Helicopter simulations have been very popular for many years now. For me, the romance with chopper sims goes back to playing Gunship way back when on my Commodore 64. There's nothing like hugging the ground at 160-plus mph, then popping up over a mountain and surprising a whole bunch of bad guys. Best of all, it's all based on real-life stuff - namely, the AH64 Apache.
The Apache seems to be the helicopter of choice in these simulations due to its heavy firepower capabilities, advanced technology, and superior flight performance. After its success and subsequent publicity in U.S. military operations in Panama and the Persian Gulf, the Apache is more popular now than it has ever been, and nothing is reflecting that more than the PC gaming market. From now through the beginning of '96 we're going to see three major releases based on the Apache helicopter. For Origin, their sim is based specifically on the AH64D Apache Longbow, which is the latest version of the Apache.
The AH64D Apache Longbow differs from the regular Apache in the fact that the Longbow has a new advanced radar dish attached to the top of the rotors which allows it to "see" more effectively in the battlefield. In actuality, the Apache Longbow isn't even in military service yet, as the only existing models are still prototypes. Being new technology, you'd think that all of this advanced military stuff would be classified, but the designers of Longbow were surprised over just how much information is declassified and accessible to anyone who wants it. But even though the information is accessible, that doesn't mean that it's very easy to obtain.
This is where Jane's, the big name in military weaponry information, enters into the equation. In a new deal with EA and Origin, Jane's has agreed to provide access to their volumes of information, along with their personal experts in weaponry. They even managed to get a copy of the actual military operations manual for the Longbow. Andy Hollis, a Longbow producer, described Jane's as a one-stop information center with the ability to answer any technical questions the designers may have not only about the Longbow itself, but all other weapons and vehicles used in the simulation. Helping to coordinate the raw data provided by Jane's is an actual Apache military training person, who is also providing some of the voice work in the game-training scenarios which I'll get to in a bit.
The designers definitely have the technical aspects covered, but what about the designers themselves? Participating in the design of Longbow is the aforementioned Andy Hollis, whose work goes as far back as MiG Alley Ace and the now classic Gunship, F-19 Stealth Fighter and F-15 Strike Eagle II and III. The other main designer is Paul Grace, who worked on Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, F-16 Combat Pilot, LHX, Yeager Air Combat and US Navy Fighters. So Longbow's designers are combining impressive credentials with a wealth of technical data.
The structure of the game isn't going to be anything radically new, but there will be four different areas of playing the game. The first is the tutorial area, which will acquaint the player with all of Longbow's capabilities through a series of missions. The designers have taken pains to insure that this tutorial is as interactive as possible, incorporating input from that Apache trainer talked about earlier. So while you're up in the air learning some aspect of the chopper, you'll actually hear the voice of the trainer telling you what you should. The game will even read your reactions and the trainer will respond accordingly. The tutorial will be in-depth to the point that when you buy the game and load it up, you won't even need to use the manual that comes with the game in order to get started.
The second area of gameplay are the single missions that cover actual historical sorties in Panama during Operation Just Cause, and in the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm. You'll fly in the same situations faced by Apache pilots in those theaters of operations. Looking for that authentic feeling, the designers have taken the maps and surveys of the actual terrain and recreated it in the simulation. As far as targets and landscape are concerned, whatever the real pilots saw, you're going to see.
The third area features randomly generated missions, which will help enhance Longbow's replayability. And going even further, the player can even tell the computer to design these scenarios within certain parameters. So if the player wants to go against three bad guys in a night mission, the computer will develop a scenario at night that pits the player against three enemy units.
The fourth area is the campaign, which has all of the basic elements of fighter sims, including a mission-based structure with animated cut scenes using live video and computer animation sandwiched between the missions. A storyline is set up at the beginning of the campaign and as the player successfully goes through the game, the storyline unfolds mission by mission. Since the American public has gotten so used to watching war on TV, the storyline is developed from that point of view, like you were watching it on television.
The graphics include full texture-mapping of the terrain. When setting out to develop Longbow, the designers created a brand-new flight engine from scratch. This "from the ground up" approach allowed them to get the graphic style they wanted, along with the speed and performance that an aircraft like the Longbow would require.
With all of the upcoming helicopter sims coming out, it looks like the designers of Longbow are pulling no punches when it comes to the development of their game. They get all of the information that's possible to get, get guys who know how to make a good air combat sim, then pay attention to the smallest detail. Look for Origin's AH64D Apache Longbow simulation to come out sometime before Christmas.
