- Site: WarBirds Dogfights
- Publisher: iEntertainment Network, Inc.
- Developer: iEntertainment Network, Inc.
- Genre: Simulation
By Brad Cook
It’s easy to get caught up in the moment when you’re in the cockpit of an authentic P-40 fighter plane from World War II. That’s where I find myself, a couple thousand feet above the Tunisian terrain, when a voice crackles over the speaker: “Bandit on your six.” The bullets rattling off my fuselage remind me that I better pay attention.
I bank hard to my left, losing the enemy and circling around to the rest of my squadron, which has already engaged in an intense dogfight. I can see why George Lucas used World War II aerial combat footage as his template for the battle above the Death Star in “Star Wars.” One of my wingmen completes a kill, sending the other pilot spiraling into the ground as smoke plumes from his aircraft.
Then the voice of iEntertainment Network CEO “Wild Bill” Stealey, a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel, pipes in: “We want to take you right into combat in Dogfights, rather than spending the time to fly there.” The P-40 is one of more than 100 historically accurate aircraft available for you to fly in over 40 missions that take place high above Europe, northern Africa, and the Pacific Ocean. WarBirds Dogfights’ dynamic mission engine ensures that no two aerial battles ever unfold the same way, thanks to artificial intelligence that reacts in unpredictable ways.
Ready for Action
I’m reminded of something else from “Star Wars”: Han Solo’s observation that “good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living? That’s something else.” That’s why Stealey and I are flying in one of the game’s online arenas, where dozens of combatants take to the skies in daily dogfights. However, unlike the single-player campaign, online combat is something you shouldn’t just jump right into.
“When you go online,” Stealey explains, “first we send you to the Special Training Arena, because we learned that new players get shot down very quickly in the regular arenas.” He pauses while getting a bead on an enemy plane; he litters one wing with bullets and a teammate finishes the kill. “In the Special Training Arena, all players are on the same side,” he adds. His team also created CheckRide and CheckOut training options: the former is aimed at experienced flight simmers who want to work on advanced tactics, while the latter is for those starting from square one.
You’ll want to finish one of the training options to access Free Flight in single-player mode. It lets you set a variety of parameters — everything from the difficulty level of enemy pilots to toggling invulnerability and unlimited ammo — before taking to the skies over a map of your choice. It’s a great way to practice your skills without worrying that you’ll let your wingmen down while playing online or taking on the stress of completing a campaign mission.
Chasing the WGFP
The single-player campaign’s 40-plus missions begin with basic one-versus-one or two-versus-two battles and progress into more intense dogfights. “You eventually get to mass missions with 50 or more aircraft all fighting each other,” Stealey remarks. “It can be very spectacular with all the explosions going off.”
The points you earn during those missions move you up the ranks, where the title “WGFP” represents the pinnacle of achievement. WGFP? Stealey and I guide our planes toward a quiet part of the arena so he can recall his story.
“I was a young Air Force Academy cadet back in the 60s,” he begins. “I was in a hotel bar, and an old man asked me ‘Are you old enough to drink, son?’ And I said ‘Yes, sir.’ So he tells me to sit down and he’ll buy me a drink. He tells me he was asked by President Eisenhower to be involved in signing the first nuclear weapons treaties with the Russians.
“So he’s in a room with all these people, and they’re putting ‘PhD’ and so forth after their names. When it came to his turn, he put ‘WGFP’ after his. After the third one, President Eisenhower pulls him aside and says ‘The Russians won’t keep signing these if you don’t tell them what “WGFP” stands for.’ And he said ‘Sir, I don’t have a PhD or anything like that, so I put “WGFP” after my name, which stands for “World’s Greatest Fighter Pilot.” Stealey laughs at the memory.
He adds: “We put WGFP in the game in honor of that guy: General Willy V. McBride, who admirably served his country in World War II and the Korean War.”
When you achieve the rank of WGFP, prepare for fireworks, literally. “It’s quite a sight,” Stealey says. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you are too.
Game Hardware
Check out our systems for your best gaming experience.
Nice Day for a Swim. Taking on the enemy at Midway.
Launching Into Action. An aerial battle begins.
In the Thick of It. Following my wingmen into combat.
Coordinated Combat
No WarBirds pilot should head online without a copy of TeamSpeak, free software that lets you chat with other players. You’ll need it to warn fellow fliers about enemy planes on their tails and coordinate your attacks.
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System Requirements:
- Mac OS X version 10.4.6
- 1GHz PowerPC G4 or Intel processor
- 256MB of RAM (512MB recommended)
- 128MB video RAM
- 1.5GB hard disk space
Flight Sims: An Uplifting History
Humans have been interested in flying ever since one of them first looked at a bird and wondered: “Why can’t I do that?” Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th century designs of flying machines are well-known; lesser-known are such achievements as Greek mathematician Archytas’ successful attempt to get a self-propelled flying device airborne during the fourth or fifth century BC (an exact date is unknown).
After flight became commonplace, the World War I and II eras saw the development of increasingly-sophisticated physical flight simulators that let militaries train pilots without unnecessary loss of lives and planes in the process. Modern flight simulators used in civil aviation and the military are complex machines that involve full cockpit mockups and screens that display realistic images of scenery, airports, and other planes.
In the computer industry, flight simulation software came out of Bruce Artwick’s mid-70s vision of using 3D graphics to create the illusion of being in the cockpit of a plane. His work led to developing a game called Flight Simulator, which was published for the Apple II in 1979. That title turned into Microsoft Flight Simulator, which debuted in 1982.
During the years since then, many flight simulators have appeared from a wide variety of publishers, including the World War I and II combat sims SkyFighters 1918 and OSX SkyFighters 1945 and the general-purpose flight sims FlightGear, X-Plane, and Fly! II. And don’t forget about other combat sims, such as F/A-18: OIF and WarBirds Dogfights’ cousins: WarBirds and Flyboys Squadron.
Stealey’s personal involvement in computer flight sim history began in the late 1970s, when his buddy Sid Meier challenged him to make a better game than the flight sim arcade game the two played while attending a business conference. In 1982, the pair founded MicroProse Software, which published F-15 Strike Eagle (1985), Night Hawk: F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0 (1991), and many other flight sims, most of which featured combat.