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MicroProse Project Stealth Fighter and Microsoft Train Simulator

Remembering some classic games

Author

Christian Cawley
July 13, 2024

Hello!

Welcome to the second edition of RetroGamerBase this week. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with it, and to those of you who shared the first edition.

As you can see from the contents list below, the second email of the week isn’t all about news. Instead, it’s a collection of articles and reviews.

Table of Contents

Night Strike! An evening with MicroProse Project Stealth Fighter

One night, I risked everything (well, homework) to strike missile bases in the Middle East…

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, western activity in the Middle East was largely (a couple of conflicts aside) represented by airstrikes. Some of these might have been launched from F-15 jets, and others by what we called “stealth fighters.”

Despite going on its first combat mission in 1983, the existence of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was not confirmed until 1988. Consequently, the rumoured plane - considered to be a fighter-bomber like the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II - was subject to considerable speculation. Did it look like a UFO? Half a Lockheed Blackbird (think the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox)?

What eventually transpired was a plane that looked a bit like a flying wedge. It looked futuristic, but the magic was gone.

Night manoeuvres

A few months later, and I was unpacking the contents of MicroProse Project Stealth Fighter for the Commodore 64. I bought this with birthday money in late December 1990, having received a 1541-II disk drive for Christmas. I bought the game from CHIPs, a Teesside-based computer game shop with branches in Redcar, Middlesbrough, Stockton, and probably a few other places - all long since closed.

Unboxing the game when I got home, I couldn’t believe what was squeezed into the box. Thanks to a review in a then-3 year old copy of CU Amiga magazine, I knew that the game featured a keyboard overlay. But I wasn’t prepared for the manual and maps.

I don’t think I played the game until the next day, having spent the rest of the waking hours reading the manual! What I do know, however, is that after pouring over the maps and practicing with a few daytime missions, I took the night missions very seriously.

One evening in January 1991, I finished my tea (evening meal), and loaded up Project Stealth Fighter. As the game loaded, I grabbed a lamp, placed it on the computer desk, and switched off the lights.

I was about to commence my first night flight!

Of course, we’re talking 34 years ago, so I can’t quite recall how it went. But I do remember it seeming atmospheric, despite the slow speed of the game. I was told that the game runs quicker on the Commodore 128, but I don’t know how true this is. I do know that a successful strike made putting up with the slow refresh rate a lot easier.

From memory, my target was a runway or missile battery in Libya. Back when this game was published, Libya was a key anti-Israel player in the Meditterranean and Middle East region, and a thorn in the side for the USA. Airstrikes had been carried out by US forces in 1986.

Project Stealth Fighter was released in 1987.

Flights and airstrikes

My entire 20th century computing was punctuated with flight sims. MicroProse’s earlier Solo Flight was memorable on the C64, as were later Amiga (also PC) titles like F-15 Strike Eagle II. At one point, 25% of my Amiga library was combat flight sims.

And then in 1998, I bought Microsoft’s Combat Flight Simulator for my dad’s Christmas present.

We probably glorified that impersonal nature of air combat and bombing back then. It seems odd looking back that what is essentially anonymous murder was turned into a video game.

On the other hand, military demand has underpinned and guided the development of technology for decades. This network you’re reading this newsletter on developed from a US Department of Defense project. Flight sims, first person shooters… they’re all used in military combat training.

They don’t pack boxes like that any more

Ethics and moral arguments aside, there is something amazing about digging out this game an examining the contents.

Four maps, two keyboard overlays (only one used), the original game disk, a 60-page manual, a supplementary guide, and even space for me to squeeze in two data disks.

Seriously, when did you last see a game box so fully packed?

I haven’t had the chance to load the game and examine my progress as yet. Curiously, my career with the game was pretty short. By the summer of 1991, we’d progressed to an Amiga 500, bought by my dad with some redundancy pay. I later moved onto F19 Stealth Fighter, and later F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0, both on the Amiga.

Both we good games, but neither had the same magic as the C64 game.

Don’t miss the Atari 2600+ Prime Day offer

If you’ve been holding out on the Atari 2600+, now is the time to strike. Amazon Prime Day (days?) is this coming week, July 16th and 17th, and one of the best retro gamer offers in the lead up to this massive sale is a 27% discount on the Atari 2600+.

Atari 2600+ replica console

This replica of the original Atari 2600 was released in November 2023 and can play Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 games. It ships with a 10-in-1 cartridge, with the games:

  • Combat

  • Dodge 'Em

  • Haunted House

  • Maze Craze

  • Missile Command

  • Realsports Volleyball

  • Surround

  • Video Pinball

  • Yars' Revenge

  • Adventure

A single CX40+ Joystick Controller is also included, designed to replicate the original (if uncomfortable) Atari joystick.

This is a great opportunity to grab this console for a surprisingly low price, so don’t miss it!

That game you forgot: Microsoft Train Simulator (2001)

If you ever dreamt of driving a steam engine, of raising and lowering pantographs dropping sand on the track or facing the loneliness of a long distance stint in the cab of a train, then Microsoft Train Simulator is for you.

Released in 2001, Microsoft Train Simulator gives the player the sought after opportunity to drive steam, diesel and electric locomotives across routes in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Coupling the technical basics with a realisation of the actual scenery en route, Microsoft Train Simulator does for trains what Flight Simulator does for aircraft.

With realistic sound effects and control mechanisms and task-based journeys, Microsoft Train Simulator is for anyone who never quite got what they wanted from Railroad Tycoon or A Train.

System requirements

Microsoft Train Simulator shipped on 2 CD ROMs and would run on a PC with a minimum CPU speed of 266 MHz with 64 MB RAM, a minimum of 500 MB of HD space, CD-ROM drive, and a 4 MB GFX card. All of that should be accomodated by a standard Windows XP virtual machine, which will also require 1.5 GB of storage for full installation of the game.

As with many retro XP titles, Microsoft Train Simulator benefits greatly from modern system hardware that really lets you get the best out of it.

Playing Microsoft Train Simulator

Control is via keyboard and/or mouse, configurable multifunction input device or by RailDriver, the specialist train sim controller for purists. Here’s a look at that piece of kit in action:

Most users will of course have a keyboard and mouse, and this option is absolutely fine. The tutorial is designed for keyboard and mouse users and proves a useful introduction to Microsoft Train Simulator.

As this is a simulation and not a straightforward game, Microsoft Train Simulator doesn’t really possess the usual difficulty, playability and addictiveness qualities. What it does possess however is a certain magnetism and fascination that will really only count for a potential wannabe train driver – those of you who stare wistfully at viaducts and wander in awe around railway museums.

There are a variety of tracks and routes to choose from, each with its own train. Different trains require a different process to get moving, and it is this variety that lends Microsoft Train Simulator the degree of authenticity that is always required by simulator games.

Various add ons and expansions were available for the game. Rail enthusiasts developed and published compatible maps and routes of some amazing parts of the world. Some of these are now more expensive than the base game.

Graphics

On top-end systems of the time, Microsoft Train Simulator looked good, and over 20 years later, the graphics have weathered well. They’re not perfect or representative of anything contemporary of course, but the scenery – whether the gorgeous Cumbrian countryside in the North of England or the slightly dusty plains of the Asian locations – is evocative of the actual locations.

The design of the various locomotives in the game is good, with a required solidity to the polygon objects racing through the countryside mixed with a more traditional bitmapped interior train control panel.

Sound

With a minimal set of sounds required, there isn’t a lot to be expected from this aspect of the sim. However the various horns and whistles certainly seem authentic, while the general train chugging sound is tailored for each of the engines in the game to be as close as possible as the real world version.

Microsoft Train Simulator’s various outside views showcase both the different view available in the game and the different sounds, and the realisation of the Doppler effect (the change in ton e of a sound as it travels close to the listener, past them and then away into the distance) is well executed.

Microsoft Train Simulator, or Open Rails?

Lined up alongside other train sims, Microsoft Train Simulator has the benefit of a household name and a superb team of developers behind it.

Microsoft Train Simulator might not have been the best train simulation around, but it was marvellous fun and a great way to get closer to the dream of driving a locomotive.

While Microsoft abandoned the software, your options for play are either a classic virtual machine (for Windows) or Wine (on Linux). Or, you can check out Open Rails, a freeware program compatible with Microsoft Train Simulator.

You can find Microsoft Train Simulator in charity shops/thrift stores, and on eBay.

Retro news you might have missed

It’s getting harder to keep up with retro gaming news. These five stories are among the most interesting as we head into the weekend.

That’ll keep you busy.

Retro gaming video of the week

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this, a work in progress of the Sonic Mania port for the SEGA Dreamcast by @SonicFreak94.

It’s running at 60 frames per second, and as you can see, looks amazing.

Game Over

Thank you for reading. Sharing this newsletter helps me to inform more retro gamers, so please forward to your friends, or post the link on social media.

Until next time, take it easy…

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