Knights Of The Sky - Microprose Software RRP œ34.99-œ40.99
               (Flight sim for ST, PC and Amiga)

                   Reviewed By James Judge

Lt. Colonel Jimmy sat back in his seat, sipping on his beer.  What
a day! He'd escorted a bomber over Hunland to Tournai and his
plane got away with only a busted rudder, knackered altimeter,
speedo, and engine. Better than normal when you thought about it.
The bomber hit all its targets and he had the chance to down
another 20 German planes.

Things were hotting up now the Germans had introduced their new
fighter, the Albatross D2 but with his Sopworth Pup he felt
invincible and he had a right to, being the ace of aces and all.
In just four months of flying he'd shot down 139 fighters (only
one of them was an allied plane), killed THE best German ace in a
dogfight and he'd just got his promotion and the Victoria Cross.
Gosh, his mum was proud.

He looked up from his magazine, what was that sound? A plane, but
none of his squadron was lined up for a mission until tonight.
That could only mean one thing....  an invasion! He dropped his
beer and magazine and rushed out of the bar which was strangely
empty for this time of day.

He shouted for the rest of his squadron, who came out of various
buildings around the aerodrome, and then rushed to one of the two
hangers. Taking a quick glance at the sky he could only see one of
the fighters but that was enough if it hit the hangers!

Jimmy grabbed a pair of goggles from the rack and told his
mechanic to start his plane as he hopped into the seat. Flicking
his engine on, the mechanic pulled the plane's propellers and the
plane growled into life. All along the hanger the same was
happening with the other planes.

Jimmy opened the throttle half-way and started to pick up speed as
he came out of the hanger, turning a sharp right to face down the
runway and then he opened the throttle all the way.

Skimming across the ground at 60mph he finally pulled up on his
stick when the end of the runway was only a few yards ahead. He'd
taken off on the wrong end, he knew but it was the quickest way
and he should be able to make it over the hills as long as he
didn't stall.

Gritting his teeth he pulled back on the stick as hard as he dared
and then the hills shot underneath him. Looking back he could see
the enemy plane nearly on the hanger, he must hurry! The other
planes were just starting along the runway as he pulled a sharp
left only 200 feet off the ground; bad move, he tipped over too
far and he stalled.

Yanking on the stick he managed to pull the plane out of the nose
dive. After a bit of twiddling and pulling he managed to get his
plane up far enough while manoeuvring his plane to face the
aerodrome and the enemy which was in a dive.  He put his sights on
the plane and pulled the trigger letting his Vickers do all the
talking that he needed.  He watched as a few bullets hit the plane
across its right wing but he obviously didn't do much damage so he
opened fire again watching as a steady stream of bullets and
tracers went arcing towards the Hun fighter and his ammo counter
steadily ticking down from 500.

Time and time again his bullets hit the plane but not until it had
released two of its four bombs did the plane finally burst into a
ball of flame and went thundering into the hills, roaring out
in its death cry as the final two bombs that were still on the
plane exploded.

Jimmy sped over the runway, looking down to see a maintenance
building go up and a section of runway being decimated, not too
bad but who knows what could have happened.

Five minutes later the whole squadron was back in the hangers and
the fire was under control.  No-one was harmed and the equipment
wasn't all that important, the planes would just have to be
treated with a bit more care until they could get some more parts
in.  Hmmmm, that didn't bode well for Jimmy's Pup.

                          ---

Knights Of The Sky is a flight sim from the masters of flight
sims, Microprose. I don't think there's anyone who could have put
such detail and atmosphere into a game, make it simple yet
enjoyable and have the lovely 3D graphics run as smooth as they
do, can you?

Having not played a flight sim before (thinking they were full of
boring alterations to the flight path etc.) I was extremely
pleased to receive this game as a prize from SynTax.

Sitting down I opened the box, wondering what wonders Microprose
had included with this and I was pleasantly surprised to see a
nice thin manual (for Microprose, anyway, only 103 pages long),
two disks, a full size map of the area concerned in the game and
the usual technical supplements.  Skimming through the manual I
figured out how to fly the planes and left all the important stuff
for later so I could get on with some serious dog fights.

The game is based on World War 1 where you play either a French or
British pilot who has just joined up. You've got the basic plane,
the lowest rank and no medals as well as not being an ace so, all
things considered, you're bottom of the pile.

There are three modes of playing in KOTS. The first is a campaign
where you try and survive the whole war, attaining the rank of
Colonel, as many medals as poss and, the most important of all,
the best flyer in all of the war.

The second is flight training where you get to fly any planes
(including the German fighters so you know what they are capable
of).  This mode is useful for learning how to fly, do tricks and
land.

The last option is to have a dogfight with any of the top German
aces from the infamous Red Baron who's the best flyer in the game
to lowly aces you meet at the start.

Amigas and PCs have the option to have a head to head with a
friend as long as you connect two computers up by either a
data-link or modem.

All three main options have five levels of difficulty with level
one for the beginners where you face thick pilots and you don't
crash, right up to level five where the pilots actually think and
do all the loop the loops you can imagine and there is a real
chance of crashing.

If you choose the campaign option you will start the war on May
1st 1916 and you must survive until September 11th 1918, quite a
large feat when you think you'll be flying a mission once every
eight to twenty days!

As the war progresses you get access to new planes, the trenches
move forward and backward, new aces come onto the scene, old ones
go off, you get promoted (if you do missions very well) and you
get medals (if you score very high).

The missions you will be given range from defending your aerodrome
to bombing and strafing enemy HQ and bursting observation
balloons. All very well but to actually get somewhere you face
enemy pilots (loads of 'em) and ground fire which has a range of
up to 18,000 feet which means you must fly either very high or
very fast.

Apart from these missions you can issue challenges to enemy aces
as long as you know where they are. Between missions you attend
parties and the old bar where rumours go around as to where the
aces are based or were last seen. If many reports come in from a
particular area you know there may be an ace there, if so you
could challenge him to a dogfight.  This challenging also works
the other way, if you are a threat to other aces they will
challenge you and tell you where to meet them.  Both of these give
you a disadvantage as you may be low on ammo and fuel when you
reach them. Life's never fair, is it?

Apart from being a good flyer you must be a good navigator 'cos
this IS the 1910s we're talking about so there's no heads-up
display, radars or even missiles. All you've got is a compass and
map and the compass may get broken so it'll be follow the road
time.

As a beginner to flight sims I can't say how this compares to
others except it has been awarded Format Golds left right and
centre and also I'm enjoying it immensely. It'll be something that
I can delve into for the odd half hour here and there, save the
roster and come back to at a later date without losing any
interest. Great is all I can say. I may even hang up my
adventuring hat and become a sim addict now... only joking, ha ha.

Thanks Sue.

@~Glad you enjoyed it, James! Has anyone else a review of a flight
@~sim for this section? If so, please sent it in.