''F-15 Strike Eagle III'' is an

F-15E Strike Eagle The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E Strike Eagle is an American all-weather multirole strike fighter derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. Intended for the Dual-Role Fighter (DRF) program (initially called Enhanced Tactical Fi ...

combat flight simulator Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and mil ...

released in 1992 by

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...

and is the sequel of '' F-15 Strike Eagle'' and ''

F-15 Strike Eagle II ''F-15 Strike Eagle II'' is an F-15E Strike Eagle combat flight simulator released in 1989 by MicroProse and is the sequel of '' F-15 Strike Eagle''. It was followed in 1992 by '' F-15 Strike Eagle III'', the final game of the series. The fight ...

''. It is the final game in the series. The fighter is equipped with a

M61 Vulcan The M61 Vulcan is a Hydraulic machinery, hydraulically, electrically, or pneumatics, pneumatically driven, six-Gun barrel, barrel, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling gun, Gatling-style rotary cannon which fires 20 mm caliber, rounds at an e ...

and both air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, as well as free-fall and

laser-guided bomb A laser-guided bomb (LGB) is a guided bomb that uses semi-active laser guidance to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than an unguided bomb. First developed by the United States during the Vietnam War, laser-guided bombs quickly pro ...

s. Available scenarios are:

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

, and

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

. Missions usually involve taking out one primary and one secondary target, while avoiding attacking friendly targets. The player can receive

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

s and medals based on their mission scores. For its time, ''Strike Eagle III'' boasted impressive graphics, although enemy planes are not nearly as detailed as the player's

F-15 The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected McDonnell Douglas's des ...

. Special attention was put into the terrain and geography, to the extent that real buildings and geographical sites are visible ingame, such as the Iraqi Presidential Palace in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. The enhanced

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

edition adds 15 minutes of introductory video, a tutorial, and new scenarios, including flight missions based on those of the

Desert Storm , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

campaign.

Development

The game had a development budget of $1.2 million.

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 ...

''s reviewer Doug Fick, an

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it e ...

pilot with the

Vermont Air National Guard The Vermont Air National Guard (VT ANG) is the aerial militia of the Vermont, State of Vermont, United States, United States of America. It is a reserve of the United States Air Force and along with the Vermont Army National Guard an element of ...

, in April 1993 praised ''F-15 III''s graphics and detail, stating that "the systems and aircraft are very faithfully reproduced". He approved of the accuracy of the flight model ("

Spectrum Holobyte Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher. The company, founded in 1983, was known for its simulation games, notably the ''Falcon'' series of combat flight simulators, and for publishing the first version of ''Te ...

and the '' Falcon 3.0'' team could learn something about realistic flight characteristics from this program"). Fick disliked the slow performance, but concluded that "it definitely is a worthy simulation". In a January 1994 survey of wargames the magazine's Evan Brooks gave the title four stars out of five, stating that it had "state-of-the-art graphics and game value". In April 1994 the magazine said that the CD version was "a good buy for either the novice or veteran sim enthusiast". In August 1994 the magazine's simulation columnist Tom Basham called the flight model "a mixed bag", approving of aircraft performance varying by altitude but criticizing the "instantaneous" handling. He concluded that although superior to ''Falcon 3.0'' in many areas, ''F-15'' was not a simulation because "many things ... 'burst the bubble', that constantly reminded me ''this isn't for real''".

Sales

The game sold 110,000 copies in its first two weeks, and 150,000 copies by February 1993.

References

External links

* {{moby game, id=/f-15-strike-eagle-iii, name=''F-15 Strike Eagle III'' 1992 video games Combat flight simulators DOS games DOS-only games Gulf War video games MicroProse games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Jeff Briggs Video games set in 1989 Video games set in 1990 Video games set in Colombia Video games set in Iraq Video games set in North Korea Video games set in Panama Video games set in Venezuela