''Air Warrior'' is a discontinued

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

online combat flight simulation game launched by Kesmai in 1987. It was hosted on

GEnie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

and used that service as a server for client software running on a variety of

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

s. It underwent continual improvement through its decade-long lifetime with Kesmai, appearing on new platforms and host services.

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

purchased Air Warrior in 1999, and became provider of the game, but it was discontinued in 2001. Sequels '' Air Warrior II'' and '' Air Warrior III'' were both released in 1997 and published by Interactive Magic. ''Air Warrior'' was one of the first massive online games, hosting hundreds of users during busy periods. It inspired '' WarBirds'', which in turn inspired ''

Aces High Aces High may refer to: *Aces High (comics), ''Aces High'' (comics), a comic book series by EC Comics *Aces High (video game), ''Aces High'' (video game), a combat flight simulator/massively multiplayer online game *Aces High (film), ''Aces High'' ...

'', while other members of the ''Warbirds'' team went on to produce '' World War II Online''. Today there are a number of similar games, like '' WarThunder'', most of them based on a freemium model.

History

Introduced in 1988 by Kesmai,Brooks, M. Evan (2001)
/ref> ''Air Warrior'' was played over modems and hosted on the

online service provider. Players could choose one of a number of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

aircraft to fly, along with ground vehicles, and play in a multiplayer "arena" with hundreds of other players. The game focused mostly on

dogfight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an air combat manoeuvring, aerial battle between fighter aircraft that is conducted at close range. Modern terminology for air-to-air combat is air combat manoeuvring (ACM), which refers to tactical situations requir ...

ing, with a secondary strategic role of capturing forward airbases near the center of the map. Several updated versions were released, and additional service providers were added over time. The original version of ''Air Warrior'' ran on Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, and

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

computers, had simple black and white wireframe graphics, and cost over $10 per hour to play. Over time, Kesmai produced improved versions of the game, starting with

SVGA Super VGA (SVGA) or Extended VGA is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards that extended IBM's Video Graphics Array, VGA specification. When used as shorthand for a resolution, as VGA and XGA often are, SVGA refers to ...

''Air Warrior'' in 1993, and continuing with ''Air Warrior'' for Windows in 1996, '' Air Warrior II'' in early 1997, '' Air Warrior III'' later in 1997, and finally ''Air Warrior III Millennium Version'' in 2000. Development of ''Air Warrior II'' was directly overseen by Bill Stealey, founder of the game's publisher, Interactive Magic. Kesmai also did business deals to provide access to ''Air Warrior'' through additional on-line services, including Delphi, CRIS,

CompuServe CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...

America Online AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. The service tra ...

, Earthlink, Gamestorm and CompuLink. A version of ''Air Warrior'' for Windows was ported back to the Macintosh in 1997 in an Internet open beta, and then later moved to America Online. In 1999,

purchased ''Air Warrior'', and became provider of the latest version of the game, only to discontinue it in 2001.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' in 1990 called ''Air Warrior'' "the most exciting argameI've played", warning players to "be resigned to spending some money on it, though, because ''time'' flies while ''you'' do". 1991 and 1993 surveys in the magazine of strategy and war games gave it three and a half stars out of five. The magazine in 1993 praised the flight models' accuracy, stating that it forced pilots to choose correctly when selecting aircraft to fly against other humans. The magazine suggested that if Kesmai were to add some upgrades to the offline single-player mode it would "blow away any of the competition". In a 1994 survey of wargames the magazine gave the title four stars out of five, noting its high cost but reporting that it was "continually being revised and updated". In 1997 '' Next Generation'' named ''Air Warrior'' as number six on their "Top 10 Online Game Picks". They noted that ''Air Warrior'' provided a multiplayer flight sim online with a persistent environment.

References

Sources

* Anderson, Brooke P. (1997)
How to Fly and Fight in Air Warrior
Appendix: History of ''Air Warrior''. * * Brooks, M. Evan (2001)

* Book of MacDweeb, 1999
a satirical history of ''Air Warrior for Macintosh'' in the spirit of the Wingless Cafe

External links

* *{{Internet Archive game, id=msdos_Air_Warrior_1992, platform=MS-DOS 1988 video games 3DO games Amiga games Atari ST games Classic Mac OS games Combat flight simulators Commodore CDTV games DOS games Electronic Arts franchises FM Towns games Konami games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States World War II flight simulation video games Kesmai games