36 replies to this topic

[herger]

Hi all!
I am ew of this forum and Mac familiy!
Are there some detailed and "serious" (that is, not arcade) combat flight simulators for mac? Something like the microsoft combat flight simulator series for pc?
Thanks in advance and the best regards

Herger

[Janichsan]

Welcome aboard!

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is "virtually none", as you can see in this thread. About the only fully functionally (WWII) combat flight sim is Warbirds, but that's mainly an online game. Targetware is still incomplete, WWII Online rather lacks in the flying part (in my opinion) and Skyfighters 1945 is not up to more recent PC flight sims.

[Frost]

There just about aren't any, as I'm painfully aware, and the few that do exist are from the OS 9 era, so if you have a Mactel or a PowerPC running something newer than Tiger, you're screwed (or maybe not, since you can Boot Camp your way to all the PC flight sims with a Mactel...). Best recommendation I can give is X-Plane. There are WWII ones too, as Janichsan noted, but I'm into modern stuff, so I'm not familiar with those.

[bobbob]

Frost, on October 2nd 2008, 12:22 PM, said:

the few that do exist are from the OS 9 era

Not Hellcats.

[herger]

Hi all! Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately even Hellcats seems to be a little bit dated, hope I am wrong... Someone told me to try this,
http://www.apple.com...ers1945wmb.html
but this too seems to be a little bit old.

Is there any possibility to dogfight in xplane?

Thanks and regards

Herger

[Janichsan]

herger, on October 5th 2008, 07:41 PM, said:

Is there any possibility to dogfight in xplane?

Not really. You can assign other planes in the area to another team, that causes them to make some aggressive maneuvers. But apart from that there's not much. Neither can you actually shoot down other planes nor can they shoot you down.

[fabforrest]

skyfighters is like an improved hellcats.  i loved hellcats and i love skyfighters.  the realism may be lower than some other sims, but it is imminently playable and fun.

[Ari]

Janichsan, on October 5th 2008, 09:08 PM, said:

You can assign other planes in the area to another team, that causes them to make some aggressive maneuvers. But apart from that there's not much. Neither can you actually shoot down other planes nor can they shoot you down.

Actually, you're wrong about this. Just tested it with XP 9.21; I flew F-4, shot down a Wiggen and let F-22 Raptor kill me.

You need to set your plane in a team and the opponents in another team. Obviously, all these planes need to be equipped with weapons - preferably with missiles, because guns seem to be quite inefficient.
Then just arm your weapons, select AA missiles, select target, shoot and watch him go down with engines smoking. It isn't a combat sim, so you don't get any flames, booms or pieces of aircraft exploding all over the place. You don't get any fancy radar modes, gun reticles or stuff like that either. If your aircraft has some countermeasures loaded, you can evade incoming missiles.

[Janichsan]

Ari, on November 15th 2008, 06:29 PM, said:

Then just arm your weapons, select AA missiles, select target, shoot and watch him go down with engines smoking.

That's new. The last time I tried dog fighting in X-Plane (admittedly some time ago), nothing really happened when you hit your opponents.

[Ari]

The opponent goes into "glider-mode", so if you hit him at high altitude and the damaged plane has a lot of wing area with good gliding properties, it might take really long before he's all the way down to the ground.
I shot a 747 down from something like 30 000 ft, at first it looked like nothing happened except the engines started exhausting black smoke, but eventually it came down. So, I'm not surprised that you thought that nothing much happened.

It used to work differently (in 8.xx something...), when you hit the opponent, the radar lock would disappear. So, you couldn't fire more missiles at already killed enemy plane. I liked the old system better.

[the Battle Cat]

Janichsan, on November 15th 2008, 10:08 AM, said:

...nothing really happened when you hit your opponents.

I blame your weak little girly arms.  You should man up the Battle Cat way.  Let me case harden you like a steel sledge hammer.  Just send $19.99 in 12 sets of 18 payments and I will send you a series of 3 Battle Cat Brawn DVDs that will pump. you. up.

[CaryMG]

Hey Hereger !

Ever since "HellCats Over The Pacific" & it's sequel "HellCats Over The Pacific: Leyte Gulf", it has been a dream of mind to make the definitive flatshade polygonal World War II European flightsimulator.

"Chuck Yeager's Air Combat" isn't all World War II.
"DogFight" -- while way cool -- is a "trainer", if you wil.

Here's what ....

1] "HellCats Of The Pacific" -- System 6



2] "Screamin' Demons" -- OS 9

They even have thier own website to setup matches ! > "Screamin' Demons" HQ


3] "WarBirds" -- OS X



4] "SkyFighters: 1945" > "SkyFighters: 1945" HQ

[Ben]

Unfortunately, the Screamin' Demons Mac port was never finished.

[CaryMG]

Ben, on November 27th 2008, 02:08 PM, said:

Unfortunately, the Screamin' Demons Mac port was never finished.

I didn't know that ....
Thanks for the headsup on that, Ben !  8^ ]

I'm sorry for the error, Herger -- the others are all OK.

[Mitlov]

I'm surprised nobody here has mentioned Enemy Engaged: Comanche versus Hokum.  Sure, it's a bit dated, but it runs just fine on my brand-spanking-new MacBook Pro.  And if you can set aside the 2000-esque graphics, the gameplay is very, very good.  More than any other combat flight sim I've played (Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, and the Il-2 series), it makes you feel like you're part of a larger battle.  Fighting is going on all around you.  You can influence not only by succeeding at your mission, but by taking out targets of opportunity on the way there and back.  Knock out a couple SAM and AAA around that airbase, and the strike mission which is en route is more likely to succeed.  Take out that A-10 as it taxis down the runway, and your T-90s will survive in greater numbers to repel an upcoming M1A1 onslaught.

Never having been into either a modern flight sim or a helicopter sim, I was a bit skeptical when I bought it, but I figured it was worth a shot.  It certainly was.  Coming from the world of WWII dogfighting, it's easy to poo-poo the dynamics of flying attack helicopters, but there's really a lot there.  And the most fun part?  You know how it's always fun to fly at tree-top level, following the twists of a river, and even ducking under bridges if there's enough clearance?  In EECH, those maneuvers aren't just showboating.  They're important for stealth and survival.  If you fly along at 300 meters above the ground, every SAM launcher in a 10 km radius is going to light you up.  So you need to use the terrain to your advantage, zooming along at tree-top level and popping only when your target is in range.  It's great fun.

[placy]

Mitlov, on December 23rd 2008, 03:15 AM, said:

I'm surprised nobody here has mentioned Enemy Engaged: Comanche versus Hokum.  Sure, it's a bit dated, but it runs just fine on my brand-spanking-new MacBook Pro.  And if you can set aside the 2000-esque graphics, the gameplay is very, very good.  More than any other combat flight sim I've played (Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, and the Il-2 series), it makes you feel like you're part of a larger battle.  Fighting is going on all around you.  You can influence not only by succeeding at your mission, but by taking out targets of opportunity on the way there and back.  Knock out a couple SAM and AAA around that airbase, and the strike mission which is en route is more likely to succeed.  Take out that A-10 as it taxis down the runway, and your T-90s will survive in greater numbers to repel an upcoming M1A1 onslaught.

Never having been into either a modern flight sim or a helicopter sim, I was a bit skeptical when I bought it, but I figured it was worth a shot.  It certainly was.  Coming from the world of WWII dogfighting, it's easy to poo-poo the dynamics of flying attack helicopters, but there's really a lot there.  And the most fun part?  You know how it's always fun to fly at tree-top level, following the twists of a river, and even ducking under bridges if there's enough clearance?  In EECH, those maneuvers aren't just showboating.  They're important for stealth and survival.  If you fly along at 300 meters above the ground, every SAM launcher in a 10 km radius is going to light you up.  So you need to use the terrain to your advantage, zooming along at tree-top level and popping only when your target is in range.  It's great fun.

What controller are you using with it?

[Mitlov]

placy, on December 24th 2008, 12:40 AM, said:

What controller are you using with it?

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick, which despite the EXTREEEEEME name was actually quite cheap.  The stick itself is the cyclic, the throttle pedal flap on the back of the base doubles as a collective (change the settings to "reverse collective" in game for it to work properly), and the stick twists to simulate the yaw pedals.

[Rank Xerox]

Janichsan, on October 2nd 2008, 05:06 AM, said:

Welcome aboard!

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is "virtually none", as you can see in this thread. About the only fully functionally (WWII) combat flight sim is Warbirds, but that's mainly an online game. Targetware is still incomplete, WWII Online rather lacks in the flying part (in my opinion) and Skyfighters 1945 is not up to more recent PC flight sims.

Now see what this made me do. I had to post a number of WWII Online Air Combat screenshots. I don't know what you lacking for the airgame in WWII Online. But this is the only Online game were the war in the air actually has an impact on the ground and vice versa.

Burning Messerschmitt Bf106G-6/U4, downed by a Lockheed 322-15/P-38F



Incoming Douglas DB-7 over the Belgium town of Turnhout. Screenshot taken by a Britsh SMG-player in the ruins after the town has been under heavy fire from a longer time.



A Junkers Ju 52/3m loaded with Fallschirmsjägers. Can you transport some 20 paratroopers in Warbirds and drop them over a hotdrop zone?


Btw, some of the WarBird developers wanted something more then just a Flight Combat sim. They wanted a WWII sim so they made WWII Online: Battleground Europe.

[Rank Xerox]

This thread needs more Air combat screenis of top notch quality.

A paradrop during nighttime


Imagine to strafe them with your figther.


A Bf109 has an Spitfire in the sight. This gone hurt.



Stay off the deck or the AA-guys will rip off your wings you Deckmonkey

[Rank Xerox]

A Heinkel He111H-1 squadron coming in low for a tactical bombing


An enemy figther is doing his best to stop the He111 (due to the great numbers of players in the area and this screenshot is taken from an infantry player is friendly aircraft invisible to avoid the game to drop too much in FPS. Hence the friendly fighter is invisible.)


Maybe the intercepting fighter made a less experienced bombardiers drop the bombload too early. All aircrafts with more then one seat can be multicrewed.