''Jane's ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters'' is a 1996

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 ...

developed and published by

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 ...

for

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

. It is the first entry in the ''

Jane's Combat Simulations ''Jane's Combat Simulations'' was a brand of combat flight simulators and naval warfare games published for DOS and Windows by Electronic Arts from 1995 to 2000, and later by other companies under license by Jane's Information Group. It is named ...

'' franchise. An

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or Miniature wargaming, miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules ...

, ''NATO Fighters'', was released in 1996, and a compilation package for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

was released in 1997 titled ''Advanced Tactical Fighters Gold''. Content from the game would be combined into a unified interface with '' Jane's US Navy Fighters 97'' for re-release as ''

Jane's Fighters Anthology ''Jane's Fighters Anthology'' is a 1997 compilation of combat flight simulation games released by Electronic Arts as part of the ''Jane's Combat Simulations'' series. The anthology integrated into a single interface the campaigns, missions, and ...

'' in 1997.

Gameplay

''Jane's ATF'' uses the same engine and menus as the 1994 game '' U.S. Navy Fighters'', with updated aircraft and terrain geometry. The base game includes two campaigns, one set in Egypt in 1998 and the other Russia in 2002, as well as single missions, a mission creator, and multiplayer functionality. The game's flyable planes lean heavily on aircraft that were new or still under development at the time of the game's release, including the

F-117 Nighthawk The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is an officially retired American single-seat, subsonic, twin-engined, stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was ...

(Stealth Fighter),

F-22 Raptor The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is an American twin-engine, jet-powered, all-weather, supersonic stealth fighter aircraft. As a product of the United States Air Force's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was de ...

, X-29 FSW, XF-31 EFM, X-32 ASTOVL,

B-2 Spirit The Northrop B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American Heavy bomber, heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth aircraft, stealth technology designed to penetrator (aircraft), penetrate dense anti-aircraft war ...

, and Rafale C. The ''NATO Fighters'' expansion adds a campaign in the Baltic and four new planes:

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

Saab Gripen The Saab JAS 39 Gripen ( ; English: ''Griffin'') is a light fighter, light single-engine supersonic multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta ...

, EuroFighter 2000, and

Su-35 The Sukhoi Su-35 (-35; NATO reporting name: Flanker-E/M, occasionally nicknamed "Super Flanker") is the designation for two improved derivatives of the Su-27 air-defence fighter. They are single-seat, twin-engine, supermaneuverable, 4.5 ge ...

Reception

In ''

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 ...

'', Denny Atkin praised the game and its features, but complained for lacking multiplayer mode. Steve Wartofsky called ''ATF'' an "evolutionary rather than revolutionary step" for ''Jane's Combat Simulations'', but argued that it set the standard for its genre. While he found its graphics to be a "mixed bag", he enjoyed the game overall, and highlighted its encyclopedia as its best feature. Writing for ''

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'', Dan Bennett called ''ATF'' as a solid, good-looking sim, but found the game to be overly difficult. ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' reviewed the PC version of the game positively and recommended it for flight sim fans. In 1996, the editors of ''Computer Gaming World'' nominated ''ATF'' for their "Simulation of the Year" award, which ultimately went to '' EF2000''. They wrote that ''ATF'' "makes up for its aging engine by providing the best multiplayer environment of any modern sim". It was also a nominee for the Computer Game Developers Conference's 1996 "Best Simulation Game" Spotlight Award, but lost the prize to '' MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries''. The expansion, ''NATO Fighters'', received 7.8 out of 10 from T. Liam McDonald of

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

who called it ''" ..a must, as it expands considerably on the original program and doubles its play life."''

References

{{Jane's Combat Simulations 1996 video games Combat flight simulators DOS games Electronic Arts games Jane's Combat Simulations Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games