F-16 Falcon Strike © 2023-2025 by Jarosław 'Roeoender' Wosik

Latest sim version 1.4.0 released 2025-01-14

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

Date	Version	Description	Download
2025-01-14	1.4.0	On HARD level of "WEAPON REALISM" (former name "WEAPONS STRENGTH") difficulty setting only targets that are within onboard radar forward detection cone (128 degrees ahead) can be locked on. Radar lock is lost when target moves outside of radar cone, message "LOCK LOST" is then displayed (see image gallery for 1.4.0). Map still displays all near enough targets that are around player's aircraft. Trajectory of cannon rounds and unguided rockets is now affected by gravity so it is ballistic. The further you are from the target, the more correction you have to make when aiming. Improved cannon hit detection, but cannon rounds now fly 3 times slower so you must aim much more ahead of moving enemy plane (new circular A2A HUD aiming marker can be used as a reference). Changed "About" screen to specify distribution conditions and no commercial use without written permission (see image gallery for 1.4.0). In A2A mode HUD aiming marker is now more circular than rectangular (see image gallery for 1.4.0). Increased pitching moment during stall. Improved campaign mission 1 for MED and HARD level of "ENEMY AMOUNT" difficulty setting - better placement of additional enemy fighter patroling area. Initial radar zoom changed to 5 (longer range) instead of 3. Significant performance optimizations: Improved skipping drawing of objects outside viewport. Loop unrolling to speedup screen clearing. Screen synchronization waits only for completion of 3d part of view redraw instead of whole screen. Simplifications in lift and speed calculation. Switched to better compression algorithm of all images and music. Changed mission outcome message from "YOU LANDED" to "YOU HAVE LANDED". Changed difficulty setting name "WEAPONS STRENGTH" to "WEAPON REALISM".	F16FalconStrike140.zip
2025-01-01	1.3.0	Each mission now can have specific time of day and weather conditions: sunrise, midday, sunset, night and overcast. Conditions are also reflected on the arming screen. At night cockpit is higlighted in red. Changed cockpit stylization/design When landing gear is extended plane's roll rate is automatically decreased to make it easier to steer the plane to the desired heading.	F16FalconStrike130.zip
2024-12-07	1.2.0	Easier difficulty settings for new players: Invulnerability during landing on "Landings" difficulty setting EASY Unlimitted ammo on "Weapon Realism" (former "Weapon Strength") difficulty setting EASY Improved navigation during flight - showing current heading with red line on the map (H key to toggle) Improved readability of preflight briefing map: Presenting waypoint labels - START, WP1 (Waypoint 1), WP2 (Waypoint 2), LANDING Initial map zoom level adjusted per each mission Adjusted ground green color changes to warn better about getting too close to ground. Showing zoom level in time acceleration mode and lower zoom speed change in this mode. Changes to cockpit graphics: HUD frame shape and color change Angle at cockpit corners Fonts at left side of HUD re shifted by 1 pixel to the right Changes to training missions Mission 2 - changed distances to waypoints Mission 6 - shorter distance to enemy aircrafts Small fixes Fixed 1 frame visual glitch with horizon line during rolled landing Remove of gray vertical bar that may be visible on title screen when display is in Overscan mode Extended RAPIDUS version - no other changes apart from the above	F16FalconStrike120.zip
2024-11-16	1.1.6	Improved sim performance - faster drawing values in cockpit RAPIDUS version - no other changes apart from the above	F16FalconStrike116.zip
2024-11-13	1.1.5	For german QWERTZ keyboards key Y has same meaning as Z (radar zoom) Status messages disappear automatically after few secs Assembly optimization of ground drawing in roll attitude Optimization of distant points rotation Optimization of vector addition in direction Small Fix - when target is destroyed optimization in version 1.1.0 didn't update right MFD in mode 2 RAPIDUS version - no other changes apart from the above	F16FalconStrike115.zip
2024-10-27	1.1.0	Improved campaign logic - if you land safe even without completing mission you can retry it, otherwise campaign ends Increased AAA explosion duration Adjusted 3D clipping range so runway is not clipped during take off Improved HUD A2A aiming circle resolution MFD refresh rate decrease and redraw optimisations Missiles/bulles and bomb CCIP are now always red Missiles are now displayed as + and x for greater visibility Drawing optimisation for far objects in rear hemisphere, small perspective optimisation Increased maximum allowed ground speed without damage Fixes in playing multiple sounds at the same time - cannon and explosion Disabling sound after playing music (request by JAC!) Fixed typo (thanks to StefanD) Added early preview of Rapidus vesion - keys 9 and 0 can be used to adjust game speed. Note1: cursor speed in briefing is not affected yet. Note2: Not tested on real hardware yet! RAPIDUS only: all 3D objects always use full detail 3D model RAPIDUS only: more cannon bullets as fire ratio is faster Various other small adjustements and optimisations	F16FalconStrike110.zip
2024-07-31	1.0.0	Initial release for ABBUC 2024 software contest	F16FalconStrike100.zip

Screenshot gallery

Version 1.4.0 (2025-01-13)

Version 1.3.0 (2025-01-01)

Version 1.2.0 (2024-12-07)

Version 1.0.0 (2024-10-27 ABBUC 2024)

F-16 Falcon Strike 1.0.0 for Atari 8-bit teaser video

List of features

"Firsts"
- First new 3D combat flight simulator for 8-bit Atari XL/XE computers in over 35 years.
- First Polish flight simulator for 8-bit Atari XL/XE ever.
- First Polish 6DoF, 3D vector vector graphics game for 8-bit Atari XL/XE ever.
Campaign
- 15 handcrafted missions forming a campaign.
- Diverse mission kinds: air combat, enemy bombers interception, ground units support, bombing raids, preventing enemy tanks from reaching friendly structures.
- Each mission has text briefing and specific victory conditions.
- Scenery features real life cities and runways in their accurate positions.
- Campaign progress is saved to disk after each flight.
- Mission score depends on various factors.
- Different mission outcomes are illustrated with original 9-color GTIA mode graphics.
Flight model
- Advanced (as of 8bit platform), self-designed flight model with angle of attack, lift and drag calculation.
- Fighter maneuverability depends on the amount of mounted weapons / fuel pods.
- Fighter speed depends on plane's loadout (shape drag factor) and altitude (atmospheric density factor).
- Damage mechanics - various systems of the aircraft may be damaged - HUD display, engine, Flight Control System etc.
- Simulation difficulty can be tailored to different players by changing level of 7 difficulty settings.
Weapons
- Player can arm his F-16 with various weapon types: Cannon, Unguided missiles, Bombs, Guided missiles - Air to Air: AIM-9L Sidewinder, AIM-120 Amraam, Air To Ground: AGM-65 Mavericks, Anti-Radar: AGM-88 HARM.
- Arming is done on a dedicated screen visualising your F-16's current loadout.
- Bullets, bombs and missiles movement is calculated through 3D space - no fake sprites mimicking missiles or cannon.
- Bullets and unguided rockets have ballistic trajectory.
- Sidewinders, as infrared-guided missiles, can only be locked on the enemy's fighter rear hemisphere.
- On HIGH difficulty setting only targets that are in onboard radar forward detection cone can be locked.
3D engine
- 17 varied 3D objects including fighters, bombers, tanks, radars, hangars, bridges, mountains, explosions etc.
- To increase frame rate most objects have 2 levels of details.
- Missions are flown at visually different time of day: sunrise, midday, sunset, night and clear or overcast weather.
- Both ground and sky change hue with altitude.
World simulation
- Ground units can move - missions may fail if enemies reach their goals.
- Enemy fighters don't appear out of thin air - they take off from runways after your fighter is identified as hostile.
- Flight time can be shortened by using time acceleration.
- You need to identify friend/foe as there are also friendly structures/vechicles in the world.
Cockpit
- Detailed cockpit with HUD (Head-Up Display) and two MFDs (Multifunction Flight Displays) with independently switchable modes.
- Zoomable radar display with Air and Ground modes.
- Large navigation map mode.

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

Best way to learn how to play is to watch tutorial video:

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.
Game was also tested on Altirra 4.20+ emulator
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 amount are visible on the Left MFD 4 mode DAMAGE REPORT. 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.
Weapon realism: 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.
EASY level also provides unlimited ammo.
On HARD level radar lock is maintained only if locked target is in forward radar detection cone (128 degrees)
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.
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.
Landings: On EASY level hitting ground will never crash your plane.
On MEDIUM level area around runway safe for landing is larger,
also higher vertical speeds of touchdown are tolerated.

You can click on EASY, MED, HARD labels 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.

Cannon

Your F-16 is always equipped with cannon. Only aerial targets can be destroyed by cannon. You can fire 50 bursts (100 in Rapidus version).

Note that since v. 1.4.0 cannon rounds fly slower and are affected by gravity so you must aim much more ahead (use aiming circle as reference).

Sidewinder effective RANGE: around 400 DST units

AIM-9L Sidewinder

AIM-9L Sidewinder Air To Air missile 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.

Sidewinder effective RANGE: around 400 DST units

AIM-120 AMRAAM

AIM-120 AMRAAM Air To Air missile has longer range and more firepower, but for few seconds after launch doesn't maneuver so it is less suitable for close range combat.

Amraam effective RANGE: around 1100 DST units

LAU-87 Rocket pod

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

Note that since v. 1.4.0 unguided rockets are affected by gravity so you must aim above the target to account for ballistic trajectory.

Effective RANGE: around 250 DST units

AGM-65 Maverick

Aie To Ground missile 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

Unguided 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

Weapon notes

IMPORTANT since v. 1.4.0 on HARD level of WEAPON REALISM difficulty setting radar lock is maintained only if locked target is in forward radar detection cone (128 degrees), if locked targets goes outside of this cone radar cannot track target and radar lock is lost, so you must lock target again when it goes inside radar detection cone again.

In-flight map displays all near enough targets around your plane in all difficulty settings.

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

Cockpit

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.

Currently locked by radar target is put in rectangle on HUD (or between 2 lines when Sidewinders wepon is active and they cannot lock on target).

Information shown on Left MFD mode 2, Right MFD mode 2 depend on currently selected radar mode.

Left MFD modes

To change left MFD mode press "1" or "," key.

Left MFD 1 mode: FUEL CONSUMPTION

Remaining fuel amount.
Fuel burn rate.
Mission time.
Note that fuel parameters are recalculated periodically with some delay.

Left MFD 2 mode: WEAPON AMOUNT

Air or ground (depending on currently active radar mode) available weapons amount.

Left MFD 3 mode: COUNTERMEASURES AMOUNT

Decoys (chaff, flares) amount.

Left MFD 4 mode: DAMAGES

Fuselage integrity (remaining hit points) and roster of plane's damaged subsystems.

Right MFD modes

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

Right MFD 1 mode: POSITION

Flight parameters - altitude, speed, coordinates relative to the "bullseye".

Right MFD 2 mode: TARGET TRACKING

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.
When radar is turned off "NO RADAR" is displayed.
When no target is locked "NO TRGT" is displayed.

Right MFD 3 mode: ORIENTATION

Plane's spatial orientation - heading, pitch, roll.

Right MFD 4 mode: AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE

Flight performance information - drag factor (depends on amount of weapons and fuel tanks mounted).
Max G limit factor (depending on amount of weapons and fuel) enforced by FCS.

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.

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

Key	Meaning
+/- or < />	Throttle
A	Afterburner
B	Airbrakes
G	Gear up/down
J	Jettison current weapon or fuel pods in nav mode
H	HUD brightness
,/. or 1/2	Toggle left/right MFD
R	Radar mode (air, ground, nav)
Z/X	Radar zoom in/out
T	Next target
W	Next weapon in given radar mode
F	Launch flare (anti A2A)
C	Launch chaff (anti G2A)
M	Map
P	Pause
TAB	Time acceleration (only when outside AAA range)
Space	Clear last message
Esc	Quit mission

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

Date	Description
2025-01-14	Updated game's manual to accomodate changes itroduced by 1.4.0. 1.4.0 version released for download.
2025-01-03	Updated game's manual.
2025-01-01	1.3.0 version released for download.
2024-12-07	1.2.0 version released for download. Documented approximate weapon ranges. Added version 1.2.0 screenshots.
2024-11-23	1.1.6 version released for download.
2024-11-13	1.1.5 version released for download.
2024-10-27	1.0.0 (ABBUC) and 1.1.0 + Rapidus preview versions released for download.
2024-09-28	Added teaser and tutorial YouTube videos.
2024-07-31	Non-public version rereleased for ABBUC software contest 2024.