SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Feature: Strike Fighters Revisited

Beautifully rendered A-4 Skyhawk flying over the fictional desert terrain of Dhimar. Bombs away – unfortunately no ground explosions, etc. with the initial release.

First “Official” Release

The first official release took place in October 2002, again under the auspices of Strategy First, and in retail stores such as EB Games for $39.99. What did you get for your 40 bucks? Nine beautifully rendered player flyable aircraft (A-4B, C, E; F-4B, D, E; F-100D and F-104G), and 12 AI only aircraft (An-12BP, B-57B, C-130A, IL-28, MiG-17F, MiG-19S, MiG-21F, MiG-21MF, MiG-21PFM, O-1E, Su-7BM and Tu22K). These flew over a reasonably textured desert terrain of the fictional nations of Dhimar and Pirani.

The office of the A-4.

Why a fictional desert terrain and not the actual middle east? Well, we’ll turn to Major Ken Lee, part of the original dev team, for the answer:

“TK did not want people trying to restrict his, and our, flight simming into some narrow historical arena. There aren't a lot of extensive air battles from which to choose in the Middle East... Besides, if TK made all the cool stuff, what would be left for the hobbyist flight simmer? TK wanted to provide a robust core, expand it's features and capabilities, then allow the community to build what they wanted. SF is well on its way to becoming "World Air War: Anywhen, Anywhere"...

Given these factors, TK did not want a historical OOB and ROE set... TK wanted an open sim that catered to the flying hobbyist community... TK was very much aware of the efforts, that continue to this day, of the EAW community. Game modding has become the hobby of choice for many men. TK wanted to provide the means to facilitate this growing hobby. I believe SFP1 has certainly fulfilled this potential quite well.”

Truer words have never been spoken!

With Dhimar being a Client State of the West, and Pirani a Client State of the East, dozens of different objects from the arsenals of both Blocs littered the fictional terrain. T-54 and M-48 tanks, M-113’s and BTR-152 APC’s, Triple A and SAM’s aplenty, and plenty of objects to blow up (including the dreaded Comm Building!).


A T-54 and M-48, some of the ground objects in the initial release.

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