SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Interview: Jane’s USAF (Backstage)

"Gulf Knight": It all started when I purchased USAF after having the collection of all Jane’s Flight Simulations, and you could change and customize it to your specifications.

"Slikk": I always thought USAF was a great looking flight sim.

"COWAR": Like always, if I am in a store I look at the computer department around to get some information about new flight simulations. On this occasion I found USAF.

"Davide": I always loved combat flight simulation. In 1998 I tried Jane’s Longbow 2 and I found it great. So the following year when I saw a new game from the same software house I did not hesitate and I bought it immediately. After the installation I launched USAF for the first time and already during the intro movie understood that I would play a lot with this game. In fact it was so.

"Tommy29": My flight sim "career" started with some old DOS games Hind and Apache from DI. Next on the line was the F-22 Lightning game that led me to look for other sims with the ability to fly the F-104, A-4, F-105 Thud and the F-4 Phantom II and so I stumbled upon USAF.

Jane’s USAF (Backstage)

"No Fear": What made you want to modify the game?

"Gulf Knight": I always wanted to have a game that met my needs and specifications and have the plane that I want to fly. At the time it came out it was a new idea so Sim Flier didn’t have it, so it was a dream come true.

"Slikk": I always wanted a sim that I could make it my own so to speak, and when the DME became available I spent a lot of time learning it and then started modding the game.

"COWAR": I had some problems using the first release of Super Pro and I started working, making it better running on my older PC. Then I got more and more interested to change more things and at the end I did a complete overwork of the most parts of USAF, based on Admin 8.4 I think. The end product is MiniPro.

"Davide": When someone likes a game he wants more features. For example in USAF I liked to have more available aircraft to fly with and more weapons. I remember that I downloaded many aircraft and weapons from the Mcfly’s site and I put them inside USAF. In September 2006 I tried Super Pro and Mini Pro and I found in them a lot of aircraft and weapons so I told to myself: “I have to do something other here” and so I started to find a solution for the installation folder of Mini Pro and Super Pro. I wanted to install them in a folder different from the original one. Then I started to search [for] a way to install the various mods files without [having to] browse them manually. At last I asked myself: “Is it possible to build the quick missions files without them being inside the quick mission page of USAF?” And the answer was: “Why not?”

"Tommy29": I found, after a while, some sites on the web offering nice add-on planes and it was fun to see them flying. But I was annoyed to [see] an F-16 or F-4 modern cockpit on an A-4 Skyhawk or BAC Lightning. I really wanted to have the right cockpit as well on it so I started to look for cockpits, and as it became clearer that the ones I'm looking for did not exist I started to build them on my own.

Jane’s USAF (Backstage)

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