F-19 Stealth Fighter

About F-19 Stealth Fighter

F-19 Stealth Fighter (1988) is MicroProse's stealth flight simulator, built on an educated guess about America's secret stealth jet and released the same day the Air Force revealed the F-117.

F-19 Stealth Fighter in Depth

The player flies missions of varying difficulty over four regions: Gaddafi's Libya, the Persian Gulf, the North Cape and Central Europe, under conditions of conventional war, limited war or cold war, in which merely being detected can cause a major diplomatic incident. A wide range of realistic ordnance can be chosen, and enemy aircraft, SAM sites and radar stations behave convincingly, patrolling at first and then searching aggressively once the player is detected. A realistic radar model compares the plane's changing radar signature with incoming pulses at different ranges and strengths.

Missions end in a variety of ways depending on the outcome, from rescue by a Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King to a Pravda headline announcing the pilot's capture, or an outraged ally or neutral nation protesting the destruction of its aircraft. A pilot roster tracks missions, rank, score and medals, and deaths are permanent, giving an extended campaign feel. The aircraft is based on the fictional F-19, inspired by a 1986 Testors model kit, though an option for the real F-117 was added, modelled on a deliberately vague 1988 press photo with wrongly stubby, wide proportions. The box included a thick manual on US and Soviet aircraft, keyboard overlays, a guide to stealth and fighter tactics and sketched maps of each war zone.

Making F-19 Stealth Fighter

After Jim Synoski and Arnold Hendrick finished Project Stealth Fighter for the C64, Sid Meier and Andy Hollis joined for the PC version, which Hendrick said borrowed only "the game scenario concepts, military equipment research data, and perhaps some flight dynamics algorithms". Before release, many had speculated about the missing F-19 designation, and MicroProse released the game the same day the US military first admitted the F-117A Nighthawk existed. Computer Gaming World praised its realism and documentation, with tutorials on aerodynamics, radar, stealth and tactics, and the Software Publishers Association named it Best Simulation. It came to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1990, the PC-98 in Japan, and Steam in 2015.