''U.S. Navy Fighters'' is a

combat flight simulation game 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 in 1994 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 ...

PCs. The game was programmed by Brent Iverson, who previously worked on EA's 1991 release '' Chuck Yeager's Air Combat''. The ''U.S. Navy Fighters''

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 ...

''Marine Fighters'' and a "Gold" compilation were both released in 1995. Later that year, Electronic Arts added graphical acceleration support for the game via the

Nvidia NV1 The NV1 was Nvidia's first graphics accelerator, introduced in May 1995 and released later that year as a multimedia Peripheral Component Interconnect, PCI card. Manufactured by STMicroelectronics, SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, sometimes under ...

when the chip was announced. Electronic Arts would re-brand the game as the earliest 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 ...

'' series, issuing an rebranded version in 1996 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 ...

with additional content and an updated title, ''Jane's US Navy Fighters 97''. The content from the base game, expansion, and reissue would be combined with '' Jane's Advanced Tactical Fighters'' into a unified interface for re-release in 1997 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 ...

''. ''U.S. Navy Fighters'' received a Japan-exclusive

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

port courtesy of

Electronic Arts Victor was a joint-venture between Electronic Arts and Victor Entertainment. It published various sports games for the Family Computer, Super Famicom, and the Mega Drive. Some other sports concepts include J-League association football, American footb ...

, released on November 6, 1997.

Gameplay

The base game features a variety of 50 missions that can be played separately or as part of a campaign with

full-motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...

mission briefings. The campaign is set aboard the United States aircraft carrier "Ike" during a fictional 1997 war between Russia and Ukraine. The flyable jet fighters during the missions included the

F-14B Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, Tandem#Aviation, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for t ...

, F-18D Hornet,

A-7 Corsair The LTV A-7 Corsair II is an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV). The A-7 was developed during the early 1960s as replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Its design was ...

, F-22 "Lightning II", and

Sukhoi Su-33 The Sukhoi Su-33 (-33; NATO reporting name: Flanker-D) is a Soviet/Russian all-weather carrier-based twin-engine air superiority fighter designed by Sukhoi and manufactured by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association, derived f ...

. The ''Marine Fighters'' expansion added 35 new missions and a second campaign aboard the United States aircraft carrier "Wasp" during a fictional Russian-Japanese conflict over the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

. It would feature three additional flyable fighters, the

AV-8B Harrier II The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) AV-8B Harrier II is a single-engine ground-attack aircraft that constitutes the second generation of the Harrier family, capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL). The aircraft is primaril ...

, FRS Mk 2 Sea Harrier, and

Yak-141 The Yakovlev Yak-141 (; NATO reporting name "Freestyle"), also known as the Yak-41, is a Soviet supersonic vertical takeoff/landing (VTOL) fighter aircraft designed by Yakovlev. Intended as a replacement for the Yak-38, it was designed as a su ...

. The expansion's box art also touted faster frame rates, terrain masking, the addition of

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between ...

, and a "Tour of Duty" summary screen showing hit percentages, kills, and decorations. The re-release ''Jane's US Navy Fighters 97'' added a historical campaign taking place in 1972 during the Vietnam War's

Operation Linebacker Operation Linebacker was the codename of a U.S. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 air interdiction campaign conducted against North Vietnam from 9 May to 23 October 1972, during the Vietnam War. Its purpose was to halt or slow th ...

. The contemporaneous planes F-4J Phantom II,

F-8 Crusader The Vought F-8 Crusader (originally F8U) is a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based air superiority jet aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Vought. It was the last American fighter that had guns as the primar ...

, MiG-17 Fresco, and MiG-21 Fishbed were now available as flyable fighters. In addition, archival footage originally aired on

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

was used for briefings, and aircraft technical references and photos were included from

Janes Information Services Janes is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane. History Jane's Information Group was founded in 1898 by Fred ...

Jane's US Navy Fighters 97

''Jane's U.S. Navy Fighters '97'' (USNF '97) is a 1996 update of the 1994 version with added planes, music, and two new campaigns. It's also ran on Win 95 version rather than DOS. The game contains three campaigns: Vietnam War-era, a fictional Russian-Ukrainian war, and a fictional Russian-Japanese conflict over the

. This version was released in Japan by

on March 14, 1997. Another Japanese edition featuring exclusive missions was released on December 19, 1997 as .

Reception

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 ...

'' gave U.S. Navy Fighters four stars out of five, and stated that "despite heavy system requirements, this is a must for every flight freak". It appeared at number 20 of PC Data's best-seller list for February 1997.

References

External links

* {{Jane's Combat Simulations 1994 video games Combat flight simulators DOS games Electronic Arts franchises Electronic Arts games PlayStation (console) games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States