Falcon 4.0

About Falcon 4.0

Falcon 4.0 (1998) is MicroProse's highly realistic F-16 combat flight simulator, set in a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula with a dynamic campaign that reacts to the player's actions.

Falcon 4.0 in Depth

The story begins in the early 1990s with North Korea invading the South and the United States sending aircraft, armour and ships in support; what follows depends on the player and may draw in China and Russia. The simulation models the Block 50/52 F-16 Fighting Falcon and parallels real fighter operations. More than 30 training scenarios teach manoeuvring, avionics and US Air Force procedures before the player enters the campaign, a dogfight mode for single engagements, or Tactical Engagements, effectively miniature campaigns. A logbook records flight hours, kills, decorations and rank, and good flying can earn medals and promotion while destroying friendly targets or ejecting needlessly can bring demotion or court-martial.

Campaigns split into briefings and missions. In briefings the player plans flights and packages, sets steerpoints and weapons loadouts, and can even command ground units directly, and ignoring the positions of enemy SAM sites or combat air patrols will almost certainly mean a short flight. Missions model flying, radar and weapons, threat evaluation, radio and navigation as closely as possible at the highest realism settings. Three campaigns shipped: Tiger Spirit, with the allies on the offensive, Rolling Fire, a closely matched fight, and Iron Fortress, with the South pushed back to its last line. Being dynamic, campaigns have no set path and evolve with the war.

Making Falcon 4.0

In development from 1994, it was designed and produced by Steve Blankenship and Gilman Louie as the culmination of Spectrum HoloByte's Falcon series, begun in 1984; HoloByte had bought MicroProse and adopted its name. Slated for late 1996, it was finally rushed out on 12 December 1998 for Christmas, by which point Hasbro owned MicroProse and soon ended official development. It sold 209,000 copies in 1999 alone, and PC Gamer US named it the best simulation of 1998, while Computer Gaming World called it a sim of unprecedented detail. Thanks to the leaked code and its community, it is one of the longest-running PC game series built on a single code base.