B-24

aka: B-24 - Flight Simulator - Combat Simulator
Moby ID: 13225
DOS Specs

Description official description

A simulation of WW2 air-warfare in which the player flies a B-24 as part of the 460th Bomber Group missions to Ploesti in Romania. The game operates on several levels, and the player will be required to act as a pilot, copilot, navigator, engineer and bombardier at different stages of each mission. The performance of your B-24 influences the effectiveness of your Group, Wing and ultimately the Air Force itself. B-24 is a simulator with a difference - you control your bomber (and the Group) from a top-down perspective rather than from a 1st person perspective.

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 60% (based on 2 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.1 out of 5 (based on 4 ratings with 1 reviews)

B-24 is a unique, challenging, and aggravating game: a flight and war simulation with a top down perspective.

The Good
One of B-24’s greatest strengths is that it has a very good flight engine. When compared to its contemporaries (e.g., Battlehawks 1942), one might argue the engine was the best of its day. Playing the game involves absorbing an enormous amount of detail. Ever play a flight simulator that accounts for the effects of air temperature on lift? If you’ve played B-24, you have. If you’re losing oil from an engine, better feather it before all pressure is lost, or you’ll have a lot of drag to deal with. The indicated air speed, flap settings, pitch and bank attitudes, battle damage, landing gear position, and weight all affect stall speed. Weight alone is affected by your bomb-load and how long you have been flying (and consuming fuel).

Details abound in other areas of game play as well. For example, the condition of a bomber affects how fast the bomber can fly. The speed of a bomber will affect its ability to stay in a tight formation with other bombers. The ability to stay in tight formation will affect whether or not bogeys decide to attack a particular formation or bomber.

A definite strength of the game is its dynamic campaign – the success of each mission will affect the play and outcome of subsequent missions. This is an astounding capability for a flight or war simulation of this vintage.

The most obvious feature of B-24, however, is its unique perspective – it is a top down flight simulator that reflects the fact that a bombardier and a flight engineer on piston prop bombers worked on the design and programming of this game. Pause for a moment and think about how a bombardier views the world, and a top-down perspective suddenly makes more sense.

A good manual and an excellent, informative map is included with the game.

B-24 also includes role-playing elements, giving players responsibility over the welfare of an entire flight group, and not just one crew. Leadership elements come into play – you have to keep the morale of your flight group high, and keep enough planes serviceable to go on the next mission. You have the ability to stand down on certain missions if your flight group needs a recovery period.

One of the highest forms of praise that I can give this game is that it gave me a truly heart-pounding experience. Coming in for a landing after a tough mission, I was on the edge of my seat, with my attention riveted to the screen. I don’t think I’ve had such a hair-raising experience since first playing Wolfenstein 3D.

The Bad
With so much going for the game, you might think B-24 would be an instant classic and a game loved by legions of players. Sadly, it’s just not so. The truth is that the top down perspective, while interesting, does not always work. It’s at its best when you are navigating through the map, skirting mountain ranges, and lining up for a bomb run. It’s woefully inadequate at other times, and is at its absolute worst when you are trying to land.

The inability to save a mission in progress is very regrettable. B-24 is challenging, and it is more likely you will crash your bomber at the end of your first few missions than it is you will land successfully. A saving grace is that after you crash, if you do not survive or are not rescued, you can reassume duties as a different pilot in the group, and still continue with the campaign.

The graphics are sparse and clearly reflect a design decision to emphasize the flight and war engine behind B-24 rather than eye-candy. However, a few improvements in graphics would have helped the game-play enormously. For example, when enemy aircraft attack you get a very simple animation of aircraft approaching. However, there are no graphics depicting what happens next - you simply get a quick message across the bottom of your screen saying “Bogeys pass” if they decide not to attack. When enemy aircraft strafe, you see “Bogeys attack.” When a B-24 is lost from your flight group, another message is displayed, but there are no visual cues to these events.



The Bottom Line
Is B-24 a good game? Yes. Is B-24 a great game? No. However, it has earned a place in my heart because of the designers’ attempts to do something truly different (a design that, to my knowledge, has not been attempted again). If I was writing a book on the history of computer games, I’d include a sidebar on this interesting but ultimately neglected piece of gaming history.

DOS · by Les Nessman (265) · 2005

Trivia

Development

A veteran B-24 bombardier and a veteran flight engineer on a B-29 were designers and programmers of this game. Two men who saw action in the skies of WW2 and Korea decide, in the twilight of their lives, wrote a computer game that simulates some of their experiences.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Les Nessman.

Apple II added by CygnusWolfe.

Additional contributors: formercontrib, Patrick Bregger.

Game added May 11, 2004. Last modified September 28, 2023.