''Megafortress'' (also known as ''Megafortress: Flight Of The Old Dog'') is a flight simulation video game developed by

Artech Digital Entertainment Artech Digital Entertainment, Ltd. (stylized as ARTECH studios) was a video game developer formed in 1982 in Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Also known as Artech Studios, the company developed games such as ''Raze's Hell'', ''Monopoly (2000 vid ...

and released by Three-Sixty Pacific Inc in 1991. The game takes place in the late 1980s and early 1990s and features three distinct sets of missions: Red Flag (USAF) training exercises at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, a fictional series of missions during the

First Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, and a special mission which reenacts the plot of the novel '' Flight of the Old Dog.''

Gameplay

The game is played as a 1st person flight simulator. The player can fly the EB-52 from six stations ranging from the pilot's station to the electronic warfare officer's station. A player earns a promotion from successfully completing a set of 5 missions. The highest rank that can be achieved in the game is brigadier general (35 missions). If the player completes the special mission known as Flight of the Old Dog, they are immediately promoted to brigadier general. However, after the player completes 99 missions, they are automatically retired.

Release

The packaging illustration was done for Three Sixty Pacific by Bay area illustrator Marc Ericksen, who had previously created cover art on four battle sets of the ''V for Victory'' series, as well as their release of ''Das Boot''. Two add-ons were published, ''Megafortress: Operation Sledgehammer'' (1991) and ''Megafortress: Operation SkyMaster'' (1992).

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine 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 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' in 1992 favorably reviewed the game's graphics, interface, and sound card audio, and recommended it to players "looking for a game with more emphasis on strategy and less seat-of-the-pants dogfighting". A survey that year of wargames with modern settings gave the game four and a half stars out of five. and the magazine named it one of the year's best simulation games. In a 1994 survey of wargames the magazine gave the title four stars out of five,

References

External links

* *{{cite magazine, url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue139/104_Megafortress.php, magazine=COMPUTE!, issue=139, date=April 1992, page =104, title=Megafortress computer game evaluation, author=Scott A. May, publisher=atarimagazines.com 1991 video games Amiga games DOS games Flight simulation video games Video games developed in Canada Military of the United States in fiction Artech Studios games Single-player video games