Home of the Underdogs
About News FAQs Contact HOTU GoogleGroup Music Manuals
Category Applications Action Adventure Education Interactive Fiction Puzzle Role Playing Games Simulation Special Sport Strategy War




Support the EFF
Welcome How you can help
Browse Games
Welcome Random Pick
Welcome By Company
  Welcome By Theme  
Welcome By Alphabet
Welcome By Year
Welcome Title Search
Welcome Company Search
Welcome Designer Search
Recommended
Welcome Freeware Titles
Welcome Collections
Welcome Discord
Welcome Twitter
Welcome Facebook
Welcome File Format Guide
Welcome Help: Non PC Games
Welcome Help: Win Games
Welcome Help: DOS Games
Welcome Recommended Links
Site History Site History
Legacy Legacy
Link to Us Link to Us
Credits Thanks & Credits
Abandonware Ring

Abandoned Places

dungeoncrawlers.org

Creative Commons License


Game #416
Hall of Belated Fame Inductee  Flight of The Intruder    View all Top Dogs in this genre
Simulation   Flight - Military

Rating: 8.5 (57 votes)

Flight of The Intruder box cover

Flight of The Intruder screenshot
Flight of the Intruder was yet another sim ahead of its time. This sim features things that we now just take for granted like multiplayer, a mission planner, multi-flight missions (with ability to switch planes during missions) etc.

The game, inspired by the popular novel of the same name, takes you to Vietnam in 1972 during the Linebacker bombing campaign: A campaign that could have given a favorable conclusion of the Vietnam War to the US (this is the last sim dedicated to Vietnam War; USNF '97 does include a Vietnam campaign as a sort of "add on", so does USAF, but still these sims are not specifically dedicated to this war). Here you can fly the A-6 Intruder or the venerable F-4 Phantom. This sim models the intricacies of the Vietnam War quite well. For example, the ROE (Rules of Engagements) sometimes demands that you visually identify a bogey, a practice that practically takes away the Sparrow advantage carried by the Phantom. Ignore this, and you may end up in a court martial! Mission procedures, like setting up a bomb run in the A-6 are also painstakingly modeled here. Even the use of a "bull's eye" in order to refer to a certain point on a map is implemented here. Such a feature only reappears, as far as I can remember, in Jane's F-15 more than 6 years later. However, like other sims developed by Spectrum Holobyte and Rowan in those days (Falcon 3 and Mig Alley come to mind), the game is highly tunable to suit your preferences (yes, you can turn off the ROE, too!).

The manual is also a work of art, including everything you need to know to play the game, and also other things lik ae brief history of the Vietnam War, technical references for the planes modeled in the game, etc. This is something that greatly enhances the atmosphere, but nowadays seem to have less and less importance to game developers.

Flight of the Intruder is highly recommended to people who are interested in the Vietnam War, people who enjoy the book (or movie) and in general people who enjoy good flight sims. In short, a sim that belongs to the Great Flight Sim Pantheon, along with names like Falcon 3.0 and Falcon 4.0.

Reviewed by: Iwan
Designer: Rod Hyde
Developer: Rowan
Publisher: Spectrum Holobyte
Year: 1990
Software Copyright: Rowan
Theme: Historical
Multiplayer:  
System Requirements: DOS
Where to get it:
Related Links: MiGMan's review
Links:    
If you like this game, try: Thud Ridge, F-29 Retaliator, Reach for The Skies

© 1998 - 2024 Home of the Underdogs
Portions are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Please read our privacy policy.