Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: GFShill on January 13, 2009, 10:13:34 PM
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An old Air Warrior squadmate was cleaning out his email address book and came across my email, so he sent me a note to see if it was still active. A couple of emails later, I'm reading the archives from our old Air Warrior online squadron and I find this gem. I think it gives a good sense of how far we've come in today's wireless broadband fiber-optic world of online gaming.
For you old farts, enjoy the memories!
Subj: An Air Warrior's tale
Date: 97-03-26 17:59:58 EST
From: PancakeUS
To: Torrey, Maveric024, Bowhunter0, Foesdoom, JConn39880, PJtrap, Knight0240, DDegr83733, MGlynn6735, MMille7880, Nemo112, BIL KC, DLonga5849, RandyS1178, Spit XII, Wheels43, NateComm, Jerm UK, Myhhr, RLonga, DELTAV55, MojosChild, JoeGIR, MadMan5215, Lasher026, Birminghpj, phillip@mcs.com, RiVaL99, JoeC63, LRSchultz
The day started like any other. I checked the duty roster after dinner and saw the peg placed in the hole next to my name. I was assigned flight duty. Nothing special, just a routine patrol along the perimeter of our airbase. It would be a milk run.
I walked over to my craft and swung down into the cabin, adjusting the rudder pedals as I eased into the seat. I hit the ignition switch and listened to the familiar chatter of the hard drive as the Pentium powered up. I flipped on the speakers and the monitor, bathing the cockpit in the familiar blue light as the machine went through the automatic pre-flight checklist. When the chatter ceased I tabbed the internal modem. The signal squawked in my ear as the craft lurched forward, ready to take to the sky. Traffic was unusually heavy, but the tower gave me clearance to taxi. I released my NumLock and proceeded into the pattern. I worked my way through the menus as I had done so many times before - it was almost reflex now - and proceeded with my mission.
I quickly climbed to 10,000 feet and leveled out. There was a bogey just south of my position so I banked the Corsair over and headed off to investigate. As I closed on the atoll two more bogies popped up. I suspected that they had lifted off of an airfield and would probably be low so I kept the throttle forward and went into a shallow dive. I spotted them below me, three dots tight together, circling a neutral field. When I got closer I saw that they were Hellcats, formed lined astern and climbing.
My first pass was clean. I knew I was going too fast to get a shot so I blew through the group and climbed out, hoping to break them up like a cue ball. It didn't work. They stayed in formation. I swung my big bird around and set up a high-speed head-on shot. They were packed in so tight I didn't even have to aim. My bullets converged on the lead plane and continued into the second and third. They separated slightly after the pass and disappeared. Totally. I was now alone over the atoll.
I knew exactly what had happened and there wasn't anything I could do about it. My three-plane kill had just been snatched away from me the way the morning sunshine burns away the night-time dreams. I leveled out and waited for the inevitable notice from the tower that would indicate that my clearance had been revoked. Traffic had exceeded the flight line capacity and the hub had reached critical mass. There was nothing I could do but put the plane back on the ground and start over.
America Online is a very harsh mistress.
Pancake ^Skull^
CPID: Cakes
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Oh man. I remember trying to play AW4W on a below-system-requirements rig (SX33, needed a DX66). Half the time I was vulched before the world even loaded around me, lol.
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That reminds me about my favorite part of AW, the Headon shot rarely even resulted in a ping on the NME! Good memories!
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i remember upping bombers for the 2 high value targets deep in eny territory (can any1 remember what they were?) with a squaddie as a gunner.
must have flown for at least 60 Min's to hit both tgts and was rtb when i noticed a conn had upped to intercept us.
being a long way behind the lines a decided to grab from around 20k (i think), by the time the conn got in2 viz range i was around 30k.
i dragged the conn for about 20 Min's while he tried to gain alt on me and closing very slowly.
when he got to 3k dead 6 bam "host connection lost" (or whatever aw3 version of that was).
what i had forgotten was that my isp (dial up) disconnected me every 2 hours :O
disclaimer:
time,distance and alt are for guidance only as it was over 10 years ago and I'm getting senile.
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That reminds me about my favorite part of AW, the Headon shot rarely even resulted in a ping on the NME! Good memories!
I really can't remember ho's in AW but I'm sure they were there. AW used a hit bubble so trying to hit someone was pretty easy compared to AH which had none. Taking a ho shot and missing seems hard to do.
What I do remember was warp on command players and you couold stir your stick when low to the ground and instantly r3everse w/o crashing. The 555th Wolf pack I think was notorious for that and for exploiting a few other cheats. Think thats what their name was anyway. Definitely the 555th though.
Coming into this game after AW was closed I remember being able to HO with a very straight shooting F4U-C from over 1000 out. My first real kill here was with an F6, which was modeled quite different from AW's.
Getting a handle on stick settings was a pain here as well. It looked much different than it does today....it had something extra that I kind of remember looking like a graph.
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AW memories...I have forgotten more than I remember...
But I do recall:
My favorite base was Centurion when they named them
I flew with the RCAF as Cz in the later years of AW before that CO of the Black Dragonz II
Stuka dive sirens, turn fighting spits with the stuka
Favorite plane was the A-26
$300 AOL bills, pay by play time
WWI arena
I think I still have an old AW copy from gamestorm or kesmi, I might have to install it on the PC for memories
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That reminds me about my favorite part of AW, the Headon shot rarely even resulted in a ping on the NME! Good memories!
yep...i remember that
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I really can't remember ho's in AW but I'm sure they were there. AW used a hit bubble so trying to hit someone was pretty easy compared to AH which had none. Taking a ho shot and missing seems hard to do.
Head On shots for the most part were disabled in AW but those planes that had nose mounted guns for some reason got a head on shot modifier (can't remember if it was a 15% or 25% chance for a head on shot). Planes like the Lightning could almost HO with impunity without having to fear being HO'ed back unless they were engaged with another P-38 or a Butcher Bird.
AW was also a game where the slower connection speed you had the better. IIRC, from my days as an AWAR and AWARTECH, using a 9600 baud modem offered the best connection quality.
ack-ack
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I remember doing Spit factory raids or upping a deathstar b17. Favorite ride was a K4 with the minimum fuel load ... not much flying time but a nimble little biatch with a kick.
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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the biggest shocker, compared to Aces High...
The 109F was a dogfighter match for the P-51D. :confused:
Sometimes I miss the Deathstar B-25 runs when you could pack a squaddie in every gun position and light up a furball.
And back then, you had to pay by the hour! :cry
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Head On shots for the most part were disabled in AW but those planes that had nose mounted guns for some reason got a head on shot modifier (can't remember if it was a 15% or 25% chance for a head on shot). Planes like the Lightning could almost HO with impunity without having to fear being HO'ed back unless they were engaged with another P-38 or a Butcher Bird.
AW was also a game where the slower connection speed you had the better. IIRC, from my days as an AWAR and AWARTECH, using a 9600 baud modem offered the best connection quality.
ack-ack
Last time I remember carring...AW used a randomizer on headons. Every hit you got had a 90% chance of being tossed. I think it was in the early 90s that they gave planes with centerline guns (38 & 109) a bonus. Man, did those planes get popular. :D
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I still have AWIII and play it from time to time.
It's not until you re-visit the ancient battleground of Kesmai & Co. until you really appreciate the graphics hork done by HTC & Co.
ROX
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AW, my first true Air Sim Love. Good to see some of Pancakes work. He was a great guy.
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AW, my first true Air Sim Love. Good to see some of Pancakes work. He was a great guy.
well look who the Sheep dragged in here! It's been awhile, Mav.......... Welcome to Aces High :cool:
never knew NB "ever cared" about the Randomizer and yes it was 10% chance your hit counted........for as long as I recall
sometime in AW3 ( Before EA ) they switched Full Realism to "Hit Shell" and Relaxed realism stayed with the "Hit Bubble" if I recall correctly.....
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Hey TC, it has been a long time. Aces High has a bit more of a learning curve than AW did. I am finding myself a bit rusty after 10 years of layoff. I ran into Whels from Cland not to long ago. Its amazing seeing some people that I knew so long ago still playing air sim games.
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Never got into AW... hated AOL for buying INN....plus the continual updates that took forever over a 14.4 connection. Was in the Hell's Aces squadron on INN and WB for awhile until AH came along... I think I recall the airfields only had 2 ack and driving a c47 to capture a base wasn't outa the question back in the early AH days (old call sign was Strake).... Any old Red Barron INNers out there?
<S>
A8Grind
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I remember doing combat dives in the c-47. go in high dive in at speed drop troops.. LOL don't try that in AH
Stogey/+Stgy
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Mav? There's a blast from the past.
<--- ^Crsh
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i hear a lot about AW just wondering does anyone have photos or films of it would like to see
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For you old farts, enjoy the memories!
Hah! Say hello to Panke from Oldma if you get the opportunity.
I remember, Decemberish of 2006, dialing the AOL modem, hanging up, redialing, for sometimes half an hour at a time in order to log onto AW. I always think of that when I read the daily threads here expressing outrage that people have to wait three minutes to log into LW Orange when the caps are in effect.
- oldman
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And then when you got in you'd get winsocked...sigh. I miss the pyramids though.
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<S> Shiv, I remember you bro. How you been?
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<S> Mav, top of the world. Nice to see you after so long. A lot of old Air Warriors here, Az, Bz, and even Cz :) There was a sort of roll call thread recently , you'll see some names from the past:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,128754.870.html
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Glad to see ya made it Mav :D
Ahh, the Red Barons. Who was that CO for them. Was it icy or icy2. Cant remember. The bombing targets were the Spit Factory or the FW Factory. Completely disabled those aircraft for that country for 2 hours if I remember right. I used to love crewing a B17 for the runs. "RedHk is crewing a B17 at Whitecat" People showing up and joining the gunner positions....Great stuff. lol...just remembered the VOD! Great thread. Welcome back Mav :aok
ReDhAwK
RedHk
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i hear a lot about AW just wondering does anyone have photos or films of it would like to see
Air Warrior
(http://www.vbf-12.com/airwarrior.jpg)
Air Warrior II
(http://i.d.com.com/i/dl/media/dlimage/89/45/4/89454_medium.jpeg)
Air Warrior III/MV
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9c/AirWarriorIIIbWik.jpg)
And Air Warrior IV: Vietnam (never saw the light of day but here is a tech demo screenshot)
(http://www.rksisson.com/images/airwarrior3.jpg)
The engine that was slated to be used on Air Warrior IV was the same engine that was going to be used on the MPBT 3025 game that Kesmai was developing. It was an awesome game with fully destructable enviroments and those that got to take part in the closed beta were extremely lucky to have had a chance to play a great game that never saw the light of day.
MPBT 3025
(http://www.mpbt3025.com/files/images/screen15.preview.jpg)
(http://www.mpbt3025.com/files/images/Atlas_AS7-D.preview.jpg)
(http://i.neoseeker.com/p/Games/PC/Simulation/Mech/Battle_Tech_profilelarge.jpg)
ack-ack
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Glad to see ya made it Mav :D
Ahh, the Red Barons. Who was that CO for them. Was it icy or icy2. Cant remember. The bombing targets were the Spit Factory or the FW Factory. Completely disabled those aircraft for that country for 2 hours if I remember right. I used to love crewing a B17 for the runs. "RedHk is crewing a B17 at Whitecat" People showing up and joining the gunner positions....Great stuff. lol...just remembered the VOD! Great thread. Welcome back Mav :aok
ReDhAwK
RedHk
Weren't those guys the father/son team from the Mercenary Sheep?
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Ahh, the Red Barons. Who was that CO for them.
That would have been me from '96 until the bitter end.
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Excellent! Thanks for posting "An Air Warrior's Tale". :)
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That would have been me from '96 until the bitter end.
Darn Baldie, I didn't know you were ^Crsh of the old Red Barons. I was Doc1 from The Intruders in RRETO2 and you guys were our nemesis. I rember the days of Heat and Scree battling for 1st place in Buffs. Man I loved those strat flights in fully gunned 17's and we would always run into the Barons on the way to or from the strat targets and end up blasting each other all over the place. Now I gotta tell ya that those were the good old days for sure! I was the last CO of the Intruders.
All the Best...
Jay
awDoc1
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I remember doing Spit factory raids or upping a deathstar b17. Favorite ride was a K4 with the minimum fuel load ... not much flying time but a nimble little biatch with a kick.
IIRC, the 109 modeled in the original was the F2.
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The bombing targets were the Spit Factory or the FW Factory. Completely disabled those aircraft for that country for 2 hours if I remember right.
That actually is a pretty cool feature, would be nice to have that in AH!
Can only imagine all the milkrunners trying to destroy the Spitfire and P-51 factories :D
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Darn Baldie, I didn't know you were ^Crsh of the old Red Barons. I was Doc1 from The Intruders in RRETO2 and you guys were our nemesis. I rember the days of Heat and Scree battling for 1st place in Buffs. Man I loved those strat flights in fully gunned 17's and we would always run into the Barons on the way to or from the strat targets and end up blasting each other all over the place. Now I gotta tell ya that those were the good old days for sure! I was the last CO of the Intruders.
All the Best...
Jay
awDoc1
Yep. Good times.
We had some really good buff pilots and gunners and some really good fighter pilots as well. We always placed gunners on the buffs and the on-board banter OTW to our targets was priceless. That's something I miss about multi-gunned buffs.
And to the earlier post yes, the Spitfire factory was always a target priority with us.
I remember one night shutting down all the factories in CZ land simultaneously then devestating their front line bases. Although we did it to BZ too I just happen to remember this particular night more vividly. I used to spend all week planning those missions.
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started in '97 AW 3D. was better than Ack's photos. Was fun.
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Yep. Good times.
We had some really good buff pilots and gunners and some really good fighter pilots as well. We always placed gunners on the buffs and the on-board banter OTW to our targets was priceless. That's something I miss about multi-gunned buffs.
And to the earlier post yes, the Spitfire factory was always a target priority with us.
I remember one night shutting down all the factories in CZ land simultaneously then devestating their front line bases. Although we did it to BZ too I just happen to remember this particular night more vividly. I used to spend all week planning those missions.
Oh GAWD yes! Those inflight movies were great too! Heck myself and LLung were devestating in guns and we would average 400-450 gun kills per campaign with me in the upper and him in the tail. Heck I usually always ranked 2 or 3 in buffs without ever dropping a bomb and even hit #1 a few times to boot. We would load up those 17's and usually fly at ground level for what seemed like hours and we would all get crap-faced along the way. I always remember Pattul always engaging us in his 190 and killing him time after time. He was a great dude and flew C-47's into Berlin during the soviet blockade. I have never had so much fun in a game as I'd had in the years I spent in AirWarrior and the community was way more adult than in here. I spent my entire first year just gunning buffs and then went to both flying em and gunning em and then went to fighters. I got pretty good in the 38 and specialized the 109G-4, which I always called the mini-38 because the flaps would allow it to do everything a 38 could and turn tighter. Although my gains were reduced drastictly on 2/22/99. when I suffered a massive skull fracture and I had to re-learn to walk again and I've never fully recovered as far as my reflexes go but what the heck, I'm still flying and doing everything that I used to do but not as good.hehhee
But I'm still having fun and that's what it's all about isn't it? LOL
All the Best...
Jay
awDoc1
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Actually in AW you could get a HO shot. Seems like some of the better P38 pilots were able to do it with regularity. The center mounting of the guns seemed to be the key. I liked that you actually had to work your way around to a guys six. Not just HO him every pass.
I don't think I ever really learned how to fly without the window. And the macro's. Mine was "just like clubbing a baby seal" among others. Sprial climbing against a 38. Try that tactic in AH.
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Mine was "just like clubbing a baby seal" among others.
Mine was "Another one crushed by ^Crsh" or something along those lines.
The kills landed messaage is a lot less intusive than everyone firing off macros after every kill but alas, at lot less creative too.
Doc, you're almost inspiring me to gear up another squad. ;)
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That actually is a pretty cool feature, would be nice to have that in AH!
Can only imagine all the milkrunners trying to destroy the Spitfire and P-51 factories :D
Several of us have asked for this feature to be implemented.
I, for one, would love to see it brought to AH. If I could disable Spit16/La7/P51 factories, I might actually look up the key for "bombsight."
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Oh, and AKAK, to be the best of my recollection, that first screenshot can not be from AW.
Note in the upper right-hand corner the EAC in the area - all Doras. Doras did not show until 3? Or was it 2?