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| Title: | AMIGA NOTES |
| Notice: | Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2 |
| Moderator: | HYDRA::MOORE |
|
| Created: | Sat Apr 26 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Wed Feb 05 1992 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 5378 |
| Total number of notes: | 38326 |
4090.0. "Review Wings" by SHARE::DOYLE () Thu Sep 06 1990 19:36
Well I received "Wings" from Cinemaware a couple of days ago and have been
playing it exclusively for 2 days.
First off, It is not a dedicated flight simulator.
It's more of a WWI Pilot simulator.
As long as you can except that, It is an EXCELLENT game.
I received 2 manuals, one short one with instructions, one large with a
summary of WWI aviation history.
There are 2 disks, no disk-based copy protection (though it does use look
up the word protection).
A few special offers from Cinemaware on their products.
The disk is "Very" easy to install on hard-disk, it is an Iconized process.
Once you click on the icon, it asks you to type out the path, once that's
done, your ready to play, no assigns, no editing the startup-sequence, and
it places the game where you want it. (I believe this was used on TV Sports
Basketball as well)
As a hard-drive owner, I thank you Cinemaware! (now if they'd just fix some
of their older titles).
Floppy-Based operating systems require that you make backups to play, (It
saves games to disk 2).
The instruction manual is a scant 14 pages, but contains the nessecary
information to play the game...
The game starts out with a roster where you can input up to 10 personas to
represent you in the game, (one is already entered for you, so you can jump
right in).
After you add a pilot, you are allowed to adjust his basic statistics called
"Ability Points"..
These are Flying Ability, Shooting Ability, Mech Aptitude, and Stamina.
All are preset at 40, and you have a additional 40 points to distribute.
It's very important to have the correct ability level, because these directly
affect your game.
Example:
In the 3d flight sequence;
If you don't have enough Flying Ability, the plane isn't as responsive as it
could be, and seems to bounce around more when trying to aim.
If you don't have enough Shooting Ability, it's much harder to score a hit
on the enemy from a distance, and it takes more hits to knock em down.
Mech Aptitude comes in real handy, for instance your guns tend to jam more
when this is low, as your level increases the jamming isn't as frequent and
you can free up the jam faster when it does.
Stamina.. This will allow you to successfully land your plane after getting
shot down, and you'll be able to continue the game.
After creating a pilot, you must enter flight school to get you wings,
this is great to get you started, but becomes a bit tedious after you've
played a while, luckily you only have to pass one test to win your wings.
Once whats done you can join your squadron.
Whats unusual is the way they present this game, 2 different arcade type
sequences, and 1 3d flight simulator. Its unusual, but quite addictive.
The 3d flight section of the game is very well done (especially for being
just a part) and you have a minimum of controls, the joystick and the
arrowed keys on the numeric keypad.
The joystick controls your vertical and horizontal movement, the arrow keys
will give you a forward, side and back view.
There is the lack of a throttle, so you increase your airspeed buy diving and
decrease by climbing.
It's an easy system to learn and reflects (purposely or not) the simplicity
of the craft back then.
The arcade sequences are just plane fun.;')
The first is the strafing run....
This is at an angle shot of your aircraft as it moves above the ground,
where it'll take some practice acquiring the skill too shoot your targets,
(Buildings and such take repeated hits) while keeping yourself from getting
shot down.
The bombing run seems the easiest it has a top down view with your airplane
below your point of view, if you can avoid the anti aircraft fire, you can
do some major damage.
What keeps this game from getting repetitive is the mix of missions above,
(I've never had to bomb the same building twice, the strafing runs are slightly
different, and the 3d flight sequence always has some aspect about it whats
different, whether it's the number of planes involved or your mission goal)
as well as the fact that when you die, your next pilot takes the war over
where you old one left off.. of course you have to build up the pilots stats
all over again- (Your Stats are affected by the success or failure of all
missions, the amount is determined by the difficulty of the mission).
If I started a new game however, I'm think it would go through the same
sequence.
Another thing, when a pilots dead, he's dead..
Your next pilot can't have the same name as your old pilot.
You can also win medals for outstanding performance.
The whole game is tied together with the pilots journal which relates what
is happening in the war as well as identifying the mission you'll be flying.
Its a nice touch and it works quite well.
The graphics are excellent as always, and provide visual confirmation of
when you get shot-up (bullet holes in the wings, nicks in the wing struts...)
The sound is also up there, and sets the mood of the game.
(The title screen sequence is great !)
In summing up....
I'm impressed with this game, I'm glad I bought it, and I'll be playing it
exclusively till I get a medal!
Ed
P.S. I'm on my fifth pilot, who's flown 11 missions and hasn't gotten a
Confirmed kill yet! :'(
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 4090.1 | Great game | LODGE::LEN | David M. Len | Fri Sep 07 1990 01:44 | 20 |
| I also have Wings, I bought it last Saturday. After our club's monthly
meeting, a local store gave our members a 20% discount and I got Wings
for $29.59 + tax. I too enjoy playing it very much. It is at the
opposite end of the spectrum from Falcon (i.e. technically complex
realistic flying).
In addition to the fun of flying in Wings, I like the rich, in depth
story-line/background, provided by the journal entries.
Deleting or moving the pilot.dat file from "Reel 2" does allow you to
reuse pilot names and it does start the journal over again from the
beginning. The ordering and the mix of the missions do vary (I guess
they are chosen at random). I do believe that I have seen at least 1
variation in the journal entries, but I am not certain.
So far my best effort was completing 15 missions with 13 kills. I
still have not been promoted from 2nd Luitenant or get a medal.
I wasn't doing very well at shooting down enemy planes, until I started
leading them. And the amount lead needed increases with distance.
|
| 4090.2 | I've been robbed :') | SHARE::DOYLE | | Fri Sep 07 1990 12:23 | 11 |
| Have you gotten rooked out of a kill yet?
I could swear I've shot down a plane, only to let it get awarded to
someone else.
I started the game over, it seems that as the war progresses, the
pilots do too...
If you go into the war late, (as a rookie) It's real tough to catch up...
But since I've started over, I've gotten 6 kills out of the 4 PATROL
missions I've flown.
Ed
|
| 4090.3 | | LODGE::LEN | David M. Len | Fri Sep 07 1990 13:44 | 7 |
| Yes, I thought I was cheated out of a kill a number of times. Another
thing that I don't like is after hitting an ememy a couple times,
before you can turn around for another shot, one of your buddies
finishes him off.
Someone working at the store where I bought it, claims he was promoted
to 1st luitenant after 20 missions.
|
| 4090.4 | ......... | SHARE::DOYLE | | Fri Sep 07 1990 16:22 | 8 |
| I also wish I could save a game and continue, but that'd make it too
easy I guess..
I was able too increase my mechanical and stamina skills, If I could
just increase my shooting skills I'd be doing alright.
This game is extremely addicting... last night I was up till 1:00
saying just one more game since 9:00
Ed
|
| 4090.5 | | LODGE::LEN | David M. Len | Sat Sep 08 1990 00:56 | 14 |
| re: .1
It seems that I could have been about how random the missions are. The
missions seem to follow the same order but there are some minor
variations.
re: Saving a game
You really can save a game. Once you build up a character to where you
are concerned about risking him. Exit the game and copy the
"Reel 2:pilot.dat" file somewhere to save it. Then if you die, copy
the saved pilot.dat file back to "Reel 2:" and you are in effect
resurrected back to that point in the game. Saving that file every few
successful missions can be a pretty effective cheat.
|
| 4090.6 | Battle of Britain cheat | READ::POMEROY | | Sun Sep 09 1990 16:12 | 25 |
| re: .5
>You really can save a game. Once you build up a character to where you
>are concerned about risking him. Exit the game and copy the
>"Reel 2:pilot.dat" file somewhere to save it. Then if you die, copy
>the saved pilot.dat file back to "Reel 2:" and you are in effect
>resurrected back to that point in the game. Saving that file every few
>successful missions can be a pretty effective cheat.
This works for Battle of Britain also. I run bob from my hard drive and
after every succesful mission or two I copy all pilots that I have used
(and campaign files) to a separate subdirectory. If a pilot dies you
can just copy him back. A couple days ago I found an even better way to
"cheat" in bob. I just load the pilots in CygnusED and resurect him.
Or, if you really want to cheat you just use the editor to juice up his
score/medals/rank/etc... I try to use it for resurrections only. The
advantage of this method over the previous one mentioned is that you
get to keep the score from the mission he died on. To do this, I think
it is the third byte or so. It should be an ASCII 1 if the pilot is
active. Captured, KIA are ASCII 2 and 3. In CygnusED these are inverse
B and C. just delete them and put in a ctrl-A to make the pilot active
again.
Bob Pomeroy
|
| 4090.7 | | LODGE::LEN | David M. Len | Sun Sep 30 1990 23:24 | 4 |
| Well, my character is rolling right along. He made Lt. Colonel, with 4
of the 5 medals. 88 missions with 65 kills.
How do you others like the U-boat bombing missions?
|
| 4090.8 | Quite FUN! | EEMELI::LINDEN | | Mon Oct 01 1990 04:42 | 10 |
| My character is doing fine too. I'm too Lt. Colonel, with 4 medals.
I have flown about 120 mission with 80-90 kills so far.... still
haven't seen the Red Baron....8+(
The bombing mission are quite fun, specially on the later missions,
were you get enemy planes too. Toughest mission so far I've flown
had 12 enemy planes against 4 planes of my own.... and I was the only
survivor after ditching down....8+(
-Kari-
|
| 4090.9 | | LODGE::LEN | David M. Len | Mon Oct 01 1990 16:05 | 14 |
| I wonder how accurately Wings follows WW I. Do the missions continue
until the end of the war? Was Barron von Ricktofen(sp?) killed in WW I ?
In my game the U.S. has not yet entered the war.
>The bombing mission are quite fun, specially on the later missions,
>were you get enemy planes too. Toughest mission so far I've flown
I was wondering why the machine guns were active in the bombing
missions.
The mission that I have found the most difficult (up to now) is
straffing a train with alot of AA guns around. Have you come up with
any way to avoid the AA fire?
|
| 4090.10 | No way! He's mine! | CGOFS::R_RYAN | I used to be a coyote but Im ok nowooo | Mon Oct 01 1990 16:25 | 3 |
| You can lose a kill if one of your buddies follows your prey down and
gets the last licks in before he hits the ground. This is a good way of
stealing a kill as well.
|
| 4090.11 | There is a purpose for Machine Guns!! | EEMELI::LINDEN | | Tue Oct 02 1990 06:15 | 14 |
| re: .9
>I was wondering why the machine guns were active in the bombing
>missions.
They are active, because in later mission when you are bombing enemy
planes will try to shoot you down! You can shoot those planes down,
although getting only unconfirmed kills(sorry no promotions).
-Kari-
PS: Those planes appear in bombing mission when you have flown about
70-80 missions(maybe earlier....can't recall exactly).
|
| 4090.12 | | LODGE::LEN | David M. Len | Tue Oct 02 1990 11:20 | 10 |
| re .11
I don't know if the fighter coverage on bombing is variable, but I just
hit mission 100 (where the U.S. finally enters the war), and I still
haven't seen any fighters.
I'm not sure how many vairables are taken into account for promotion,
but I think the number of successful missions is more important than
number of kills. One of my promotions was after a fighter mission
where I didn't get any of the kills.
|
| 4090.13 | Finished - but ready to go again. | NOMUNY::MILNER::R_BUCK | Input!..Need Input | Fri Dec 14 1990 00:09 | 14 |
| Better late than never, I just had to add my 2 cents worth.. WINGS is
my absolute favorite game yet on the AMIGA! Managed to finish it a few
weeks ago by playing 3 to 10 missions each evenings, saving the current
state of things after 2 or more successes, (hard drives are greatly
appreciated for this!).
Never was any good at the trench strafing. A couple of the bombing
missions were very tough to line up also. As I recall the worst
dogfight was me against seven of the enemy, which, much to my surprise,
I survived without going down. Seven confirmened kills in one mission.
As I recall I ended with 262 total kills.
Even though I have finished the game, I am ready to do the whole thing
over again. WINGS has that much quality and play value to me.
|
| 4090.14 | Mouse control... | SNOPLW::CARR | Guru: a 4-letter word to Amiga owners | Fri Feb 01 1991 13:54 | 17 |
| Re: .13
> Never was any good at the trench strafing. A couple of the bombing
> missions were very tough to line up also.
Can't remember whether the manual says this, but I've found that using
the mouse in the bombing and strafing runs gives me a lot more control
than the joystick. I kept finding that using the "pull back on the
joystick and hit the fire button" method to release the bombs always
released more than I wanted. To release with the mouse, just press
the right mouse button.
Am enjoying this game immensely. Cinemaware is to be commended for an
excellent job. At the rate that I'm completing missions, this game will
take me quite some time to complete.
-Dom
|