The Classic PC Gaming Era (1977-1989) - Ace of Aces
Don't miss out on this simple but fun combat sim where you dogfight above the clouds and bomb targets beneath them.
RELEASE DATE: 1986
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Artech / Accolade
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Fairly playable
BEST VERSIONS: Commodore 64
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As I’ve noted in the introduction to this section, one of the biggest problems with the flight simulators released during the 1980s is that there were great sims that have aged badly due to outdated 3D graphics and overly complex controls. Ace of Aces is the opposite of that – it’s a sim that takes great pains to make you feel like you’re flying a DeHavilland Mosquito for the British RAF during World War II, but it simplifies the experience enough that you can focus on the fun. Instead of trying to depict an abstract flight field, the game takes place above the clouds and uses bitmapped layers to simulate the feel of three dimensionality. Enemy planes are sprites that appear as dots from far away and simple silhouettes when they get close to you. Bombing runs restrict the targets to trains on tracks and U-boats in the water. It’s as if the developers wanted to just focus on the most entertaining aspects of combat sims and strip away all of the monotony. And while the game’s a bit simplistic, it works pretty well overall and is surprisingly fun to fire up today.
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Ace of Aces offers four basic missions: one where you have to shoot down V-1 buzz bombs, one where you have to engage enemy bombers guarded by ME109 fighters, one where you have to bomb trains carrying Allied POWs and one where you have to locate and bomb enemy U-boats headed for an Allied fleet. Upon accepting a mission, you’re given a chance to customize your loadout, and then you’re up and away, almost immediately facing opponents in the air.
While the gameplay is fairly arcadey, Ace of Aces at least attempts to look like a more complex sim. The Mosquito’s cockpit is nicely rendered and you can even look out the side windows if you’d like and check on your wings. You have limited control over elements of your aircraft like the throttle, boosters, fire extinguishers, trim, landing gear and wing flaps. But I found that the game rarely requires much more than pointing my plane at enemies and blasting them down, and the bombing bay sections are more like minigames than actual simulation elements. Even when the game has you head into a thunderstorm, it’s more about appearances and drama than on providing a true simulation of the experience.
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But it’s the focus on fun that makes Ace of Aces worthwhile today. It was a popular title for many platforms during the 1980s and was even ported to the Atari 7800 and Sega Master System later on. Of all of them, I found the Commodore 64 version to be the best-looking and most fun to play today, followed by the Atari 8-bit cartridge version. The MS-DOS version is all right but compromised by lower-quality graphics and sound. The Amstrad CPC, MSX and ZX Spectrum versions are all slow-moving and don’t look so hot, so I’d avoid them.
As Our Series Continues…
In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about 3D games, flight simulators, sports games, gameroom games, puzzle games, unusual games and so much more.
And while you’ll definitely see some titles from prominent North American publishers like Sierra On-Line, Infocom, Activision, Electronic Arts, Brøderbund, SSI, MicroProse, Lucasfilm Games, Epyx and Sir-Tech in the mix, you’ll also see references to games from the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Spain and Japan.
If you’ve missed the earlier entries in the series, which cover ASCII games, adventure games, wargames, strategy games and role-playing games, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 1. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!