F-19 Stealth Fighter - MicroProse 1988 -------------------------------------- ---------A PixelWings Review---------- Born in the 80s, a child of the confusion around Lockheeds then-new black project - the F-19 is the stealth fighter that never were. Its legendary design was the work of model maker Testors, who at the time based much of their intel on sources from within the defense industry. The result was a sleek, rounded and quite futuristic aircraft that little resembled the straight edged “wobbly goblin” F-117A that was revealed almost 3 years later. Testors would have the public believe that Americas next secret aircraft was a multirole fighter capable of air-to-air combat as well air-to-ground operations. While there were other model makers doing variations on the theme, leading to further confusion, Testors kit was the most prominent shape of them all and a favorite of the public. In the eyes of this writer, it is certainly the most stylish and pretty. It is a machine of dreams, hence its nickname “Ghostrider”! The kit is said to be the best selling plastic model of all time, and the expected aircraft was subsequently featured in news, media and in books such as Tom Clancy’s 1986 novel “Red Storm Rising”. There it had a whole storyline devoted to its use and it is quite the exciting ride! As fate would have it, MicroProse picked up on this and decided to develop a simulation, that was to be published for Commodore 64 and later for the ZX Spectrum. The game was called “Project Stealth Fighter” and was designed by Jim Synoski and Arnold Hendrick. It was a fine simulation for its time, with groundbreaking AI and comprehensive scenarios. Project Stealth Fighter deserves an article of its own, and there will probably be one in the future. In my humble view, there are several aspect of the game that should have been preserved better in later games, like the excellent, high tech, -yet dark and serious atmosphere it sets. The bottom line is that the limitations of the C64 were skillfully navigated by MicroProse, to produce probably THE best 8-bit combat flight simulator of all time. Two years later, MicroProse releases “F-19 Stealth Fighter” for MS-DOS. At the time flight simulators had started cluttering the market, but Bill Stealey and Sid Meier firmly believed in a really good game being sellable nonetheless. With lead design by Sid Meier, and programming by Andy Hollis, Jim Synoski and Meier -the game was a departure from Project Stealth Fighter in all areas except for the scenario concepts, scope and the hardware / weapons depicted ingame. F-19 Stealth Fighter loaded quick, ran faster, had high polygon complexity, better resolution and more features compared to its predecessor. Now there were out-of-cockpit camera views, better MFD capabilities, more detailed cockpit and scenery. Meier did his best to base the aircraft specs on available data, and to make the best and most enjoyable simulation possible for the time. Judging from the amount of awards and reviews the game got, one might say he and the MicroProse team succeeded in their targets. F-19 Stealth Fighter was released on a total of 4 platforms, the first being for IBM-PC compatibles in 1988, then on Amiga and Atari ST in 1990, and finally for the Japanese PC-98 in 1992. The word is that the US “Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense” released its first confirmation of the F-117s existance on the very same day MicroProse released F-19 Stealth Fighter. However, this cannot be correct as the official statement came on November 10th, 1988, and the first version of F-19 (version 435.00) was released on October 14th 1988. Instead, the date of November 10th matches the release date of version 435.02 of F-19. This writer assumes that this myth must have been hyped up a bit later, for whatever reason. In any case, it did upset the validity of the game a bit, as the real Skunkworks’ angular and alien design of the F-117A could not have deviated more from the smooth lines of the Testors plane. Seeking to give players a representation of the F-117A, MicroProse included a model of it in the last F-19 release, version 435.04. The player could choose to overwrite the old F-19 model with the new F-117A. But since the new model was based only on the first vague photo released of the jet (later admitted to be disinformation put out by the Air Force) it had quite the wrong proportions and did not look very good ingame. One could argue F-19 Stealth Fighter should remain in its own bubble, as the simulation of a reality that never came to be. Did I mention the F-19 looks awesome? In any case, the real F-117A would soon get its own dedicated simulation in 1991, by none other than MicroProse. But that is for another page to cover. The original PC version of F-19 came packed with a substantial manual of the kind only provided by MicroProse, packed with loads of data on the scenarios, the weapons, friendly and enemy planes and so on. The box also included 4 maps of the operation areas -Libya, Persian Gulf, The North Cape and Central Europe. These could be considered hot-spots of the Cold War. As was becoming the norm for MicroProse sims, you also had a couple of large keyboard overlays for easy reference during flight for systems operation. And in F-19 the systems were deeper than before, so you do really need to have that key reference handy. Unless you consult the manual you will need to know your planes, as the game’s copy protection is based on aircraft recognition -though it is not too difficult. As a flight simulator, F-19 might be a bit rigid by modern standards, the flight model is forgiving but considering it was meant to be keyboard friendly and fun, it is completely satisfactory for a DOS sim. The gameplay is fast, thrilling, and you will feel the pressure to stay undetected as you weave your way through the gauntlet of radars and SAM sites. The presence of enemy aircraft is always threatening to detect you. The gameplay is firmly based on staying hidden and unlike the real F-117A that turned out to be more stealthy than assumed, the F-19 is in fact harder to conceal. This makes for a more exciting sim, and combined with the air-to-air capability you will have your hands full. To take out your targets successfully, you will also have to select the proper weapons for the job, and there will sometimes be non-standard missions such as equipment-drops within a certain timeframe or photo reconnaissance. While you will be given a flight route in the briefing, it will sometimes be necessary to change it in-flight to avoid unpredicted air/ground threats. Low and slow is the name of the game here. The F-19 is well powered by its monstrous F-404 engines, and compared to the F-117A it can absorb a lot more damage. It is a proper, capable, stealthy combat aircraft, designed for a hot war. But get shot up over enemy territory and you’ll have a long and lonely flight back to base! PW 2024