20 years since Air Warrior, Warbirds, etc.....

[Brooke]

By the way, the early map for Air Warrior was like this, and was about 1.5 sectors by 1.5 sectors (using AH sectors) in size.  Air Warrior sectors were 12 miles by 12 miles (compared to our 25 miles by 25 miles).



Later, it looked like this, still small by our standards:

[bustr]

In 1988 my roommate played Air Warrior. He was Damnd sldr. I would fire up his PC when he was out and play on his account. By 93 he and I worked for Sound Blaster's biggest competition Media Vision. By that time my AW time was paid for by the company along with equipment from our partner Thrust Master to test out. Media Vision wanted me testing sound cards in the game so I could do support calls if any came in.

Around that time 999000 met my squad "The Thunder Riders" when we were checking out a report of an interesting bug. If you flew a spit9 upside down behind a B17 the gunners couldn't shoot you down. 999000 promptly shot all 6 of us down. He has been shooting me down for a very long time.......I still think he was the source of that spurious bug info just to pad his kills score.

And in AW2 I met a really hot stick named deadf. We used to go at it, him in an La5 and me in a spit9.

A shade of sldr, bstr, b_str, mduce, bustr.

[Zoney]

I was Zoney back in Air Warrior days and flew it for many years.  I had way too may bills above 500.00 and then they finally went to a monthly subscription, thank goodness.  I flew with Deth7 back in the day in the Pigstompers Squadron.  We Kill No Swine, Before It's Time!

[FLOOB]

Do you guys think the gameplay in AW was more fun than AH?

[Brooke]

Do you guys think the gameplay in AW was more fun than AH?

Air Warrior was awesome for its time and great, great fun, but Aces High is even better.

[bustr]

By AW3 and AWMill it got to be a lot like AH is now with all of the professional fight evaders who use alt as ACM to HO and run away at 500mph+. I suspect the players with ability and the willingness to fight had left for WB or FA by then. I was getting the sense parents were using AW to babysit their amoral little monsters. But, then we have grown men 30-50+ today who act the same way. So I could have been mistaken back then.

[Ack-Ack]

Do you guys think the gameplay in AW was more fun than AH?

Quite honestly, both the same game play wise.  Even the communities are pretty much the same and the same complaints you hear about AH's community or game play were the same exact complaints you heard in AW.

ack-ack

[Patches1]

I actually did play AW for a few sorties back in the '90s (I think my handle was 'Flames'), but I could not afford the cost at the time, and I actually almost bought the original "Warbirds" when it was entitled, "Confirmed Kill". I saw it on the shelf of a business that was going out-of-business, but again, I could not afford the cost as I was raising my son at the time (y'all remember slow modems and pay by hour).

20 years goes by quickly!

[Brooke]

20 years goes by quickly!

So quickly that I still think of the late 1990's as being recent. 

[bustr]

Remember when you had to pass that idiot hardware check for your video card compliance, and you could still try your luck with generic? I had an S3 graphics card that I would run as generic. About an hour into it, I suddenly had 6 tiled screens all with the same action playing on them. My roommate took pity on me and gave me a Matrox card he had just replaced. We lived and died back then on questions like 8 or 16 Mbyte of ram on our video cards. I lusted for a powerful ATI 2D\3D card back then........Air Warrior was as much about the hardware wars. Oh yeah and RAM and a 20inch monitor as soon as you could afford one. They were like putting a space heater in your room. Playing commando had real meaning in those days.

[katanaso]

Quite honestly, both the same game play wise.  Even the communities are pretty much the same and the same complaints you hear about AH's community or game play were the same exact complaints you heard in AW.

ack-ack

To add, but not speaking for ack-ack, the game was a big step forward for most people that played it.  It was stepping through into another realm of gameplay.  EverQuest had that same type of feeling for a lot of folks as well.  To me, AH didn't have that same 'first feeling' of wonder like AW did, but it was an awesome thing to get into and enjoy.  You can only lose your virginity once, but every other time still feels great. 

One big difference that I recall in the community was that AW was primarily adults until it went unlimited.  It was just too expensive for kids.  It doesn't mean a lot of the attitudes were different, but I remember a difference when I first got hooked.

[Hajo]

I remember The Kraits making it possible for us in AW to change the type of terrain we looked at.  Had the surface of the Moon, Desert, Winter etc.
(These were overlays)  We could also change the sky.  They made great airfield overlays also.

I really enjoyed Air Warrior.

[Nath[BDP]]

Played AW briefly in the 96-97 timeframe.  Never got into it.  Started AH in 99 after playing Ultima Online.

[Ack-Ack]

I remember The Kraits making it possible for us in AW to change the type of terrain we looked at.  Had the surface of the Moon, Desert, Winter etc.
(These were overlays)  We could also change the sky.  They made great airfield overlays also.

I really enjoyed Air Warrior.

The SAC program, also allowed you to change plane skins in addition to terrains.  The Tunisian terrain was my favorite.

ack-ack

[Rockdog]

Great replies! And the pictures and video, they have brought back so many memories!

On the hardware side, it reminded me of paying $300 for 2mb of ram.

One of the greatest upgrades of its day was the matrix SLI secondary add in cards. I ales remember the sheer joy of the sidewinder joystick when I first experienced rudder control that wasn't on the keyboard.

Now the pay by the hour for both internet and the pleasure of flying.... That I can live without.

Thanks and keepem coming!