Aces of the Pacific

Moby ID: 1419

Description official descriptions

Dynamix/Sierra's answer to the Lawrence Holland Air Combat Trilogy. This game includes an incredible amount of aircraft and ships. In contrast to BattleHawks 1942, this game features ground attack missions and land-based aircraft in addition to anti-shipping strikes and carrier-based aircraft. You can fly for the US Navy, Army Air Force, Marines or Japanese Navy and Air Force.

You can fly in single missions (dogfighting, fighting famous aces, escorting bombers, etc.), or fly a career spanning major battles or the entire war. The game also offers several realism options including blackouts, weather effects, sun blind spot, no collisions, etc.

US aircraft featured: F4F-3, F4F-4, F6F, F4U, SBD, SB2C, TBD, TBF, P38F, P38J, P39D, P40E, P47D, P51D, B17D, B17E, B24J, B25D, B25J, B29A.

Japanese aircraft featured: A6M2, A6M3, A6M5 Zero, D3A Val, D4Y Suisei, B5N Kate, B6N Tenzan, Ki27 Nate, Ki43 Oscar, Ki61 Hien, Ki45 Toryu, Ki84 Hayate, Ki100, Ki21 Sally.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (DOS version)

87 People (66 developers, 21 thanks) · View all

Director of Publications
Supporting Director
Design
Production
Cover Design & Illustration
Illustrations & Maps
Writing and Research
"The Bob Squad"
Aircraft engine sound research
Technical Advice
  • Grumman Aircraft Corp.
Technical Consultants
Planes
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 10 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 28 ratings with 3 reviews)

AOTP leaves a lot to be desired.

The Good
The sheer amount of planes is amazing! I don't know of any other flight sim that comes close. Also, because you can fight on land and sea, it adds a whole dimension that Battlehawks 1942 didn't have. These advantages are mainly due to the fact that BH42 came out 4 years earlier, when harddrives were just becoming standard, so they couldn't put as many "goodies" in because of space constraints. The graphics are pretty nice. You can identify most of the US planes, and the clouds, blackouts, and sunouts are very nicely done.

The sound of the guns and also the rate of fire are better represented than they are in the Lawrence Holland Trilogy.

The Bad
So many things to list. First, the busywork of HAVING to take off every mission and not being able to engage the autopilot until 250 feet off the ground is very frustrating. It should just put you directly into the action, or at least make it optional.

Planes are just too hard to hit when they get in close. The guns are harmonized too far out. I guess this is for historical accuracy, but it's so frustrating!

The accelerate time function has to be accessed by pressing F10 and then moving a slider bar. This is way too inefficient.

The whole process of dive-bombing is next-to impossible. The ships don't show smoke or damage, so there's practically no way to know if you hit (unless you happen to catch the on-screen message that says you hit). After releasing your bombs, you always get shot down by a hail of AA fire, unless you press A to autopilot away (?!?!).

The US planes, allegedly far tougher and able to take lots of damage, are like paper airplanes... about 2 or 3 hits and your dead. Many Japanese planes can take more damage.

Once really nice thing about most other flight sims is that at the end of the mission you get to see what types of planes you shot down. At the end of the career or campaign, you can go back and look at how many of each type of plane you've shot down over your career. This game not only doesn't show you what you shot down during each mission (it just gives a total number of planes), but it keeps no career records. All you're left with is an anonymous number of total kills. This is very unrewarding.

Most of the Japanese planes look alike, so it's impossible to tell what type of plane you're flying against.

The mission recorder is really poor. When trying to position the camera, you can't move it vertically. For example, to move down, you have to tilt the camera down and move forward (down) until you get to the desired elevation, then tilt it back up. If they had just added an up/down control, it would've been sooo much easier to use.

The Bottom Line
Even though this game has a lot more planes to choose from than the Lawrence Holland Trilogy, it really falls short in most other areas. I can't recommend it.

DOS · by Raphael (1245) · 2000

It is the best

The Good
EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!

The Bad
NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bottom Line
I've read the bad review of this game and I think it is not true I would like to clear a few things up they are: In some missions You start in the air the ones that you start in the air are somtimes in:"Fly an historic mission","Fight an ace" and "Fight a squadron" in all times you start in the air.

'The whole process of dive-bombing is next-to impossible. The ships don't show smoke or damage, so there's practically no way to know if you hit (unless you happen to catch the on-screen message that says you hit). After releasing your bombs, you always get shot down by a hail of AA fire, unless you press A to autopilot away (?!?!).' this is not true i've done it before without pressing auto pilot to get away and unless you missed The ship is sure to smoke.

'The US planes, allegedly far tougher and able to take lots of damage, are like paper airplanes... about 2 or 3 hits and your dead. Many Japanese planes can take more damage.' This is beacause the japanese were better shots, Where you hit was nowhere vital so it could still fly.

'One really nice thing about most other flight sims is that at the end of the mission you get to see what types of planes you shot down. At the end of the career or campaign, you can go back and look at how many of each type of plane you've shot down over your career. This game not only doesn't show you what you shot down during each mission (it just gives a total number of planes), but it keeps no career records. All you're left with is an anonymous number of total kills. This is very unrewarding." Look in: "view pilot record".

'Most of the Japanese planes look alike, so it's impossible to tell what type of plane you're flying against.' this is because the were almost all based on the same design.

'The mission recorder is really poor. When trying to position the camera, you can't move it vertically. For example, to move down, you have to tilt the camera down and move forward (down) until you get to the desired elevation, then tilt it back up. If they had just added an up/down control, it would've been sooo much easier to use.' They do.

DOS · by ewan anderson (3) · 2003

If you're looking for an "arcade-like" sim, this one will do

The Good
I enjoyed being able to play both sides of the war. Being able to select what type of plane you wanted to fly was a nice touch also.

The Bad
It got very repetitive. I prefered flying the fighters and I really got frustrated near the end of the career (from April 1945 on) when the game forced me to fly the Avenger, a torpedo plane. It is really tough dogfighting with Japanese Zeroes in that plane and I hated the fact I had no choice but to fly it.

The Bottom Line
For my first WWII sim, I really enjoyed it (until the end). However, there are much better choices out there today.

DOS · by Spectre (126) · 2000

Trivia

CD-ROM

The CD-ROM version contains the Aces of the Pacific: Expansion Disk - WWII: 1946.

Sales

According to the magazine Retro Gamer, the game sold about 350.000 copies.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • November 1996 (15th Anniversary Issue) - #47 on the 150 Best Games of All Time list
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #58 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
  • PC Games (Germany)
    • Issue 01/1993– #3 Best Simulation in 1992
  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/1993 – Best Simulation in 1992

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Air Aces: Pacific
Released 2010 on Windows
Ace of Aces
Released 1986 on Commodore 64, DOS, SEGA Master System...
Aces of War
Released 2004 on PlayStation 2, 2007 on PSP
Pack of Aces
Released 1987 on Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
Aces of the Multiverse
Released 2019 on PlayStation 4
Aces of the Galaxy
Released 2008 on Windows, Xbox 360, 2021 on Xbox One
Aces of the Luftwaffe
Released 2009 on BlackBerry, 2013 on iPhone, 2015 on Windows...
Aces of the Deep
Released 1994 on DOS

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1419
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Raphael.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, MrX_Cuci, Patrick Bregger, Kennyannydenny.

Game added May 11, 2000. Last modified January 20, 2024.