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Air Warrior was the world's first multiplayer on-line air-combat simulator (at least for civilians). In it, a player could fly a simulated World War II aircraft, fighting with and against other players, each flying his own simulated aircraft. It was introduced in 1987 by Kelton Flynn and his company Kesmai. 1987 was prior to widespread non-government, non-academic access to the Internet -- Kesmai used the online service GEnie for the game's networked communication. A civilian is a person who is not a member of a military. ...
Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air, August 9, 1945. ...
1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Seal of Solomon is said to have given Sulayman power over the jinn. ...
Air Warrior originally ran on Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, and Atari ST computers, had black-and-white wire-frame graphics, and cost over $10/hour to play. This was very rough by later standards, but Air Warrior was introduced only seven years after the very first flight simulator for mass-market microcomputers: Flight Simulator, by Bruce Artwick and his company SubLOGIC. The box for Mac OS X v10. ...
Commodore has several meanings: Commodore International is a computer company Commodore 64 and Amiga were home computers Commodore (rank) is a naval rank Commodore (yacht club) is the senior officer of a yacht club The Holden Commodore is a type of car The Opel Commodore is a type of car...
In computing, Amiga is a range of home/personal computers primarily using the Motorola 68000 processor family, whose development started in 1982, initially as a game machine. ...
The Atari 520 ST The Atari ST was a home/personal computer system released by Atari in 1985. ...
Interior Cockpit of a modern Flight Simulator A flight simulator is a system that tries to replicate, or simulate, the experience of flying an airplane as closely and realistically as possible. ...
Microsoft Flight Simulator Microsoft Flight Simulator is a flight simulator program for Microsoft Windows. ...
Over time, Kesmai produced improved versions of Air Warrior (SVGA Air Warrior in 1993; Air Warrior for Windows in 1996; Air Warrior II in early 1997; Air Warrior III later in 1997; and Air Warrior III Millenium Version in 2000) and did business deals to provide access to Air Warrior through additional on-line services, including Delphi, CRIS, CompuServe, America Online, Earthlink, and Gamestorm. In 1999, Electronic Arts purchased Kesmai and became provider of the latest version of Air Warrior only to discontinue the game in 2001. The last version was Air Warrior III Millenium Version, and the last day of on-line flying was December 7th, 2001, the sixtieth anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor. CompuServe, or CIS for short, was the first major commercial online service in the US, dominating the field during the 1980s and remaining a major player through the mid-1990s when it was sidelined by the rise of GUI-based services such as America Online. ...
America Online, or AOL for short, is a corporate online service provider and Internet service provider. ...
EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is one of the major Internet service providers in the United States, with 5. ...
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) is a leading video game developer and publisher. ...
Satellite image of Pearl Harbor. ...
Air Warrior was the forerunner of a genre. From among the most popular multiplayer air-combat simulators of 2005, two of them, Aces High and WarBirds, have an even stronger link to Air Warrior. Many of the main developers for these two are former Air Warrior pilots and former members of the Air Warrior community. In particular, Dale "HiTech" Addink and Doug "Pyro" Balmos were lead software developer and project manager, respectively, for the original version of WarBirds. They then went on to found HiTech Creations, producer of Aces High. Aces High is a combat flight simulator software program for the PC created by HiTech Creations and released on May 8, 2000. ...
Air Warrior III
Besides many small playing fields, Air Warrior III had as one playing area a map of northern Europe with some features labeled, but Berlin, the Kiel Canal, and Peenemunde not labeled. There was also a playing area whose map was a whole hodgepodge of Pacific islands and the coast of Australia. The player could design his own missions on any of these playing fields. Fans of the on-line competition developed a tool that enabled the player to paint his or her own aircraft. Screenshots could be taken in combat, and even videos. These were available over the net to train and to gloat. Douglas C-47s could be used to carry paratroops to take enemy air bases. These could be shot down by flak panzers as well as fighters.
There were many ships and a few buildings to attack, even V-2s at Peenemunde, a bridge near Westminster's Parliament House, and the Brandenburg Gate of Berlin. Unfortunately, the targets that were destroyed soon re-appeared. Curiously, besides aircraft, one could control a jeep, a tank, a truck, or a flak panzer, but you could not drive through the fence surrounding the airfield unless a tank destroyed it at a given spot, and the aircraft carriers and other ships were fixed in place. The game is notorious for its sheep and for the cartoons which appear on the screen to mock the player when he died.
References - Anderson, Brooke P. (1997).How to Fly and Fight in Air Warrior, Appendix: History of Air Warrior. Retrieved January 4, 2005.
- Grupping, Jos (2001). The Story of Flight Simulator. Retrieved January 4, 2005.
- Simhead and MobyGames (2002). WarBirds, credits on bottom right panel. Retrieved January 4, 2005.
- Brooks, M. Evan (2001). [1], dates of release for some versions of Air Warrior. Retrieved May 29, 2005
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