Quote:
Originally Posted by Frug
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I think there were later versions that may have been on AOL, but the original (and I think what the youtube shows) was GEnie.
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Air Warrior was so far ahead of its time that it's destined to be forgotten. It was and remains my favorite computer game of all time. That was the game I would have made if I was going to make a video game. I remember when I found it I felt like it had been sucked out of my dreams, much as how a lot of folks on this board probably feel about EQ.
All of the early versions of Air Warrior were offered through GENIE insofar as I know. This includes the early mac version and amiga version, as well as early DOS versions. I started dabbling with it in 1994, by which time it had already been around awhile. I believe Air Warrior was the first graphical/realtime online multiplayer game, dating back to October 1987. 6 bucks an hour on top of long distance dialup fees (in 1980's money!) severely limited its popularity even among the tiny proportion of computer owners who had modems at all in those days. During its early years it was more or less cutting edge in terms of realism and flight modeling.
GENIE finally died its much-overdue death during the mid 90's IIRC. From about 1996-1998 or so Kesmai had a deal with AOL to offer the Windows version of Air Warrior (aka Air Warrior for Windows, based on the DOS version). This was somewhat strange because Air Warrior II was already out around that time but was barely or never offered on AOL as I recall. Kesmai went back to hosting Air Warrior more or less directly on its Gamestorm service in 1998, (up to Air Warrior III by then, with some basic 3D rendering patched on top of the rather outdated graphic engine). It peaked at something over 20,000 subscribers around 1999, but the end came surprisingly swiftly--it (and its studio) was bought by EA and promptly shut down, closing for good in late 2001. That unfortunate fate has been shared by entirely too many games and studios over the years. I haven't spent a dime on an EA product since. Screw 'em.
WW2 air combat is awesome. No artificial math mucking up combat: no levels, no gear, no timesink-based gating. Just you and the other guy(s). If you're good, you can engage 3 vs 1, 5 vs 1, even 10 vs 1 and expect to win. If you're bad, you're cannon fodder, no low-level helpless opponents to beat up on--as it should be. It's about the only defunct PC game I genuinely miss. There is no equal replacement. I never liked its in-era competitors quite as well for one reason or another. Insofar as I've seen the modern WW2 air combat games (and I've tried most of them) tend to be arcade-mode trash, in a (to be fair, largely successful) effort to bring in the mediocre majority that the more serious simulators couldn't keep due to their difficulty. They're very pretty but severely dumbed down and sometimes add disgusting features like time/currency-gated equipment. Yuck!
As an aside, circa 1999-2000 I remember chatting with some Kesmai programmers on usenet boards and on numerous occasions they complained about not getting work done to to them playing too much Everquest. Hah!
Danth