Download Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain

Mau 2024-03-20 0 point

I have read several positive comments on this game which I bought in the Amiga version. Well, I'm very surprised by all the positive comments, because, at least as far as my Amiga version is concerned, the game was a real DISASTER! In fact, in the missions, both on the German and English sides, the virtual pilots, my "wing companions", didn't help me at all, on the contrary they just let themselves be shot down! I basically should have won that battle ALONE!!! Extremely ridiculous. I repeat, this is for my Amiga version, for the DOS version, I'm looking for a way to play it using "DOS BOX", but without success. I have read that some have suggested rather complicated procedures, practically speaking, to be able to use this game you would need to prepare yourself the evening before!!! Bah!

CodeThief 2023-12-03 2 points DOS version

You can "install" this far easier by just extracting the contents of the Disk 1&2 and Disk 3&4 archives into a folder and running BOB.EXE from there in DosBox

Crossman 2023-01-12 -8 points

Not to put down flight simulators or anything, but the only one of its kind I ever tried was Corncob, and back then I already knew they're all for show and none of the reality of it, even playing it with a joystick since I made sure I had everything I needed for a game -_-
I still found it unrealistic and lacking in reality.
Maybe flight simulators are a thing for would be pilots or those experienced in commercial planes or jets, but we'll never know what it was like to have to fly one of these dinos in an actual true to age setting.
I prefer the Wing Commander style of flying. At least on those you get some sort of maneuverability. These flight simulators are more for when you got plenty of time to spend on learning the intricacies of these types of games, which I don't have the luxury to have.

Nick 2022-11-21 4 points

There might be a better way, but here is exactly how I got up and running with the dos version.

Starting in Windows File Explorer...

1. Create a folder C:\dosgames (directory can be named anything, but for ease of use within DOS emulation it should be kept short and sweet).

2. Download the 3.5" Disk Images below.

3. Extract the downloaded "Their-Finest-Hour-The-Battle-of-Britain_DOS_EN_35-Disk-Images.zip"

4. Drill into the resulting folder structure until you find these files:

Their Finest Hour - Battle for Britain (USA, Europe) (3.5'') (Disk 1 and 2).ima
Their Finest Hour - Battle for Britain (USA, Europe) (3.5'') (Disk 3 and 4).ima

5. Within C:\dosgames, create a folder named "drive"

6. Using any unzip tool (7-Zip, for example), right-click on the "(Disk 1 and 2)" ima file you found in step 4 and extract it.

7. Drill into the resulting folder and copy the listed folders/files (should be a couple folders as well as 20 files - and in all CAPS, DOS-style) into your C:\dosgames\drive folder.

8. Now launch DOSBox. From the DOSBox prompt, run:

mount c c:\dosgames
c:

9. From your "C:\" prompt, now run:

mount a c:\dosgames\drive -t floppy
a:

10. We're now making it appear to DOS that the "C:\dosgames\drive" folder is a floppy disk (drive a:).

11. Now from your "A:\" prompt, run "install c:". You'll get a message letting you know a "BOB1940" folder is about to be created - this is exactly what we want, so press any key.

12. Now you'll get a prompt reading "Please insert "Disk 3 and 4" in Drive A:". We'll switch back to Windows File Explorer for a bit.

13. Go back to where you have your disk image files downloaded and extracted. This time, use an unzip tool to extract the "(Disk 3 and 4)" ima file.

14. Drill into the folder created by this unzipping and you should see some more DOS-y looking files (2 folders, 4 files, all named in all CAPS).

15. Go to C:\dosgames\drive and *delete* all the files currently in there!

16. Now copy the files you found in step 13 into the C:\dosgames\drive folder.

17. Back in DOSBox now, simply press any key to proceed with the install.

18. When the install finished, you'll be conveniently placed at a "C:\BOB1940" prompt. Launching the game is now as simple as entering "bob".

19. If you navigate to your C:\dosgames folder in Windows File Explorer, you'll also note there is a "C:\dosgames\BOB1940" folder here. This is where you will launch the game from on subsequent plays (i.e. no need to go through this painful install):

mount c c:\dosgames
c:
cd bob1940
bob

20. If you wish, from Windows File Explorer, you can delete the "C:\dosgames\drive" directory. It is no longer needed now that we've successfully simulated an install from the floppy images.

larry 2022-06-24 3 points

a true milestone for military simulators. a real game changer.

also one of the few games of the era of which pc versions are better than amiga.

danimalhanke 2021-10-07 0 point

To Stan Try Battle of Britain Wings of Victory 2 a much better campaign from both sides.

spyke 2021-08-04 1 point DOS version

Played this game on my Radio Shack 286 and 386...spent hours on it. found the joystick provided a fairly realistic response. never found anything to match it in an air battle, although flight simulator is decent for flying. helped shorten my north Canadian winters for several years.

Jimbards 2020-10-17 2 points DOS version

Anyone have an actual scan of the cipher wheel?

Jimbards 2020-10-16 1 point DOS version

In the late 80's, I had a 286 pc, DOS based, and LOVED this game. Happy to find it again!!!

Stan 2020-02-15 3 points Amiga version

Sad thing is this is still the best game that offers a campaign mode during the Battle of Britain. Planning from the German side to destroy the airfields and radar or defending as the British.
Of course the graphics are aged but the playability can't be beaten.
Only downside is the Amiga version is SLOW, The PC version is much smoother with better graphics.