It is July 1992. MicroProse has just bought the UK based development studio called Vector Grafix, a company founded in Leeds by Andy Craven and Danny Gallagher. Having recently released the very intricate but well received 1992 simulation "Shuttle - The Space Flight Simulator", the studio has also just developed a strategic WW2 bomber simulation based on the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. "Shuttle" was a stunningly deep study-sim for its time, and expectations were high for the new game. Being no stranger to combat flight simulators, MPS realized that it would be a good idea to bring Vector Grafix onboard. In fact, Bill Stealey (the chief executive at MicroProse) argued that the acquisition would allow the company to cut development costs as well as give it access to more games on the drawing board from Vector Grafix. Perhaps was it part of the reason that the epic World War 2 film "Memphis Belle" had released two years before, and was a popular thrill ride in European theaters and television. In other words, there was a place in the market for a sim covering the bombing campaign aspect of WW2, Vector Grafix had already developed it and the game was soon poised to be released by MicroProse.

I personally remember it being much talked about in the mid 90s and many a classmate had it installed (or rather their fathers did). Who would not want to take to the dangerous skies over WW2 Europe and blast away at enemy fighters with machineguns in ball turrets? For the time it was a unique experience. Sure there had been some coverage of the topic before. Primarily "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe" comes to mind, a LucasArts title that did let you man various stations in the Flying Fortress, as well as pilot a range of USAF and Luftwaffe aircraft. A few titles by SSI also comes to mind, like "First Over Germany" and "USAAF". The first being a graphically primitive sim-cade and the latter a deep grand strategy game. But during the summer of 1992 came a new opportunity to man every gunner station of the mighty B-17, or to be the bombardier, navigator, radio man, or pilot. And bring the plane all the way to its target and back! The main goal of the game - to survive 25 daylight missions over occupied Europe.

"B-17 Flying Fortress" lets you assign and manage crew members to every task (assuming they are qualified for it) as you try to complete your mission successfully. Crew management is a huge part of the game, and like in previous MPS titles with such functions the crew may improve over time. When you are not manning stations yourself the AI will do the job, even the flying. This allows for a smooth experience when you want to take a quick peek in external view, without the airplane crashing because you left the controls. But you are required to jump in at times to perform certain actions. Like the release of bombs over target, and keeping eyes on the instrument panel, because your copilot might try to keep formation to such an extent that he overheats the engines! But on a whole, this little airborne ecosystem seems to function well. And the management screen is made up of very nicely drawn sections of the plane. It is easy enough to assign crew members to the tasks you need attended while maintaining an overview of the situation.

The cockpit is basically divided into two parts, one looking up and out the windshield and the other down at the control panels. You won't see the instruments when looking out, only a black frame in which you can pan around. The lower cockpit is a lovely drawn instrument panel divided into 3 parts, and you have to pan across left-right to see everything. The other stations in the aircraft also have good visuals and gives you a sense of immersion. Your B-17 itself can be customized with period accurate nose art in the pre-flight menus. The world you fly in is perhaps the biggest graphical drawback of  B-17. It resembles very much the visuals from "Shuttle" and has very drab color choices. The palette is dull and the landscape does not look much like continental Europe in daytime. I will also say the coloring of the models could be better. The graphics overall are not too hardware demanding. The plane models will scale in detail the further you zoom out in external view (which you can set to follow any aircraft), and looks good up close. There are also nice details on friendly bases as well as enemy target areas. Add to that an "action track" camera that will keep up with the aerial hi-jinx happening around you! The sound is lacking a bit, especially the engines. From you start up they emit the same flimsy tone the entire flight, and sound nothing like the mighty roar of WW2 Flying Fortresses. Gun sounds are ok, as is the music selection.

The game did garner some criticism in reviews of the time. Not everyone was keen on a WW2 bomber sim and found the game to be rather boring. It was also pointed out that other bombers in your formation did not fire back at enemy planes. I am unsure if such firing was simulated on a non-visible level, due to hardware constraints, or if they straight up ignored it. Another point was that a formation of max 6 bombers was underwhelming, considering the massive numbers used in the war. But in my eyes this can easily be excused by the limits of computer power in 1992. Documentation also took some flak, not being up to the standard of previous MPS titles. But compared to the sparse documentations of today the manual is a great read. The original title was released as a beautiful big box release both in US and Europe, but with differing art. The US box sporting a historic real crew photo in front of the aircraft, rather than just a generic pinup like featured on the European box. Installation media for PC was 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disk. To close, the few negative aspects I have noted are thankfully things we can improve nowadays (stay tuned). On the whole, I think B-17 Flying Fortress is a fine simulation that has stood the test of time, especially if you are interested in this aspect of the air war.

PW 2025