Can't play DCS? Play this game instead!

Can't play DCS? Play this game instead!

You might be wondering that, if there is a flight simulation game as perfect as DCS, why would someone play another flight simulator instead? I would wonder the same if I had a PC "powerful" enough to run such an amazing game.

But, the fact that you can't run DCS doesn't mean you can not enjoy a fun yet decent and complex flight simulation game. In fact, you can do it even with a 10+ years old computer like mine.

LockOn, the saga

LockOn is a combat flight simulation video games saga that was born in Russia in the mid-nineties with the name of SU-27 Flanker, a MSDOS based flight simulator game were you fly the very plane the game was named after.

In time, other titles and technical improvements were made and more games and updates published to get to DCS, but that's part of another story.

Where to get it?

I don't support piracy, but I understand the reasons of it. So, the best way to legally get a copy of LockOn: Flaming Cliffs 2 is through a second hand installation CD/DVD. I got mine from eBay but Eagle Dynamics still has the original LockOn website where you allegedly can get a legal digital copy of the game.

I haven't personally tried any purchase on that site, but I thing is the best source we have beyond getting a second hand copy from a flea market.

Online play

I have already played LockOn Flaming Cliffs 2 over the internet. There is no official server of this game, if there was ever any, but a pretty large group of people still plays this game and the experience is great. This game still has a lot to offer and its community despite being not that big it's still active there are even MODS around that improve the original game to really high levels.

If you want to try and fly with real people across the Internet, The Jetfighter has its own Discord server to which you are all invited to join and get some PVP or COOP mission done.

How LockOn Flaming Cliffs 2 looks like? You can see it by yourself in the video bellow. I'm flying a Russian MIG-21, one of the most difficult planes for me to take off and land on a mission I designed myself using the game's mission editor.

Strike Fighters 2: Operation Kadesh

Strike Fighters 2: Operation Kadesh

The very first series from The Jetfighter based on the Strike Fighter's 2 campaign of the same name. The story of an Israeli pilot fighting for his own survival and the defense of his nation and comrades.

On October 29, 1956, the Israeli Defense Force launches a military operation to re-open the Tiran Straits blockade set by Egypt and to destroy the Fedayeen terrorist training camps in Gaza. This military operation was called "Operation Kadesh".

This is a mission from the "Operation Kadesh" campaign of combat flight simulation video game "Strike Fighters 2". The story of this videos and the campaign itself are based on the real Operation Kadesh done by the Israel Army during the Suez Canal Crisis of 1956.

A little help from ChatGPT

I'm not a writer nor claim to be one, but I wanted to do something different than just a series of gameplay videos, so I came up with the idea of giving this campaign a "story" beyond the one that the game itself gives to it.

And as I said before, since I'm not a writer, how could I elaborate on the idea I had? well, we're in the times of A.I. so let's get some help from most famous of them all: ChatGPT.

I have to say that the results weren't exactly what I was expecting, but also, I'm not an expert using A.I. and evidently, I need more practice on those prompts to get better results. But still it was a good learning experience.

Operation Kadesh the YouTube series

The Operation Kadesh campaign in the game has more than fifteen levels but I didn't want to make a series that long hence I choose the best gameplay levels that I recorded to make this whole little project.

The video bellow is the "trailer" of the series. Also, I leave the links to the five chapters of the story which you can watch on The Jetfighter's YouTube Channel.

• Operation Kadesh: Chapter 1
• Operation Kadesh: Chapter 2
• Operation Kadesh: Chapter 3
• Operation Kadesh: Chapter 4
• Operation Kadesh: Chapter 5

Strike Fighters 2: F-22 Raptor (Gameplay and Download)

F-22 Raptor for Strike Fighters 2

Back in the late eighties, the United States began working on a program called Advanced Tactical Fighter in order to develop a new fifth-generation combat aircraft. Several well-known companies were called to submit their designs for this new fighter jet.

At the end of a long testing and analysis process, the F-22 was chosen as the new main fighter jet for the United States Air Forces over its close competitor, the YF-23 Black Window.

The F-22 is allegedly one of the most advanced fighter jets available now. In this case I wanted to test fly the F-22 Raptor Add-On model available for Strike Fighters 2. I have to say that it's really fast and accurate on its missiles and the maneuverability made it hard to control the first time you fly with it.

Flying the F-22 Raptor on Strike Fighters 2

In the video bellow I fly the F-22 Raptor on a single mission against some enemy fighters in the combat flight simulation video game Strike Fighters 2 a relatively old but still awesome game.

If you have Strike Fighters 2 on your PC you can flight this plane yourself. Just download the installation files for the F-22 Raptor here: https://combatace.com/files/file/17741-f-22a-raptor-add-on/

Strike Fighters 2: YF-23A Black Widow II (Gameplay and Download)

YF-23A Black Widow II for Strike Fighters 2

The YF-23, also known as "Black Widow", was a prototype plane from the Advance Tactical Program the government of the USA organized in the late eighties and early nineties that was competing to be the next fighter jet.

Eventually the YF-23 lost the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition, and the F-22 was chosen as the new fifth-generation fighter jet for the United States Air Force. In the video bellow, I'm flying the YF-23 on a solo mission in the combat flight simulation video game Strike Fighters 2.

Before we continue, you're invited to The Jetfighter's new Discord Server for more flight simulation stuff, meet new people from the flight simulation community and organize some online flights. 

Download the YF-23A Black Widow II for Strike Fighters 2

You can download for free F-23A Black Widow II for the game Strike Fighters 2:

https://combatace.com/files/file/9990-f-23a-black-widow-ii-ver-30-for-sf2/

How to Install Jetfighter II Advanced Tactical Fighter on Windows 11

Jetfighter II: Advanced Tactical Fighter

Jetfighter II: Advanced Tactical Fighter was THE very flight simulation video game that got me into flight simulation back in the early nineties. 

In this post I'm going to describe the process needed to install this very old MSDOS game on a Windows 11 PC platform.

Software needed

Off course we will need several pieces of software, don't worry they're all free in order to install Jetfighter II Advanced Tactical Fighter in our PC. Those programs are the following:

1. The game files: This seems to be obvious but still is good to mention. Since this game is, as far as I know, under the abandonware category, it can be found all over the Internet. I personally downloaded it from this link at Abandonware.com.

2. DOSBox: Since the game was released for MSDOS, a now defunct Operative System, we'll need an MSDOS emulator that will give us the right environment to install and play our MSDOS based games. This is a free and open-source program that you can download from its official website.

Installation process

1. Create a folder called DOS right on the root of your hard drive. This will be the virtual C:\ drive inside the DOSBox's MSDOS environment.

2. Enter your newly created DOS folder and create a subfolder called JF2.

3. Extract all the game files into the C:\DOS\JF2 folder. The ones inside the .RAR file you downloaded from Abandonware.

4. Install DOSBox. This is a straightforward process. Just execute the installation file you downloaded from the official DOSBox website, and basically click "next" on every step until the program completes the installation.

Play Jetfighter II Advanced Tactical Fighter on Windows 11

1. Open DOSBox by double clicking on the program's shortcut located on your main desktop screen.

DOSBox desktop icon

2. Once you open the program, you will see a screen showing the MSDOS environment. By default, DOSBox will be showing a "Z:\" as the default virtual drive. 

DOXBox's main screen

3. Now you will have to "Mount" your virtual "C:\" drive first in order to play your games using the following commands:

mount c c:\dos 

Once the command is written, just press ENTER. If everything is all right, you'll see the following message "Drive C is mounted as local directory c:\dos\" as you can see on the following screen:

DOSBox screen after the "Mount C" command

4. Now, in order to play the game, you'll to run the following commands:

c:\ <ENTER> This command will take you the virtual c:\ drive you mounted earlier.

c:\jf2 <ENTER> This command will take you into the game's main folder.

jf2 or jf2.exe <ENTER> This command will open the actual game. 

If everything goes all right, you'll see a screen like this before running the game:

Opening Jetfighter II Advanced Tactical Fighter on DOSBox

5. Enjoy playing Jetfighter II Advanced Tactical Fighter on Windows 11.

If you have any questions about this process, please leave it at the comment section bellow and I'll answer you as soon as possible to help you play this awesome flight simulation game.

How to Install "First Eagles: The Great War 1918" on Windows 11

How to Install "First Eagles: The Great War 1918" on Windows 11

First Eagles: The Great War 1918 is one of the very first flight simulation games published by Thirdware Productions back in 2006. It stands out from the rest of the games produced by the company by being set on World War I and simulating old planes from that era instead of jets.

I have to say this game is awesome. By flying an old WWI plane, you only rely on a pair of machine guns and your skills to get out alive from any mission. No fancy computer locking other planes for you and no missiles shooting down enemies from miles away.

Here you have to get up close and personal with the enemy, manually aim your guns and decide yourself when to make the shots while other planes get also close and personal with you in an attempt to send you out to meet Saint Peter. Once the battle begins there is no time to rest.

So, what are you waiting for? here's how to install "First Eagles: The Great War 1918" on Windows 11.

Software needed

In order to install First Eagles: The Great War 1918 in your Windows 11 PC you need to have the following list programs:

1. The installation CD/DVD or .ISO image of First Eagles: The Great War 1918.

2. The First Eagles: The Great War 1918 official October 2008 patch. It can be downloaded from MEGA by clicking here.

3. The HDR Mod 1.01A. Available for download at CombatAce, an excellent online community of flight simulation players and modders.

4. 3. dgVoodoo, a legacy DirectX and Glide graphics card API wrapper/implementation program1 that provides support to run Windows and DOS-based old programs using Glide or DirectX. Available for download here.

Installation process 

Before we begin: If you have a Windows 10 PC, this whole process also works for Windows 10 based PCs. Now let's continue with the install.

Once you have all the required software at hand, we can proceed with the installation of First Eagles: The Great War 1918 on your Windows 11 PC. The installation process will be as follows:

1. Insert the First Eagles: The Great War 1918 CD/DVD on mount the .ISO image and open the setup file. This is one of those "click Next and then Next" cases until the installation is completed.

Do NOT open the game yet, it still will be unplayable at this point.

2. Open the First Eagles: The Great War 1918 official October 2008 patch (FE_Update_Oct2008.exe) and complete the installation process, another case of "click Next and then Next". Just remember to install this patch in the same folder the game was installed.

3. Unzip the HD1.01 mod into a new directory then open the enbseries.ini file using a text editor and find and change the following command line from:

[GLOBAL]

UseEffect=1 

to

[GLOBAL]

UseEffect=0

Then save the enbseries.ini file.

4. Copy the modified enbseries.ini and the unzipped d3d9.dll into your game install directory, copy a second copy of the enbseries.ini into your Flight sub-directory of your game install directory (this is very important).

5 Unzip the dgVoodoo file into a different folder and look for a file called DDraw.dll. Then copy this file into the First Eagles: The Great War 1918 install directory.

6. Open, play and enjoy First Eagles: The Great War 1918 on your Windows 11 PC.

Note: If you like this game, blog or videos please subscribe to my Youtube Channel and follow me on Instagram, TikTok, Discord or Facebook for more flight simulation game plays and stuff.

Wings Over Vietnam: multiplayer gameplay

Wings Over Vietnam: multiplayer gameplay

I found out about the Strike Fighters saga playing the base game Strike Fighters 2. For me, this game offers a perfect combination between hard core simulation and arcade style combat flight gameplay and, even though the game has been around for a while (it was released in 2008), has a great community of players and modders that has improved, expanded and kept the game alive for more than a decade.

But, despite being an excellent flight simulation videogame, Strike Fighters 2 has a big flaw: its total lack of multiplayer capabilities. Something that a game like this desperately needs and has even been asked to its developer but with no answer for it.

A multiplayer past

Since the game I knew first has a number two in the name, I wanted to play the beginning of the saga since the same community of players and modders I mentioned earlier let me know that those first games did have the multiplayer option available.

Unfortunately, those games were not compatible with the new versions of Windows since they were released in 2004, the times of Windows XP. Fortunately, as time passed by, I found out that there is a way to make those games to work on modern PCs. Process I shared in this page a couple of posts ago.

Wings Over Vietnam Multiplayer

Just as Strike Fighters 2, this first saga has different chapters/upgrades, one of those chapters/upgrades is known as Wings Over Vietnam. Once I got it to work on Windows 11, I wanted to test the so-called multiplayer this first games had and how good or bad it is.

I tried to find someone to test it over Internet with no avail. So, due to the lack of voluntaries I set up my own LAN network at home to make a multiplayer test flight. Long story short, it worked!

In the video bellow I show how I set up the multiplayer session on both PCs and its performance.

Note: If you like this game, blog or videos please subscribe to my Youtube Channel and follow me on Instagram, TikTok, Discord or Facebook for more flight simulation game plays and stuff.

The Jetfighter's Christmas Special II

The Jetfighter's Christmas Special

I opened this channel to share my love for my two hobbies: Retro Gaming and Flight Simulators. Even though this channel is pretty new, and its content is very "niche", I have received a quite unexpected amount of support.

Throughout this year I found out there's something called "gaming groups" where you can organize online flights and friendly combats with people that share your very same interests, a totally new and unexpected experience that made me know a lot of people and make some good online friendships.

My new Discord server

I even shook off the dust off an old Discord account I had laying there unused because of my total lack of knowledge on how to work with that social network. I can proudly say that thanks to the people I've met from my YouTube channel I learned how to use it and even create my own Discord server, to which you're all totally invited to join.

And now, the Christmas Special II

You might wonder, if this is the Christmas Special II, where's the Christmas Special I? Well, last year this website didn't exist, it was a "YouTube exclusive" sort of video. But you can totally watch it by clicking here, it's a fun video I recommend you see, you won't be disappointed.

And now, without further ado, as a big thanks for the support, you've given to my channel and to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year I made this Christmas Special. I hope you like it and don't forget to give it a like, share it, leave a comment, and off course Subscribe to my Youtube Channel!