For HT: A trip down memory lane

[Vulcan]

Confirmed Kill! What it was before Warbirds (1)

I remember meeting some guy in CK who took me under his wing...  seems like decades ago, oh wait it was

[1stpar3]

 

[icepac]

You can still download warbirds 2.77 with all the updates and it plays really nice even on a windows 10 machine.

[eddiek]

You can still download warbirds 2.77 with all the updates and it plays really nice even on a windows 10 machine.

Where can you find the download?  I've looked and can't find anywhere with a functioning link.
WB 2.50 was my first combat flight sim, bought it on CD in a store and played offline for hours until I was able to convince the ex-wife that playing online wouldn't break the bank.
Met hblair and other Assassins in one of the arenas, and in time that led me here to Aces High. 
I did get the 2.50 download, but it won't run on a Win10 machine, unless someone knows how and where to get an emulator or other program to allow the older games to run on Win7 or Win10 machines (I have my desktop and one laptop on Win7, this work laptop is Win 10.........and I hate it).

[AAIK]

Where can you find the download?  I've looked and can't find anywhere with a functioning link.

WB 2.77r3 full: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ko5zimars18uwdd/wb277r3full.exe?dl=0

It will install and run on windows 10 (tried it myself) even if a little buggy.

There is a fix for it on the net somewhere, something about changing the parameters of a keyboard hook function from specific thread to global due to XP update. If I find it I will post it here, until then use alt-f4 to close the game. The 3D version of the game might crash on you as well.

[Gman]

After the amazing thing that was "The Claw", I'd always wished HTC would have made a space shooter.  For years there was a huge gap, and opportunity IMO, to slide a great game into this genre.  It just disappeared until Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen came around.  During the heyday of Battlestar Galatica on TV, if HTC had been somehow able to wrangle the rights to make a game with that license and IP, based on the Claw and its mothership, just a quick action shootem up space shooter based on that, I think it'd have been a huge success.  Of course getting that license is probably a big pipe dream, I just believe that such a product at that specific time would have sold like hotcakes, especially after what a blast the Claw and that mothership were.

I'd had no idea HT had already made a similar type game, pretty much solidifies my belief that given the opportunity with such a popular title on TV at that time, that HTC would have had a smash hit on its hands.

[AAIK]

After the amazing thing that was "The Claw", I'd always wished HTC would have made a space shooter.  For years there was a huge gap, and opportunity IMO, to slide a great game into this genre.  It just disappeared until Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen came around.  During the heyday of Battlestar Galatica on TV, if HTC had been somehow able to wrangle the rights to make a game with that license and IP, based on the Claw and its mothership, just a quick action shootem up space shooter based on that, I think it'd have been a huge success.  Of course getting that license is probably a big pipe dream, I just believe that such a product at that specific time would have sold like hotcakes, especially after what a blast the Claw and that mothership were.

I'd had no idea HT had already made a similar type game, pretty much solidifies my belief that given the opportunity with such a popular title on TV at that time, that HTC would have had a smash hit on its hands.

The space game that they made (the old Icigames/IEN) was quite unique. The original build of it was like elite with planets and space stations and warp drives. It was called Planetary Raiders back then. It was revamped from the bottom up and renamed Raider Wars. There were many classes of ships, a light fighter that could get behind opponents quick with a salvo of tracking missles and a rail gun to take advantage of the rear shots. A middle ship that could fire many different types of missles for different situations/ranges. A heavy/juggernaught ship but slow to manouvre which had an immense array of guns in the front and momentum bombs which you launch at high speed. There was also the heavy fighter that was shaped like a triangle with plasma cannons and plasma missles (This was the most popular selection), it was fairly manouverable as well. There was also a medium support ship that had a special mine that would suck you into a gravity well leaving you unable to fight back properly and leave you venerable. The ship also had these "disco ball" mines which shot down missles with an automated lazer system. As well as a stealth ship that was fairly difficult to see visually since it was just a line basically as well as no radar signature, it had a special missle that could disable a target immediatly with a single rear shot. Some people really had fun with that stealth ship and became notorious.

It was a war between carriers/fields just like WB and each carrier had a number of support ships that would protect it as well as turrets on the carrier ship. To capture a carrier you needed to disable all defences and fly the carrier troop ship next to the carrier and drop the troops who enter the ship through a hatch. The game supported gunners as well, who were equipped with a laser, the same laser every ship had as a secondary fire. The lazer was excellent at shooting down missles from range and was only useful in that regard (it didnt hurt other ships very much). The game was free and beta for a while (I dont think it was ever released). Player numbers amounted from 25-50+ on average (as far as I can remember, it might of topped out around 100). There wernt that many players but we had a heck of a time while it lasted and everyone seemed to know eachother and enjoyed their ship classes very much. I may be missing some details and weapons but its been a long time.

Overall it was a very well recieved and remembered game, even if it was by a very few. There were competing free games at the time like Dawn of Aces which was more popular in general.

[Meatwad]

Now if there was a way to make a tiny arena and host those games again (hint)

[AAIK]

I almost forgot about Dawn of Aces! I guess it was the obvious choice.

(its much easier to find online)

Dawn of Aces:

[AAIK]

Woops, wrong button! (I was updating the Raider Wars files with a fix for mouse input)

[horble]

DoA was where I got my start, great times.

[AAIK]

DoA was where I got my start, great times.

Nice, which squad were you in? Who did you fly with?

[horble]

Nice, which squad were you in? Who did you fly with?

Oh man I can’t remember which squad anymore.. I want to say 13th Pursuit Group?  I flew under ‘jckent’ back then (was my dad’s warbirds account and DOA was free for WB pilots).

[AAIK]

Oh man I can’t remember which squad anymore.. I want to say 13th Pursuit Group?  I flew under ‘jckent’ back then (was my dad’s warbirds account and DOA was free for WB pilots).

Which plane did you fly? Were you one of the lame camel/Dr1 pilots? I wont throw the spad 13 in that same group but it is close.

[horble]

I was a lame camel pilot.