemy units from the designated area
and you have won the battle. From the mission planning screen, the player
selects the primary target then flies the mission trying to destroy it.
This is more difficult than it sounds as the provided intelligence info is
not always accurate and the player has to first find the target, then
decide whether the encountered enemy is the right one. Several missions
needs to be flown before all the enemy units are destroyed so a handy save
campaign option is provided for much needed R&R.

The weapons your Tornado carries in this sim are very limited - a couple
of types of air-to-air missiles and a set of freefall bombs.  All is not
lost though as the extremely advanced weapons delivery systems of the real
Tornado are quite accurately simulated too - making bombing runs much
easier.

Combat in Proflight is ruthless - in the early phases it is quite easy to
get wasted by enemy missiles - the warning klaxons usually are activated a
bit too late meaning the player has to be constantly alert and  monitor
the radar screen religiously if he wants to detect unwelcome intruders
early enough.

The emphasis of the game is still on the flight simulation. The flight
model is very believeable - although it demands your attention just
keeping the plane in level flight, the controls feel sturdy and
responsive (mouse control or analog  joystick  is  highly  recommended for
the ultimate experience). The behaviour of the plane is realistic - it is
very easy to get into trouble if one tries to carelessly pull the same
stunts that are very easily executed in the more light-weight Amiga sims.
Learning to professionally control a  high speed jetfighter in various
conditions is the ultimate reward this simulation offers to the patient
player.

Proflight is an excellent flight simulation, up there with the likes of
JetPilot, F16 Combat Pilot, B17 Flying Fortress and Digital Integration's
own Tornado simulator. In comparison to DI's sim Proflight manages very
well in the flight simulation area but naturally loses out on looks
(especially when compared to the AGA version of DI's Tornado). Proflight
also has a much smoother frame update than Tornado, which is not quite
smooth even on a 68040 (unless you set the graphics detail to lower level
which makes it look worse than Proflight). Still DI's Tornado offers
unique features like multi-plane missions, different cockpits for the
pilot/navigator and wider selection of weapons and bombing modes which
ultimately makes it probably a slightly better choice for those who have
fast enough hardware to run it properly.

In all, this sim is warmly recommended to all fans of more serious Amiga
flight simulations. It may not have the looks of the latest flight sims
but it sure has lots to offer to open-minded armchair flyers looking for
a realistic sim instead of arcade action.


IF THIS REALISTIC SIMULATION INTERESTS YOU PLEASE ALSO CHECK OUT :

JetPilot              from Vulcan Software. Extremely realistic flight sim
                      only for hardcore flight sim fans and other
                      dare-devils. Needs a fast Amiga to be playable on
                      higher levels of detail and more accurate flight
                      models.

B-17 Flying Fortress  from MicroProse. More like a crew simulation than
                      pure flight sim, this game mixes strategic crew
                      management to a realistic bomber simulation in a
                      unique way - resulting in one of the best flight
                      sims on any platform, ever.

F16 Combat Pilot      From Digital Integration. Truly excellent flight sim
                      with marvellous campaign/combat modes. Pioneer in
                      fully interactive battlefield and multi-plane
                      missions long before its competitors like Falcon
                      caught up. Old but still one of the best flight sims
                      for Amiga computers.

Tornado (AGA)         Also From DI. Has slightly better combat options than
                      Proflight and looks amazing (especially the 256
                      colour AGA version) but runs a bit slower even on
                      accelerated machines.








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