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Near invisible to radar, shrouded in secrecy and worrying Saddam Hussein as this is written, the F-117A Stealth Fighter is America's most secret aircraft. It was in service for years before it was allowed to be filmed. So MicroProse developed their Stealth sim using 'best guesses' and called it F-19. When the F-117A was finally revealed MicroProse changed the sim to give you the option of flying the original F-19 or a new F-117A.
Four combat zones are available to the Stealth pilot: choose from Libya (with a Training mode for beginners), the Persian Gulf for the ultimate in topicality and the dangerous North Cape and Central Europe combat zones.
A series of parameter-setting option screens allows you to alter Level of Conflict, Type of Mission (choose to attack an air target or strategic or tactical ground targets), Opponent Quality and Flight Performance (beginners had best stick with the No Crashes option before attempting Easy or Real Landings).

A mission briefing and enemy appraisal follows before arming up the aircraft. There's little difference between the two Stealth fighters, neither is easy to fly. The F-117A is slightly unstable in flight but for both types of aircraft survival depends on minimal contact with the enemy and its radar. An EMV Bar Gauge in the cockpit shows your Stealth rating, effectively your 'visibility' to the enemy. Low-altitude, low-speed, level-flight keeps the EMV down, allowing you to penetrate further into enemy airspace without detection (although the higher the selected Opponent Quality level, the more experienced the enemy is, the better protected the target and the harder the mission becomes). Needless to say, once you're detected all hell breaks loose as enemy air-power comes onto the scene and SAM missiles roar skywards.

The most impressive features of the Amiga game are the external viewpoints which, if used effectively, can make your mission almost like a movie. There's a host of standard viewpoints but the tactical views are the best, showing your Stealth from the enemy plane's ground target's view or vice versa. It's near impossible to fly the Stealth from these viewpoints but it's great fun (and very cinematic) to see yourself storm right over the smoking remains of an enemy installation.

After you have created hell in the mission and landed back at base (or not) a debriefing follows, detailing the vents during the flight: successes, hits, kills, mistakes and all. A Save/Load feature is provided but pilots missing/killed in action or retired are removed from the disk.

Hitting the primary and secondary targets all adds to the mission score and successes are met with promotions and decorations for exceptional skill. The higher risk the mission the better the rewards, of course – just don't end up ploughing a field with your F-19!

Zzap, Issue 68, December 1990, p.p.92-93

Graphically F-19 is a mixed bag. The graphics work well at long to mid-range; there's lots of variety and the close-up view via the TV is a neat idea. There's also a plethora of external views which can be switched between to give a genuinely cinematic feel; the enemy perspective pans to keep the F-19 in view superbly. Unfortunately, close up the graphics are poor, the F-19 itself is a simple black silhouette while land graphics are dull.
Partly because of this F-19 isn't a 'pick-up and go' product. The graphics aren't impressive enough for a simple zoom around to be all that satisfying. Indeed the F-19 itself is a realistically poor flier, lacking vertical climb and stalling easily at low altitude. To get the most out of F-19 you have to absorb the 192-page manual which is certainly impressive, with massive attention to detail. In this respect F-19 scores above all other products. This is an uncompromising sim unrivalled in atmosphere. Stealthing about requires more thought than your usual sim, while some weapons are complex to use. There are only a handful of basic missions types, but the various combinations, different zones and ranks provide a massive challenge.

This is the one that I've been waiting for after playing the C64 original to death and being blown away by the graphic quality of the PC version. I was disappointed that it's no advance over the PC game, but for once we have a simulator that is very fast in flight, has great graphic detail and variety and has the mission depth to back it up. The graphics aren't all that sophisticated and there is the odd graphic error here and there (like Boeing 767's casting F-18 Hornet shadows!) but the atmosphere is all there and the enemy is used intelligently to create a thoughtful challenge. Pity about the dire sound effects.
Having got used to the pace of the C64 version, it's all immensely fast now with 16-bit speed and an ultra-sensitive mouse control option (thankfully, this can be adjusted). Learning to cope when the action hots up is going to take quite a while so it's good that you can earn your wings on lower risk warzones before tackling the First Team in Central Europe. For me, the entertainment came from 'thinking' your way through the radar net to the target before the mission and then watching it all work correctly in practice. Finally hitting the target proved immensely satisfying.
The mission selection/creation system is one of the best I've seen as it allows the player to set his own pace through the game rather than being forced through a series of set missions. The flexibility offered by the parameters on the pre-mission option screens ensures appeal for all levels of armchair pilot while also allowing for the development of the player's skills. With the random objective generation system at work to create a different target time, each mission is different in its demands, challenge and methods of attack required by the player. This one's got a lot to offer and keeps you playing.

C64 UPDATE
F-19 originated as C64 Project: Stealth Fighter, which lacks only the external views and f-177A. The price is £9.99/£14.99 and it's still one of Rob's favorite games. A cartridge version is under consideration.


PRESENTATION 93%
Extensive to say the least. A 192-page tome packed with info. Keyboard overlay. Mouse/joystick/keyboard/analogue joystick controls. Two choices of plane. Save/load feature, a user-friendly, flexible pre-mission selection system. Presentation screens for success, failure, medals and promotion. Mouse sensitivity adjust facility.
GRAPHICS 78%
Fast, fluid movement and update. Excellent for sheer variety but, for the most part, unsophisticated shapes.
SOUND 52%
For: Good (if a bit short) title tune and credible engine note sound. Against: The rest of the effects!
HOOKABILITY 82%
The sensitive flight controls and massive manual (which needs to be read) means it can take a while to get used to flying the aircraft. The dangers of an overly complicating, inaccessible simulator are countered by the user friendliness of it all.
LASTABILITY 92%
Four warzones provide good graphic variety. The larger number of mission creation parameters provides masses of challenge, demands and mission variety.
OVERALL
90%
Fast, deep and very entertaining to play.

Title F19 Stealth Fighter
Game Type Flight Sim
Company Microprose
Players 1
Compatibility All
Submission Andy Thomas (andy@adamantium.demon.co.uk)

Review
This was a Microprose flight Sim, later called F117A Nighthawk to reflect
the final designation of the jet. Interestingly you could fly two models
in the Sim; what the jet really looks like today or what everyone thought
it was going to look like - the longer knife shaped aircraft called the
F19. Quite where that design came from I don't know, but I saw it on toys
at the time as well. I assume someone was using the SR-71 as a basis and
taking an educated guess as to what a more modern plane would look like.
Before I get into the game, I'll mention that while it is playable on an
A1200, I found that I tended to release a bit more chaff than I intended
to, because the game's looking for keyboard presses so much faster than on
the A500 it tends to get a bit carried away! Another small details was
that the game came with a keyboard overlay - so helpful when you need to
find the eject key in a hurry!

The game itself wasn't really for speed freaks. In order to play it
properly you had to fly very low, and very slow, in order to avoid
detection. Missile views and views from target were all spot on. Modern
weaponry was well represented, with Mavericks, Paveways and Durandals all
playing their part. In order to get the highest scores you had to learn
how to shoot with the gun effectively. Do-able with air targets certainly,
the slow AWACS planes in particular (and those were the ones that tended
to pick you up and lead other jets to you, so you had to kill them) but
nosediving at ground targets to strafe them was a little harder. However,
given your limited weapons payload, effective gun use was quite important.

Scenarios ranged from Middle East to Central Europe. Missions had primary
and secondary objectives for the big points, and taking out annoying radar
sites got you more points, as did removing enemy planes from the skies.
Getting positively ID'd when playing the cold war style game resulted in a
penalty, although I think you could remedy a visual ID by killing the
plane that spotted you. The aim of any pilot was to get all the medals
going. This meant that you had to eject safely over friendly territory
once, and land your plane in a seriously banged up state once as well.
The latter was great fun as it was generally your avionics that got blow
out, so you'd be wobbling all over the place as you tried to set the
stupid thing down. As with most flight Sims there was a copious manual,
and despite the general lack of enthralling air to air combat it was still
a very engaging Sim from the then masters, Microprose.

Possibly one of the most famous and popular flight sims ever made. The F-19 (which in real life later became the F-117) was the original stealth plane, and this game came out before the "stealth fighter" had become entrenched in the public knowledge. Still, it was popular simply because it approached military flight simming from a whole new angle: Instead of going up and being shot at, the point here was to avoid being shot at by sliding past radar detection. In this way, it's a more strategic sim than most: The point isn't to go out with your guns blazing, it's to plan the best way to get in and out without being seen. Oddly enough, to this day, the concept has not been imitated by any other major sims (save for F-19's sequel, F-117 Nighthawk). A minor notable point on F-19 Stealth Fighter is that it was one of the first sims to make serious mention of the "angle of attack" (AoA), the angle between where your plane is flying and where the nose is pointed. It explained the concept in the manual, including why it matters, and the game even has separate HUD indicators for where your nose is pointed and where your plane is actually flying to.