F/A-18 Interceptor - In-depth Written Amiga Review With Pics

F/A-18 Interceptor

Amiga, 1988

Intellisoft/Electronic Arts

$49.95

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*Game best played in NTSC mode with 4:3 aspect ratio

It was a time that seems so long ago, a time of wondrous innovation in the computer field. When new games broke new ground, before endless yearly sports games, amounting to nothing more than roster updates being sold at full price. Before the DLC, before the franchise licenses and sequels, there was once a collection of electronic artists under one roof. These handful of artists were replaced with voluminous teams, and yet they still can't manage to release a game on time. You might recognize them, or perhaps you won't, for this was a time before they shortened their name to what they're known as today. Before EA sold their souls, they were once known as Electronic Arts, and they did their best work on the Commodore Amiga.

Jay Miner, having had the opportunity to try a military flight simulator, was fueled by the thought of bringing that experience to home users while he was working on the Amiga. A few impressive simulators had made it to the machine prior via ports, but it was F/A-18 Interceptor, an Amiga original, which knocked socks off. Indeed, even the father of the Amiga, Jay Miner, in an interview with Info Magazine, noted his favorite software for the Amiga was F/A-18 from Electronic Arts.

^Don't forget those awesome icons, main menu, zooming in

Programmer Bob Dinnerman, much like Miner, had been inspired by a military flight simulator. Purchasing an Amiga 1000, Dinnerman approached EA with a demo and they immediately commissioned him to complete a full game. From the moment you click on the icon in Workbench, you'll be immersed in atmosphere. A fast metronome tick gives way to a musical track you won't soon forget. It's said to have taken after the theme from Top Gun, but I had to look it up to see what everyone was getting at with that statement, as I can't say it jumped out as obvious from my memories of the movie. Think of it as the first few seconds of the movie track greatly expanded upon, and I dare say more memorable. While there's no music during actual gameplay, this song will play on repeat throughout the menu screens, and I'm betting you won't grow tired of it.

The main menu features several modes of play, including a demo, training, and mission mode. But I imagine the first thing most are likely to do, and perhaps the only thing for some, is enter into free flight mode. Select one of several starting locations in the San Francisco area, choose to fly either the F/A-18 Hornet, or the F-16 Fighting Falcon, takeoff, and have some fun. Controls, for the most part, are rather intuitive. Plus or minus will control the speed in short steps, while the function keys give bigger boosts. Pressing G will raise or lower your landing gear, T will target aircraft in range, F launches a flare, and so on. You'll figure out the majority of it without even grazing the manual, though a look will likely be required by the time you're taking on missions.
  ^Taking off from land, exploring San Francisco in free flight

Indeed, you can have a blast simply messing around, flying between buildings, diving under the Golden Gate Bridge, lazily taking in the view, or conducting a raid on EA headquarters. There are many landmarks around the San Francisco Bay area. Besides the Golden Gate Bridge, the Oakland Bay Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge (near EA) are shown. Alcatraz along with many other downtown buildings are also represented. Get much further than that, and the limitations start to show.

Flying to the east you'll eventually be transported from the 38th parallel to the 34th, where you will be unable to fly north or south, just east and west. Testing out the limits, I believe I was able to make it to around Georgia before running out of fuel. Despite there being a mission involving some F-16's defecting to the Soviet Union, you will also smack into an invisible wall at some point going west. There's probably little danger in encountering these limits during natural gameplay (other than perhaps the F-16 mission), as the Pacific coast itself is well represented.
^You can't play the missions unless you qualify for them

F/A-18 was originally intended to have Los Angeles represented as well. Pressing the zero key in free flight will transport you to the L.A. area with your jet on the grass. No buildings or airports have been implemented, but it's a nice ride back to San Francisco from here. The game owes all sensation of speed to the geographical area that's been chosen. The ocean, the bay, it's these larger bodies that are overwhelmingly responsible for the game being able to convey actual flight. The land itself is about as flat as it could come. This despite the fact that San Francisco has some of the biggest elevation changes any major city has to offer. Other than a select few hills, it's all flat land out there, and the buildings that are here largely won't be seen from the average height you'll be playing missions at.
^The Los Angeles area, the F-16 Falcon

So it's all up to the bay geography to make you realize you're flying at great speeds, and for the most part, that's all that's needed. Even on the standard Amiga 500 the game flies, and no reviews of the time said anything contrary to that. With today's speeds in mind, there's certainly a bit of choppiness to the game, but in NTSC mode, as designed, it's perfectly playable. Taking a dive below the Golden Gate Bridge, and especially the lower Oakland Bay Bridge, can still give you a rush from the other side of a monitor. Accelerators can of course speed it up if that's what you desire, but a warning to be careful with how fast you make it, because certain animations just don't look right when increasing the speed. Just because a game can go faster, doesn't necessarily mean it was meant to.
^First mission takes off from an airbase, landing

For those truly wanting to dive into the game, it's the missions through and through. A game could be considered by some as more of a toy without having a story or events to follow, or objectives to accomplish. The story is not particularly deep, but there's enough story within the few missions to make it all fun. It's September 1st, 1994, in an apparent World War III type scenario. The war part is not expressly spelled out, and is likely more of an "on the brink of war" type of situation based on the game text, but the Soviet Union attacking American soil from the perspective of the Cold War, I can think of no other reality than this.

Soviet aircraft are starting to show up along the coastline, and we're to investigate. But they'll be none of that at all until you've qualified to partake in these missions. To do this you "simply" have to takeoff and land on an aircraft carrier, specifically the storied USS Enterprise. Well, landing on an aircraft carrier is never exactly simple, nor routine, but you can certainly get the knack of it. I imagine there's a lot of people out there who were never able to get past the qualification, and thus never experienced any of the missions. I'd say those people are missing out if all they're doing is sight seeing, so I do have a few suggestions to make this part easier for you.

^Taking off from the Enterprise, our first combat mission

Takeoff and just pull down on the joystick, which pulls up on a plane. Go upside down for awhile, and continue pressing down where you'll line up perfectly with the center of the carrier. I like to keep my airspeed below 300 knots until I'm quite near to the carrier, where I then lower the speed more, hit the air brake, and pull up with the arrestor hook deployed. During the missions themselves, you'll have to learn how to properly navigate behind the ship, but this technique during qualification will hopefully eliminate one section of difficulty to the whole procedure.

Your first mission is a simple affair, there are reports of Soviet aircraft in the area, and you're to simply confirm this and head back, no need for bloodshed. All other missions will likely include combat. Dogfighting is usually a matter of getting a missile lock and firing. The further away from the target you are, the more of a chance they'll be able to dodge. If you're too close to the enemy, it may be even harder to get a hit, so maneuver away or try your luck with the five hundred round gun. The rules for them apply to you as well. Though the enemy seems to take far longer than it should to launch missiles at you, when it happens you're likely to get hit unless you take evasive actions. Hit the jammer, launch chaff or flares, and perform some maneuvers until the threat has passed.
^Air Force One being attacked by Mig's, or perhaps friendly fire, evading missile

Things escalate quickly, with the third mission involving Air Force One being attacked. Eliminate the enemy threat and escort the president's home in the air to safety. Or have some fun with it, I won't judge you. The objectives in some missions are not always clearly indicated. When two F-16's are making their way to the Soviet union, you're told you want to bring them back unharmed. I could only ever get one of the two to start following me back home, and that was after blowing his friend out of the sky. Upon bringing him back to an airbase, he just kept flying around, never landing. Destroying both F-16's was the only way I was able to complete the mission.

In the final mission, you're told you need to destroy a carrier/sub hybrid, the first and only ground target mission. You're thinking you have to sink it, but it's never going to go down. I believe you are able to win the mission by launching missiles at certain areas, and thus "destroying" it, but it will never disappear. In reality all you have to do is destroy a couple waves of Migs, and the mission will be won without ever taking a shot at the carrier. These unclear objectives can cause a bit of confusion when trying to conquer the game.
^Close up shot of an enemy Mig, skill shot with gun

There were a couple of missions I especially enjoyed this time around. One involves rescuing an ejected pilot floating around in the Pacific Ocean. This is actually an example of how the missions can change a bit the second time around. When you first come to this mission the pilot will be near the Farallon Islands. This location is an interesting challenge because the elevation of the main island means you'll need to consider it, less you crash right after dealing with the pilot. It's difficult to time the release of the rescue pod, for it must be quite close to the downed pilot in order to succeed. What I liked more about this mission is that when attempted a second time, the location of the pilot changes to the San Pablo Bay area. Where as prior you might have been able to deploy the rescue pod prior to facing enemy jets, this change in location meant it was a race to get to the pilot and deal with the enemy.

All of the missions change a little bit the second time around, but with the downed pilot, I found the circumstances especially engaging. The other example was the mission involving a possible nuclear tipped cruise missile. Originally the missile comes in low on the east side of San Francisco Bay, making its way toward an airfield. It's quite the chase, with full afterburners on the entire way to get there, an extremely challenging target to hit due to how low it's flying. The second time around it's smack dab in front of the Enterprise flying low to the Pacific Ocean. This time it takes a quick turn toward land, again making its way to an airfield. This was also the mission I remembered most as a kid. Each new mission can only be reached upon completing the previous one. My father had gone through the game already, so as a kid I'd just fool around in the various missions or fly around. It was this cruise missile mission, and the explosion caused when you failed which stuck with me most from my childhood. ^Ejecting, and the rescue pod mission

Graphically, F/A-18 was a stunner when it was released. It became a pack-in title in America and Europe, and I'm sure was responsible for selling many Amiga's. Fast running polygon graphics that at least in my eyes, are still impressive to look at when considering the time period. I was never all that impressed with many of the 3D games of the 1990's, which would add texture mapping to polygon graphics and walls. They were just not advanced enough at the time to pull that off in a good looking way, which generally caused me to wonder what the big deal was at the time, preferring 2D art, but also causing me quite a few headaches when playing them for extended periods. But these simple colored polygons were always cool looking to me. Primitive when looking at now? Sure. Still effective? Absolutely.

It's thrilling to be in front of my Amiga and change to the various external cameras, getting a good look at the jet and all the scenery. Ejecting is another memory forever etched in my mind from playing the game as a kid. While there's no real purpose to ejecting, as even if the mission objectives had been completed, you'll still be forced to replay the mission, that doesn't mean you won't enjoy your glide to the ground. Even today, the Golden Gate Bridge being rendered so accurately with 1985 technology is amazing.

The story concludes involving a fascinating technological feet, something that seems remarkably plausible, though perhaps not practical. It seems these Soviet Mig aircraft are able to operate in the area due to a submersible carrier hybrid, able to launch fighter craft when surfaced, but dive below the water for stealth. So forward thinking you can't help but wonder why it's not a real thing, but thinking deeper on the logistics you probably have your answer as to why. Upon completing this mission, you're simply returned to the main menu. As mentioned previously, you're able to play the missions again in a slightly altered way, but there's no true ending screens for you. As the game only features a bit more than a handful of missions, I can't say the lack of ending bothered me at all, and the remarkably unique concept that turns out to be the cause of all the problems really does leave you satisfied.

^Amiga F/A-18 VS MS-DOS Jetfighter, flying around San Francisco Bay

While technically "F/A-18 Interceptor" is an Amiga exclusive, diving deeper you'll find an interesting story involving an MS-DOS title. F/A-18 was developed by Intellisoft and published by Electronic Arts, much of the heavy lifting done by programmer Bob Dinnerman, but certainly a joint effort between the two. Reading a news article shortly after the release of F/A-18, which noted EA had completely sold out of its first run of the game, the writer said add-ons were planned but they wouldn't be going through EA to distribute. In fact, no sort of expansion or sequel would ever come out on the Amiga. Intellisoft would become no more, and a new company, Velocity, with the same members, would rise in its wake. In 1989, Velocity, with publisher Broderbund, would release Jet Fighter for DOS, and as far as I can see, it IS F/A-18.

The rumor mill at the time seemed to believe Dinnerman, seeing the success of his title, decided to go out on his own. That doesn't seem to quite fit, as why would Broderbund, every bit as massive as EA at the time, publish the new game? I'm wondering if perhaps the deal between Commodore and EA, which made F/A-18 a pack-in title for the Amiga, may not have shared any of the proceeds with the game's designer. This might explain the departure from EA and why Dinnerman would never be involved in another Amiga game. Jet Fighter II, the 1990 sequel, I'm sure could have been ported to the Amiga if desired, but it was not. Then again, with the original Jet Fighter likely using the same code as F/A-18, why didn't EA, owner of the property, put a stop to it all? No idea, and this is all pure conjecture, but I would hope somebody might ask not only Dinnerman about this someday, but people involved with EA at the time as well. 

^Only Defcon 2 for a cruise missile on American soil? Carrier/sub hybrid, boom

In terms of comparing F/A-18 and Jetfighter, I would say that other than the graphics and sound of Jetfighter, I imagine this is what F/A-18 was intended to be, or was to become through expansions. There are many added missions along with buildings, not only in San Fransisco, but in L.A. as well, which is now a playable area. Certain things have been tweaked or altered, like the cockpit dash, and the focus has changed to the F-14, though the F-18 and F-16 are still selectable. The carrier has changed from the Enterprise to the Constellation, these minor alterations likely to avoid legal trouble with EA I would imagine. Despite these added features, there's really no getting around the graphical degradation due to the EGA color palette, and especially the PC speaker sound. The sound in Jetfighter is utterly atrocious. The constant ringing of the engine noise is more than enough to steer people clear of the game. Sometimes the ports can add or make things better, but sometimes less can be more, and I'd give first place awards to F/A-18 on the Amiga.

F/A-18 occupies a middle ground in terms of simulations. The hardcore sim addict who wants a flight manual to go along with their flight sim is unlikely to respect this game. The arcade junkie who wants nothing but fast action and lots of combat is also unlikely to respect this game. It's certainly more simulation than it is arcade, but it stands somewhere in the middle. Personally I feel this middle ground area is the perfect place to stand, not only as a flight simulator, but in terms of gaming in general. It is this combination of realism and fun which have long been the people's favorite games. These types of games often times long occupy best sellers lists. Wing Commander, Interstate '76, the Jetfighter series itself only dying in 2015, interestingly when they decided to go more toward an arcade type of game. Worthy to note that the Microsoft's Flight Simulator, about as simulation as you can get, was last released in 2014. These types of middle ground games, while often times not getting the respect they deserve, stand above all others in my eyes.

Reviews of the time period were overwhelmingly positive, I could find no English speaking reviews which noted the game as anything but great. As a budget release in Europe several years later, it was noted as having lost nothing with age. In 1988 Amiga World named it the best ever simulation on the Amiga, and overall the seventh best ever Amiga game. In 1996 Computer Gaming World named it the eighty-seventh best game of all time. Indeed, F/A-18 has lost very little, if anything, with age. When played on your Amiga, you'll simply have a blast. It's an iconic system title, challenging but a blast to conquer, you will not regret your time spent with this one. I hope you'll check out my video review of F/A-18, where I show off many magazine reviews of the time, show off extras like an interview with Jay Miner, compare the game to Jetfighter, read from the manual, and further discuss some tactics. Readers of this review may also appreciate my review for Wing Commander or Interstate '76, two games combining simulation with arcade in a delightful manner, Marble Madness, another EA game, or perhaps Out of this World, which is a polygon based game on the Amiga.

*My video review for F/A-18 Interceptor
*Next article

*Previous article

*Alphabetical list of writings