Chuck Yeager's Air Combat
DOS - 1991
Description of Chuck Yeager's Air Combat
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat is a classic modern air combat simulation that set new standard for the genre at the time of its release. Designed by Brent Iverson (LHX Attack Chopper), the game boasts very realistic controls, a large amount of planes, and nearly endless missions that span 3 theatres of operation.
Trixter said it well in his thorough review of this seminal classic for MobyGames: "CYAC is about air combat, pure and simple. You can quickly design your own missions to fly, or jump into over 50 historically-accurate missions across three war periods (WWII, Korea, and Vietnam), some of which were recounted by Chuck Yeager himself. The handling of the planes is perhaps why CYAC is still played by die-hard sim fans today--it's accurate. Not perfect-down-to-the-last-detail accurate, but most planes just feel right. So "right", in fact, that your success at achieving certain mission objectives depends on knowing what you plane can and cannot do. (Not only are each plane's specifications listed in the manual, but you can bring up a window with a real-time flight envelope to see how and why your maneuvers are stressing the plane!)
Unlike most celebrity endorsements that are shamelessly used to sell a product, Chuck Yeager worked closely with the designers to make the simulation more accurate. His experience in actually flying all of the planes contributed to how they feel in flight and combat, and also helped design certain aspects of the simulation itself (the addition of clouds, for example, was something Chuck insisted on, since they can be used to a tactical advantage).
Speaking of which, the simulation was very well coded: Brent Iverson's graphics routines are extremely well-optimized. The game is perfectly playable on a 286 with VGA, and is mostly playable on an 8088 if the details settings are turned down. The 3D plane models are simple enough to be drawn quickly, but complex enough that they don't look like flying bricks. In addition, there is a VCR-like replay feature that lets you not only replay several minutes of action and save/load them to/from disk, but you can change the camera angle/zoom/viewpoint. For example, you can switch to the enemy's point of view during playback to see how he snuck up on you!
Finally, the documentation that comes with CYAC is exquisitly detailed, with over 150 pages of full-color plates, quick tutorials on air combat maneuvers, a quick-start that shows you the basics, and a full history of war in the sky. The manual significantly adds to the game's value.
There are only two things wrong with CYAC: weak campaigns, and no multiplayer support. The lack of multiplayer support is a real shame, since not only does CYAC provide a great vehicle (no pun intended) for dogfights, but the Macintosh port does support multiplayer, even over a network! Come on, Brent, what happened?
The bottom line: even today, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat has one of the best "feels" of any combat sim. Since it runs perfectly on any speed machine, you owe it to yourself to give it a whirl. Let's put it another way: I was not a fan of flight combat simulations until I played Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. I think that says it all."
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
Skoynay 2024-05-10 2 points
Do you retrogamers all know about these games : ATF, US Navy Fighters, and Fighters Anthology, right? The game system is so similar in all of them... and even in LHX Attachk Chopper, by the way.
Befuddled 2023-08-10 0 point
Like so many others here, this game got me into siimming, from Chuck, to EF2000 and DCS. I even still use the Force Feedback 2 that I used on CYAC for DCS. RIP good man.
Dreadnox 2021-01-15 3 points
You had the right stuff Chuck. You will be missed. This game got me interested in war planes. thanks!
Doc 2020-12-10 2 points
Rest in piece Chuck, Air Combat was the 1st flight simulator I ever played! Thank you for everything!
TheOligopolist 2020-05-25 1 point
To get past copy protection run combat.bat, type in a handful of spaces and hit enter when you are asked to enter in something from the manual.
With the current 74-3 build of dosbox I was getting occasional lockups in the menus when voice clips are supposed to play, you might need to run this through an older build or try a different SVN build to avoid this.
agathosdaimon 2020-04-17 0 point
@Torito7274
yes, you will need to use Dosbox to run the game - dosbox is a really simple dos emulator that is awesome -you cn pretty much play every dos game with it almost
you can also get the download that comes with dosbox in it already so you an just start it right away
https://www.old-games.com/getfile/11940
Torito7274 2020-03-23 -3 points
How to play this game in Windows 10 64 bits??? Can anyone tell me how to play it??? Or if i need to install an emulator or something???
WW Maverick 2018-07-29 2 points
This is the first combat simulator that you really feel the experience of combat plane when you go furball and dogfight
Rookie 2018-07-22 2 points
I have this game which I haven't play for a long time but it is one of my favorite for the fun and learning part of it.
MikeCruiser 2017-11-11 1 point
Loved this game -20 years ago - even though by the time I played it it was already old
RetroGamesRock 2016-09-20 0 point
If the graphics can be updated, this will still be a money maker. I used to have Mac version in 640x480 resolution, it was much more enjoyable. Wonder who owns the source code, the programming community should be able to polish this up with hi-Rez but keep the game play intact.
Rabbid Rabbit 2016-06-24 0 point
Jim695
Hate to tell you this buddy I played this game too and there is no F16 Fighting Falcon in it. The closest you can get is the F4 Phantom 2, BTW the Falcon does not land well at all 3.0 you have to land at a specific angle of attack or you wreck it, I know because I trashed a whole bunch of them in Falcon 4.0. Just Sayin P.S. CYAC is the best blend between Arcade and SIM
Jim695 2016-06-20 0 point
I was stationed at NAS Oceana in an I-level repair shop just a year or so after this game came out. We used state-of-the-art 386 computers back then, with the new MS Windows 3.1 OS (didn't like it much, though, so we still used DOS most of the time). I still have the 3.5" floppy disk containing CYAC, which I uploaded to my workstation. I spent hundreds of hours (and probably a lot of taxpayers' money) flying various missions. The Korean War was my favorite campaign, and I became pretty good at leading Russian Migs back to my base, where I'd shoot them down before bringing my F-16 in for a perfect 3-point landing. Sometimes I'd have to dodge the wreckage of a crippled Mig on the runway while I taxied back to the hangars. I'm glad to see this game is still around and that others continue to enjoy it as much as I did.
joe 2015-09-05 0 point
loved this game for years and would still play it. It doesn't have the graphix of today but it was awesome for it's time
Ed. Zimmerman, Jr. 2015-08-11 0 point DOS version
Flew many a missions, shot down many aircraft. Flew both sides. pitted like to like conditions. The best combat game ever.
delta 1 2014-11-15 1 point DOS version
I played it long years ago.. u can feel that u r a pilot :))
JAY DEE 2014-10-22 -3 points DOS version
for better sound edit "combat.bat" change the second line to yeager blaster then save and run the file in dos box or d-fend,it defaults to pc beeper otherwise
manual not needed its cracked,well apart from instructions\key commands.unyeager cracks the copy protection but the instructions are in french.i think it says hold shift while tapping space a few times at the code prompt then press enter,my french is a little rusty but that worked for me
ivan_perdomo@msn.com 2014-10-14 0 point DOS version
encontré las respuestas en esta direccion:
http://www.gamewinners.com/faq.php?game=c/ChuckYeagersAirCombat-Anonymous.txt
Enjoy it...!!
LePaul 2014-10-08 0 point DOS version
I loved this game! I have yet to find another air combat sim that had the same feel...and the "There I was" scenarios were always a lot of fun.
LegendsXXX2 2014-02-12 0 point DOS version
Loved this game as a kid & ready to check it out again
gero 2014-01-13 0 point DOS version
Yo lo jugaba cuando tenia 6 años , traia el manual para responder las preguntas asi no era trucho jaja que juegazo
Herr Neuhaus 2014-01-09 0 point DOS version
Manual is required for the copy protection questions.
I just found it here.
EDIT ADMIN: manual added thx
andymuza 2013-03-11 0 point DOS version
This game made me go out and buy a PC. I couldn't play it enough.
OM 2013-02-04 1 point DOS version
...This was ahead of its time even a year after it came out. The "There I was..." option was probably the most played feature of the game, especially when you could send a fully-armed F-4 against 15 B-29s, pretending they were Kraut or Jap bombers, and blow them out of the skies with impunity. Yeager admitted that he wanted nuclear tipped air-to-air missiles as part of the ammo options, but the schmucks at EA refused to include this, as well as a B-29 option to allow you to reenact Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or even drop a Fat Man on Moscow or Berlin. A 3.0 version was discussed where the old wireframe scenery disks for the early M$ flight sim could be used, like with Sublogic's Jet 2.0, but thanks to M$ raising the licensing fee, this never came to pass. Yet another classic whose true potential and max amount of fun was castrated by some spooge sponge - and I know the name of the bimbo, because she ran off a lot of Origin employees over this "take a bath, as we've got VIPs in the building tomorrow!" memo - and her cronies.
Still, Gen. Yeager, your game pushed some envelopes. You have our thanks, sir! Singe the tailfeathers off those Angels for us, eh?
zcold 2012-08-13 0 point DOS version
Could not get enough of this game! Had such a great time, and I was not really a flight sim kinda guy.
BERSAN 2011-12-15 0 point DOS version
The first aerial combat game I play in my teens, lucky for find it again in this site.
anrymarchen 2011-04-03 1 point DOS version
It's one of the best flight sims ever, for sure. It's all about air combat, and aerial engagements there are very addictive. Diffirent eras, diffirent planes, variety of situation, smart A.I., pretty realistic flight model(for it's time) and build in mission editor give this game infinte replayability rate. Must have for any flight sim fan.
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