Birds of Prey

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Description

Birds of Prey is a flight simulation set in a fictional battle between the Soviet Union (B-side) and the Nato + allied (A-side).

The player can fly up to 40 different planes and also control the whole battle campaign.

Aircraft available for A-side:
• BAe Hawk Mk.66
• BAe Hawker Siddley Harrier GR. Mk 3
• Boeing B-52H Stratofortress
• Boeing 747-400 Jumbo Jet
• Dassault-Breguet Mirage F.1E
• Dassault-Breguet Rafale A
• Fairchild A-10A
• General Dynamics F-111
• General Dynamics F-16
• Grumman F-14A+ Tomcat
• Grumman X-29
• Lockheed C-130H-30 Hercules
• Lockheed F-104S Starfighter
• Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
• Lockheed TR-1A
• Lockheed F-117A
• McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II
• McDonnell Douglas F-15E Eagle
• McDonnell Douglas KC-10A
• McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A Hornet
• North American X-15A
• Northrop F-5E Tiger II
• Northrop F-20A Tiger Shark
• Northrop B-2 Stealth Bomber
• Panavia Tornado F Mk.3 (ADV)
• Rockwell B-1B
• SAAB JAS-39 Gripen (Gryphon)

Aircraft available for B-side:
• Antonov AN-124 Condor
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed N
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 Flogger G
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat E
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-27 Flogger J
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 Fulcrum A
• Sukhoi Su-21 Flagon F
• Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer D
• Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot
• Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker B
• Tupolev Tu-95 Bear G
• Tupolev Tu-26 Backfire B
• Yakovlev Yak-38 MP Forger A

The player is required to select one side 'A' or 'B' in the conflict, and keep the save game for each pilot on a separate floppy.
Each pilot you can fly different missions and aircraft, but only those from your own side.

The player character flies from three land bases and two aircraft carriers on each side, and these bases can be damaged in several ways by enemy action, making them unavailable until repaired and reducing the available aircraft in the campaign.

Mission types are:
• air intercept
• air superiority
• long range bombing
• bomber escort
• close support and ground attack
• border or sea patrol
• reconnaissance
• troop drop
• supply drop
• stealth bombing
• stealth reconnaissance
• test pilot

An autopilot mode is available for longer cruises, if the enemies are far off. The 'test pilot' mission involves flying the X-15/X-29 and is not a part of the campaign.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "ציפורי הפלדה" -- Hebrew spelling
• "Hawk" -- Working title
• "F-117A Aggressor" -- Working title

Part of the Following Groups

• Aircraft: A-10 Thunderbolt II
• Aircraft: B-1 Lancer
• Aircraft: B-2 Spirit
• Aircraft: BAE Systems Hawk
• Aircraft: Civilian
• Aircraft: Dassault Rafale
• Aircraft: F-104 Starfighter
• Aircraft: F-111 Aardvark
• Aircraft: F-117 Nighthawk
• Aircraft: F-14 Tomcat
• Aircraft: F-15 Eagle
• Aircraft: F-16 Fighting Falcon
• Aircraft: F-4 Phantom II
• Aircraft: F/A-18 Hornet
• Aircraft: Grumman X-29
• Aircraft: Harrier Jump Jet
• Aircraft: MiG-21 Fishbed
• Aircraft: MiG-29 Fulcrum
• Aircraft: North American X-15
• Aircraft: Northrop F-5
• Aircraft: Panavia Tornado
• Aircraft: Saab JAS 39 Gripen
• Aircraft: SR-71 Blackbird
• Aircraft: Su-25 Frogfoot
• Aircraft: Su-27 & Su-33

User Reviews

A great flight sim that absorbed many, many hours of my youth	Amiga	Rob Cranley (9)
A detailed, very realistic flight sim where you can fly 40+ different planes from NATO and Soviet Air Forces.	Amiga	Peter Tracey (3)
Jack-of-all-trades, master of none	DOS	Crispin Anderton (3)

Critic Reviews

Play Time	Amiga	Feb, 1992	92 out of 100	92
Amiga Joker	Amiga	Feb, 1992	87 out of 100	87
Pelit	Amiga	Jan, 1992	83 out of 100	83
Amiga Power	Amiga	Jan, 1992	81 out of 100	81
Datormagazin	Amiga	Feb 27, 1992	70 out of 100	70
Power Play	Amiga	Feb, 1992	61 out of 100	61
Play Time	DOS	Oct, 1992	60 out of 100	60
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	Amiga	Feb, 1992	5 out of 12	42
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Amiga	Jan, 1994		40
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	DOS	Jan, 1994		40

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Trivia

Delayed release

The game was intended to release much earlier. Argonaut started to work on the game in 1988 (first with no working title, later the game was named Hawk), they even started a six part development diary in the UK magazine The Games Machine in 1989 (issues #15, #16, #18, #19 and #20), all claiming a near release. Some more times the game was announced as nearly completed in the next year, but the final release was delayed until 1991, for which the game was renamed to the release title Birds of Prey.

Development tools

As the Devpac assembler, which was used at Argonaut, turned out to be too slow for such a big project, taking 15-20 Minutes for creating the game from code, Argonaut was looking for a better development tool. They didn't moved to a PC cross-assembling platform which many other companies did at the time, but developed their own assembler "ArgAsm" ("Argonaut Assembler"). It turns out to be up to 10 times faster then Devpac. This side product of the game development was then sold as a commercial development tool.

Sequel

Even before the release of the game, publisher Electronic Arts asked Argonaut to develop a sequel, which the development company rejected, as they preferred to develop for the Nintendo consoles Gameboy and Super Famicom. Therefore a sequel was never in development.