F-16 Falcon Strike © 2024 by Jarosław 'Roeoender' Wosik

Latest sim version 1.2.0 released 2024-12-07

About

Become Polish Air Force F-16 Pilot defending E.U. & Polish border from B.A.R.F. (Belarussian And Russian Federation) aggression in fictional "Królewiec Campaign" of 15 varied missions.

Apply strategic planning to defeat enemy air and ground forces, quickly update your plans according to developements in the simulated dynamic 3D battlefield.

With this game I'd like to pay homage to the golden era of 80/90's computer combat flight simulators.

Game releases

Screenshot gallery

F-16 Falcon Strike for Atari 8-bit teaser video

List of features

Video tutorial - F-16 Falcon Strike 8-bit Atari XL/XE flight sim Tutorial 1 English

Running instructions

Game was tested on real Atari 65XE PAL with SDrive Mini, but should also be playable on NTSC (slightly different colors) and other Atari XL/XE variants. ATR image is a 130Kb disk bootable with XBOOT Loader and XBIOS by XXL, so game should load and start automatically. Game saves campaign state on disk, so disk should not be write-protected. Cursor in game menus can be controlled with joystick in Port 1. Note: Some pictures are displayed in GTIA mode so they may look strange on computers with bugged GTIA chip.

PRE FLIGHT OPTIONS

Difficulty settings screen

Plane hitpoints

how many hits player's fighter can receive before being destroyed Remaining hitpoints are visible on the DAMAGE MFD. It is recommended to start with EASY setting.

Plane malfunctions

how often and what kind of plane malfunctions plane can receive.

Countermeasures amt

how many chaffs and flares used to evade enemy missiles are available.

Weapons strength

how much damage player's weapon cause. On easier levels it is easier to destroy heavily armoured objects with less explosive weapons - for example bunker with Mavericks. It is recommended to play with HARD setting whenever possible, as this makes use of different kinds of A2G weapons to destroy harder targets like bunkers more necessary.

Enemy experience

how fast enemy reacts and fires missiles. It is recommended to first try with HARD setting as this makes game more dynamic.

Landings

on easier levels area around runway safe for landing is larger, also higher vertical speeds of touchdown are tolerated.

Enemy amount

on easier levels some enemies are removed from the map making missions significantly easier to complete. VERY IMPORTANT SETTING as more strategically placed enemies make missions more interesting. It is best to try to complete all missions at the HARD setting.

You can click on "Easy", "Med", "Hard" buttons above settings to set all settings to given level.

Difficulty settings can only be set at campaign start.

It is recommended to try hardest playable settings first and only change "Plane hitpoints" and/or "Countermeasures amt" to make game less challenging.

Map screen at briefing

You can click following areas to toggle visibility of objects on the map:

In Show section:

Borders

visibility of Borders.

Waypoints

visibility of path between waypoints for given mission.

In Ranges section:

Runway

visibility of detection range of enemy runways.

Radar

visibility of detection range of enemy radars.

Sam

visibility of fire range of enemy SAM-s.

In Labels section:

Runway

visibility of runway names.

City

visibility of city names.

Type

visibility of object type.

You can use "W", "A", "S", "D" keys to move map and "-" / "+" or "<" / ">" to zoom out / in.

ARMING

Prior to take-off, the pilot can select the armament appropriate to fulfil the mission objectives on a dedicated Arming screen. In some missions specific armament may not be available.

A2A missiles

AIM-9L Sidewinder is good at short ranges, more maneuverable, but has lower fuel amount and range. AIM-9L Sidewinder can be shot only at targets showing their rear hemisphere - inability to shoot at target is marked with two horizontal lines instead of full rectangle. AIM-120 AMRAAM has longer range and more firepower, but for few seconds after launch doesn't maneuver so it is less suitable for close range combat.

Sidewinder effective RANGE: around 400 DST units

Amraam effective RANGE: around 1100 DST units

LAU-87 Rocket pod

Short range, unaimed rockets good for destroying unarmoured vehicles, ineffective against armoured structures.

Effective RANGE: around 250 DST units

AGM-65 Maverick

Suitable for light and medium armoured vehicles, may need to use several to destroy buildings. May not hit it's target when fired from too steep angle or too short distance.

Effective RANGE: around 500 DST units

MK-84 Bombs

Largest explosive firepower. Around 1500ft and below a CCIP (Constantly Calculated Impact Point) marker is shown for aiming. Still hardest structures may require more than 1 hit for complete destruction. Watch out not to be too low at the time of the impact as your plane may get damaged by the blast.

AGM-88 HARM

Can only lock on radars, has very long range so it often can be fired before entering enemy radar & SAM range.

Effective RANGE: around 1500 DST units

Your fighter velocity adds to the velocity of the missile so to extend missile range fly as fast as possible before launching.

Every weapon has limited, specific attachement points it can be mounted to. A2G cannot be mounted on outer pylons and wingtips

In some missions some weapons may not be available.

Weight of your plane affects your maneuverability.

When you are trying to escape from enemy attack you can press 'J' key to jettison all items of currently selected weapons (or all fuel pods in Nav mode) to reduce plane's drag factor.

Fewer mounted items mean smaller drag factor which results in greater speed and range.

FLYING

Stall

Do not fly slower than around 120 knots otherwise you will stall the plane. High G turns/climbs may also increase angle of attack so high it will greatly increase drag which may in turn reduce your speed to the stall speed.

Do not fly too high as this also may stall plane - not enough oxygen for your jet engine.

Taking Off

You will typically start right after your F-16 was towed out from the hangar, so you will need to taxi to the runway - if your initial heading is north (0) then increase throttle to 10% with ">" or "+" key, wait till you arrive just before runway's centerline and then turn right to Eastern (90) heading. Do not increase speed too much on the tarmac as you may damage gear. When centered on runway increase throttle to 100% or engage afterburner with "A" key. Pull stick around 180 knots to take off. Make sure to pull your landing gears with "G" key before reaching speed around 370 knots and disengage afterburner to save fuel.

Navigation Map

Where to fly can be determined on a navigation map available after pressing "M" key. Player's fighter is always in the center of the map. North is always up. Map is zoomable using "-","+" or "<",">" keys. Map always displays position of well known objects like landmarks, cities, runways, but other objects like tanks, bunkers, fighters are displayed only when they are in fighter's radar range. Identified by our Intelligence detection ranges of enemy airbases, radars, SAM sites and ground vehicles can be switched on and off using "A", "R", "S", "G" keys respectively.

On longer distances when outside map mode you can press "TAB" key to turn on time acceleration. Watch out as you still control plane in this mode. Time acceleartion automatically disables if you will be in AAA fire range. If you are playing in emulator you can also use full emulation speed for time acceleration - for example in Altirra emulator by pressing "F1" key.

Cockpit

Left MFD modes

1. 1 - Remaining fuel amount, fuel burn rate, mission time. Note that fuel parameters are recalculated periodically with some delay.
2. 2 - Air or ground (depending on currently active radar mode) available weapons amount.
3. 3 - Decoys (chaff, flares) amount.
4. 4 - Fuselage integrity (remaining hit points) and roster of plane's damaged subsystems.

Right MFD modes

1. 1 - Flight parameters - altitude, speed, coordinates relative to the "bullseye".
2. 2 - Currently locked air or ground (depending on currently active radar mode) target, distance to target, Identification Friend or Foe (IFF). Note that as distance requires radar signal and IFF require data transmission they are updated periodically with some delay.
3. 3 - Plane's spatial orientation - heading, pitch, roll.
4. 4 - Flight performance information - drag factor (depends on amount of weapons and fuel tanks mounted) and max G limit factor (depending on amount of weapons and fuel) enforced by FCS.

To change right MFD mode press "2" or "." key.

Onboard radar

Fighter's radar modes can be switched using "R" key - cycling between: N - Nav (radar off), G - Air to Ground (tracking ground targets), A - Air to Air (tracking air targets). Radar range can be changed using "Z" and "X" keys. Information shown on Left MFD mode 2, Right MFD mode 2 depend on currently selected radar mode. Currently locked target is put in rectangle on HUD.

How enemy Radars and SAMs work

If player's fighter is inside enemy ground radar range "R" LED is active on the right LED panel. Some time is spent on identification and if fighter is also inside range of any SAM it will fire a ground to air missile - "S" warning led will be active. You can press "C" key to release chaffs to temporarily deactivate missile's guidance system. In some missions you will have AGM-68 HARM missiles available with which you can destroy Radar sites from long range. Remember that SAM will launch only when you are at the same time both in given SAM's and any ground radar range.

RADAR/SAM ground defense system is not integrated with other B.A.R.F. forces - enemy airbases operate their own independent Radar Warning System and will initiate fighter interception when they identify your presence in their own radar range.

Landing

Use training missions 1 and 2 to practice landings. Fly towards a point on the extension of longitudinal axis of the runway far enough from runway's threshold to have enough time to acheive good alignment with runway axis and stabilize glideslope. After aligning your position with the runway longitudinal axis reduce throttle with "<" or "-" keys to acheive stable speed below 300knots (about 20%-30% throttle) with nose pitch adusted to maintain glideslope towards point before runway threshold. Few seconds before reaching the lower threshold of the runway, smoothly raise the nose and reduce speed further so that you continue to maintain a slight descent. Upon touchdown cut throttle and engage airbrakes (with "B" key) to reach full stop before runway ends. You do not need to taxi back to the hangar. Press Esc key to end mission.

If you have problems landing you can change landing difficulty setting.

Campaign

Read mission briefing carefully as some missions have detailed Rules of engagement (R.O.E.) that may prohibit attacking certain targets.

If you successfully complete goals of given mission you advance to the next one.

Game stores information about highest completed mission and allows you to later refly any mission you already completed.

In campaign mode death results in campaign end, in refly mode you still can continue campaign by reflying last mission.

Controls

Elevator / ailerons and weapon release are controlled using Joystick in Port 1

Tips

• When targeting enemy use second mode of right MFD (use key '2' to switch) to determine distance from enemy.
• Fire weapon only when enemy is in it's effective range (see approximate ranges above).
• When playing in emulator you may increase framerate by simply changing emulator acceleration options.
• When playing in emulator you may temporarily fast-forward long straight flights towards waypoint - for example in Altirra Emulator by pressing "F1" - Warp Speed.
• In near future I may publish video tutorial explaining all game's functions and how to play by completing some mission. I'll update this site then, so come back soon :)

Credits

Song used in briefing screens "Raszyn 1809" was composed and turned into CMC song by Jakub Husak in 1992 and he generously allowed its use in this game.

This game wouldn't be possible without awesome compilers - Mad-Pascal and Mad-Assembler by TeBe/MadTeam. Mad Pascal's extensive libraries and samples greatly remove pains of learning programming on 8bit Atari. For example Mad Pascal's library provides high performance line drawing function by Eru/TQA which convinced me that starting this project was feasible. Highly recommended.

Other very useful tools/software that greatly helped in developement:

• Atari Graphics Studio by TeBe/Madteam
• MAD Studio by Gury
• Rasta Converter by ilmenit
• xBIOS by xxl
• BLIBS by Bocianu
• Altirra by Avery Lee

Contact

You can contact me via atariage.com or atarionline.pl forum - user 'Roeoender'.

Please inform me if you have written this game's review or streamed gameplay - I'd really like to read what people think about this game and how they play it.

Future

Depending how well will be this game recieved I may improve and extend it - for example by adding random mission generator or mission editor.

Website changelog