Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting
DOS - 1993
Also released on: Amiga
Description of Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting
A "light" flight sim from MicroProse UK that, as the name suggests, give you a chance to fly most of the famous fighter models from World War 1 to the present day.
Air Duel doesn't pretend to have ultra realistic flight models or avionics borrowed from the military, but it does offer the flight simulation novice the opportunity to learn the basics of dogfighting in a fun, new way.
Air Duel offers two main features that make it a worthwhile addition to your gaming library. First, the 'What If' scenarios that allow the player to pit aircraft from vastly different eras against each other in air combat. Imagine taking on a Fokker Triplane with an F-15? Not as easy as it sounds. Not exactly simple to get radar lock on a plane that small. You'll also find yourself outturned quite easily and possibly in the gunsights of what appears to be an inferior plane.
Air Duel will allow the pilot to choose from the Sopwith Camel, the Spitfire, the F-4 Phantom, the Harrier Jump Jet, the F-16 Eagle, the Fokker DR1, and the Mig-23. All of these aircraft can be pitted against each other to provide for some very interesting matchups. A heat-seeking Sidewinder doesn't do much good against a prop-driven Sopwith Camel!
The other great feature of Air Duel is the head-to-head modem play mode. Here, you can take on your pilot friends in a duel with the aircraft of their choice, again from different eras. The Air Duel manual is very well done with plenty of pages devoted to air combat maneuvering (ACM), teaching flight novices the nuances of Scissors, Split-S, and Yo-Yos. When you practice long enough, you'll find yourself reacting instinctively to your opponent moves as you both try to get on the other's 'six'.
Air Duel is made of of three main modes: Duel Mode, where you match famous aircraft from the same historical period against each other; the 'What-If' mode, that allows you to put any aircraft from the game up against any other plane; and finally, the Mission Mode, that provides full mission planning, allocation of resources, and targeting of ground and air targets. You begin in WWI and work your way all the way up to the conflict over Syria. Here you'll use all your flying skills as well as your landing and taking off skills.
Overall, this is more of a game than a serious simulation, but is great fun nonetheless.
Review By HOTUD
External links
Comments and reviews
ghjt 2024-10-31 0 point
This game is also on steam, by the name of Dogfight: 80 Years of Aerial Warfare
Kluckeroo 2023-11-25 1 point
This game is also offered on STEAM, but it goes by a different name; "Dogfight: 80 Years of Aerial Warfare" - I suggest adding a hyperlink to it.
Bimmy 2018-08-28 -2 points DOS version
The manual here for DOS is actually for Amiga. Notice some omitted pages, page 3 for example.
Admin edit: replaced it with the DOS manual
Quintus 2016-04-11 1 point
Great game, but somehow i have no throttle control. I know it is supposed to be + and - but it doesn't work. This is a real problem as i can't take off this way. Does anybody know how to fix this?
plasticrabbit 2015-05-27 -1 point DOS version
have you tried upping cpu cycles? ctrl + f12 i think. works okay on p70 dos 6.1.
Jon 2015-04-01 -1 point DOS version
This game always had FPS issues, i remember having a top of the range 486 that was far more than the game needed but alot of the missions ran at about 5 FPS.
JLC420 2014-07-22 -3 points DOS version
Can find the manual here...... This is the UK title for it dogfight -80-years-of-aerial-warfare
This is the same manual you would have had with the original disks.
[EDIT: Manual added to this page, thx JLC420]
Jegas 2014-01-01 -2 points DOS version
Dosbox 0.74 + Win7 (64bit) - Works Great...
However I don't know why the framerate was so slow for me. I figured having a old game like this one would fly smooth - and if anything have TO FAST of a frame rate. I'm puzzled.
If you get good framerates - or if I manage to - we have a great game like other commenters have said. Right now - I know it works - but I need to get the framerates up if I'm going to actually play this game with any seriousness (actually hang out and dogfight and try things etc).
Jay 2013-10-06 -2 points DOS version
Keyboard commands
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/docs.php?id=492
Jay 2013-10-04 -1 point DOS version
This was a stunning game.. and I recommend it to anybody..
Choose WW2 as a mission and fly in a Spitfire.. Press T for target select and F3 and F4 to see target and your perspective to and from the target. Very playable.. Fly across the channel with fellow spitfires.. hurricanes, shoot down a few ME109s.. return to refuel and reload and fly out again.. great game.
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Buy Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting
Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting is available for a small price on the following websites, and is no longer abandonware. GOG.com provides the best release and does not include DRM, please buy from them! You can read our online store guide.
Game Extras and Resources
Some of these file may not be included in the game stores. For Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting, we have the following files:
18 MB (DOS)
Other Releases
Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting was also released on the following systems:
Amiga
- Year: 1993
- Publisher: MicroProse Software, Inc.
- Developer: Vektor Grafix Ltd
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