Chuck Yeager's Air Combat

Moby ID: 108
DOS Specs

Description official description

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat is a flight combat simulation. Fight over 50 missions with Chuck Yeager's advice on your side. You can use the mission builder to create your own missions if the history-based missions don't offer enough challenge. Replay modes let you fast forward and rewind through a recorded battle, including a 3-D "cube" visualization that helps analyze what happened.

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Credits (DOS version)

21 People

Lead Design
Lead Programming
Programming
Graphics / Artwork
Music
Sound
Art Director
Documentation
Producer
Project Manager
Technical Director
Writing / Dialogue / Story
Playtesting
Quality Assurance
Package Design
  • Zimmerman Crowe Design
Package Illustration
Documentation Layout
Manual Color Illustrations
Additional Illustrations

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 12 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 35 ratings with 5 reviews)

If you can get past the plain vga graphics, this game is still a lot of fun 8 years later.

The Good
Everything. The action is fast-paced, and if you turn up the AI, the computer can really put up a good fight. Runs fine on a 286!

The Bad
Not much, looking at it now, the vga graphics and midi music are a little dull compared with what we have almost ten years later.

The Bottom Line
Great gamplay that runs on almost any machine.

DOS · by Aquaman (53) · 1999

My definition of "early air combat game".

The Good
I'm a huge fan of air combat games and flight simulators - as I am training to be a pilot (hobby, not career) and I can safely say that this is a brilliant game. The main aspect of its brilliance is the sheer customizability included. You can make your own missions with a large amount of different parameters, aircraft, etc. Also the historical missions are very good and definitely make a great attempt to capture Chuck Yeager's experiences with help from the man himself; which brings me onto the fact that the game has accurate physics, due to Yeager's input on the subject.

The Bad
What I didn't like were the graphics - OK, this is a 1991 game, but still not a huge fan of the blocky textureless planes we have and I also find the sound to be quite depressing - Either internal PC speaker drones which are arguably BETTER than the sound blaster racket that you could get. Also would like there to be more planes - half of the aircraft you see in Chuck Yeager's Air Combat are not playable!

The Bottom Line
Good game for its time and this is my definition of "early air combat game" - It paved the ground for all the upcoming games based on this genre, and is still a great game to experience now, 15 years later! Get it!

DOS · by Quackbal (45) · 2006

One of the most perfect air-combat sims ever made.

The Good
CYAC is about air combat, pure and simple. You can quickly design your own missions to fly, or jump into over 50 historically-accurate missions across three war periods (WWII, Korea, and Vietnam), some of which were recounted by Chuck Yeager himself.

The handling of the planes is perhaps why CYAC is still played by die-hard sim fans today--it's accurate. Not perfect-down-to-the-last-detail accurate, but most planes just feel right. So "right", in fact, that your success at achieving certain mission objectives depends on knowing what you plane can and cannot do. (Not only are each plane's specifications listed in the manual, but you can bring up a window with a real-time flight envelope to see how and why your maneuvers are stressing the plane!)

Unlike most celebrity endorsements that are shamelessly used to sell a product, Chuck Yeager worked closely with the designers to make the simulation more accurate. His experience in actually flying all of the planes contributed to how they feel in flight and combat, and also helped design certain aspects of the simulation itself (the addition of clouds, for example, was something Chuck insisted on, since they can be used to a tactical advantage).

Speaking of which, the simulation was very well coded: Brent Iverson's graphics routines are extremely well-optimized. The game is perfectly playable on a 286 with VGA, and is mostly playable on an 8088 if the details settings are turned down. The 3D plane models are simple enough to be drawn quickly, but complex enough that they don't look like flying bricks. In addition, there is a VCR-like replay feature that lets you not only replay several minutes of action and save/load them to/from disk, but you can change the camera angle/zoom/viewpoint. For example, you can switch to the enemy's point of view during playback to see how he snuck up on you!

Finally, the documentation that comes with CYAC is exquisitly detailed, with over 150 pages of full-color plates, quick tutorials on air combat maneuvers, a quick-start that shows you the basics, and a full history of war in the sky. The manual significantly adds to the game's value.

The Bad
There are only two things wrong with CYAC: weak campaigns, and no multiplayer support. The lack of multiplayer support is a real shame, since not only does CYAC provide a great vehicle (no pun intended) for dogfights, but the Macintosh port does support multiplayer, even over a network! Come on, Brent, what happened?

The Bottom Line
Even today, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat has one of the best "feels" of any combat sim. Since it runs perfectly on any speed machine, you owe it to yourself to give it a whirl.

Let's put it another way: I was not a fan of flight combat simulations until I played Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. I think that says it all.

DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 1999

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cancelled Amiga version

The planned Amiga version was never completed, although Birds of Prey (also from Electronic Arts) did many of the same things on that system the same year.

OEM version

A special edition was bundled with the Gravis UltraSound in 1993. This version featured a whole new soundtrack intended to show off the capabilities of this sound card. The music used custom samples instead of the standard MIDI instrument set.

Speech

The starts with a digitized message from Chuck saying "Welcome to Chuck Yeager's Air Combat". There are other digitized lines by him such as: "Remember, it's the man - not the machine" which are played after a mission and give feedback about the completion and success rate.

But hidden in the game are some other digitized snippets from the actual game designers, such as:

"Welcome to Brent Iverson's Air Combat"

"Welcome to Paul Grace's Air Combat"

"Welcome to Cynthia Hamilton's Air Combat"

"Hi mom!"

"Oh my." (Spoken by Chuck Yeager)

These snippets were found by decompressing the sound library and picking at it. It is unknown if here is a legitimate way to get the sounds to play, however, such as starting up the game on someone's birthday, or a holiday.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue).- #35 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list

Information also contributed by Fire Convoy, Martin Smith, Olivier Masse and PCGamer77

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  • MobyGames ID: 108
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Trixter.

Macintosh added by SiliconClassics.

Additional contributors: Patrick Bregger.

Game added May 5, 1999. Last modified March 4, 2024.