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The best dogfighting sim of it's era

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Should I review a 1999 flight sim that 4 people are going to buy? Sure, there's nothing good on TV tonight.

Mig Alley as you are probably aware portrays the air war above Korea during the Korean war of thhe early 1950s. 5 aircraft are available to fly. The P 51 Mustang, the F80 SHooting Star (Anerica's first jet) the F-84 Thunderjet, the F 86 Sabre and the Mig 15.If you've played modern jet sims like Falcon 4 be aware that these early jets are very different. Handling is a different challenge; whereas a the F16 flies so smoothly that it *feels* like you're playing a computer simulation, the early jets require much more finesse to fly. Push it past it's limits and it will either stall, or go into a dangerous spin. Apart from the way the jets physically behave, the avionics...well they didn't have any! Except for a rudimentary radar ranger for gunsights, which you'll rarely use. As a brief simplication the planes in Mig Alley are like the prop fighters of a WW2 flight sim but with considerably more engine power available. The sense of those jets behind you churning out 1000s of pounds of thrust is quite exhilarating compared to the more sluggish props and you can aptly throw the plane about the sky more than any WW2 sim you've played. The Mig 15 in particular has a great climb rate.

Although there are 5 planes to fly, most players will want to play with only two, the F86 Sabre and the Mig 15. The other planes are primarily ground attack planes, and ground attack isn't what most people who buy this are looking for. While modern ground attack is a complex affair of munitions, avionics and terrain following, the ground attack of the early 1950s is no different from WW2. Fly to the target area, point you nose at the ground target and fire away. Fun for a bit maybe, but the air to air dogfighting is where MIg Alley really shines. The F 86 and MIg 15 follow the classic tradition of "boom and zoom" that is to say one plane is faster and has a more powerful engine at the expense of maneuverability (here the Mig 15) while the other has a weaker engine but is more maneuverable. Here it's slighly more complex still; the Sabre has an extremely quick roll rate (360s degrees in 2 seconds) making it a very agile target (or hunter) in the short term, while the Mig 15 has a slow roll rate, but a higher *sustained* turn rate. There is a large difference in ammunition too, the Sabre uses high velcoity machine guns requireingl ess "lead"(or aiming ahead) at the expense of little damage inflicted, while the Mig 15 fires powerful cannon that can do terrible damaage, but the much slower muzzle velocity means that much more lead is required, making scoring a hit much trickier than with the Sabre. The thrll of dogfighting in Mig Alley is quite amazing considering that its "only" a computer game. I first got into modern flight sims with Janes's WW2 Fighters, but Mig Alley managed to top even that with sheer "Keep in my sights you @*!$!! Keep it there...gotcha!!" immersiveness.

Ohter good points- the sensation of flying is amazing. Although the green and brown Korean landscape lacks the glamour of, say, European farmland or Pacific atolls I can't think of another flight sim of it's era that gave the sensation of flying so well. A good way to measure it is to pick the view 45 degrees either left of right, then do a slow roll in that direction while looking at the landscape. Mig Alley nearly gave me vertigo with that. Another thing that sets is above most others is a dynamcic campaign (here called The Spring Offensive) In fact the campaign goes above most others in that not only is it dynamic, but you can order your squadrons of planes around on the map just like a wargame.

Situational awareness is I'm pleased to say,good. There is an artificial horizon in the top right of your screen at all times, and the relation of other planes to you is shown on a circular cross section. You can tell not only in which direction a plane is, but if it's above or below you too. Good for telling if your being tailed by an ememy. Such aids are not too unrealistic if you think about it, since in real life your situational awareness is much greater and second nature to you. There are number of padlock views available too, although these may be initially confusing. With a bit of experience though, you'll be able to have all the confidence you need in a multi plane dogfight.

Criticisms? Well the manual is practically useless. Okay ,many people don't read the manual, but still, I do, and was disappointed at how little information is given for so many words, and how haphazardly it's laid out. Giving power equatiom curves with fancy graphs is all very impressive but I would have preferred more info on how to play the campaign. There is online help but how many people read that stuff? For such a strong feature of the game, the campaign is frustratinglly difficult to get into. ALso, navigation when flying is somewhat mysterious. There is a map, but getting to waypoints really should have been explained a bit more. Also taking off informatiom can be exhasperating with collions turned on; I eventually had to change the collisons to enemy only.

Some people have complained about system crashes and such. Well I have never experienced anything like that with the patched version. MY PC is quite old by todays standards but to give an indication it's

Windows ME
1.3 Ghz
NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX video card
Creative Audigy (1)

With those specs, I have had flawless system performance.

Overall I feel that Mig Alley is a great simulation of a surprisingly overlooked era. Maybe it's due to the subject matter. The Korean War lacks the heroics of the WW2 good guys vs nasty Nazis or the cutting edge avionics of modern sims. But if you have tried and enjoyed sims like IL- 2, I recommend Mig ALley with no hesitation, in fact in some ways I think it's actually the better simulation

Get a life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is perfect!!!!!
i hate it when i read that kids review! they want it easy!!!! back then it wasn't like that!!!! and that guy saying " WW2 sims are better because they have a lockon key" Hey stupid in real life there was no lockon button so live wityh it!!!!! Our men who fought up there had no problem with it!!! okay!
THIS IS A GREAT GAME SO DON'T THINK UP ANY STUPID PROBLEMS LIKE THERE'S NO LOCK ON KEY! OKAY! LIFE IS NOT EASY AND BACK THEN IT WAS MUCH HARDER!

I don't care what anyone says....this is a Great Sim !!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Unlike some people I think the flight modeling is quite good. The two swept wing fighters are fast but poor in maneuvers. The straight wing fighters maneuver well in a dog fight but lack speed. The MiG has a superior rate of climb but flies like a brick at low altitude. The only flight model criticism I have is that in the game the Sabre is more prone to tail spins than the MiG. This should be reversed, In reality the MiG was more prone to tail spins due to it's high vertical stabilizer.

Damage modeling is also quite good with the MiG destroying most targets in under 3 seconds. They have even included the poor gun site effect for the MiG because the MiG was known to have a poor site in real life. With all flight model effects turned on, the Sabre is quite a challenge to fly, however from what I have read I think they may have over done it's instability a bit.

For a 5 year old game the graphics are quite good ! Some of the sound effects are a little weak but I have replaced the sound files I didn't like with mods found on the web. I love the "blackout" effect, it forces you to lay off the stick a bit. Force Feedback support is also quite good.

Campaign mode seems to have a bit of a learning curve but i'm sure once I get the hang of how it works it will only add to the realism of the game. The radio chatter is ok for the most part however I can't stand how the wingman always seem to scream GET HIM LEAD !! POUND HIM ! every time you jump on an enemy 6. It's quite annoying to say the least. Ground pounding also has a few issues. Finding ground targets in MA is like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

I have read some of the less than flattering reviews for this sim on Amazon.com and I must say I disagree with the negative reviews. Mig Alley is a fine simulation of air combat during the Korean conflict. I has features that will please casual users as well as "hard core" sim nuts. Give it a try, it's worth the 20 bucks. Just remember to add the latest developer patch and the BDG patch.

bad results

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

no good on windows xp patches dont work dont buy if you have xp

The flight sim that could have...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

First, a caveat - when I tried this sim on my P4-winXP, it wouldn't respond to joystick inputs. Even when re-calibrating in-game (which just sends you to the WinXP control panel), and downloading the official patch failed to help. With a 3rd party patch I realized a mixed blessing - I could now fly the sim well enough to realize how good it could have been if not for some serious flaws. While I haven't determined which of these problems were endemic to the pre-patched game, they mirrored the same problems I'd found on the Empire Interactive/Rowan game "Wings of Gold", a promising WWI sim. "MiG Alley" (MA) was one of two sims that appeared in the late 1990's dedicated to the Korean air war - the co-called "forgotten war". World's apart from "Sabre Ace", MA was still bedeviled by horrible bugs, again eerily recalling WoG - graphics re-draw (in which the program will re-draw the next graphics frame w/o fully erasing the previous one - reminding you that you are in fact looking at graphics and also making for a more psychedelic experience than you'd expect in a military flight sim), numerous freezes and the all powerful CTD (crash to desktop)! Bugs aside, MA reveals an uncompromising sim from a developer with a uniquely uncanny choice in its subjects, one obviously designed for the serious aviator (WWI sims were on the decline when WoG appeared and remain eclipsed by sims based on WWII Europe; "Flight of the Intruder" remains not only of the most demanding hardcore sims of all time, but one of the few that focused completely on Vietnam. USNF '97 graciously included VN among its otherwise blandly generic missions. "Strike Fighters" included Vietnam War-era planes, but had them fighting a fictitious war in the mideast).

In MA, you fly single missions or in segmented campaigns in the Korean war, a comparatively short though bloody war in which fortunes seemed in constant flux (from the North's initial overwhelming of the US-backed South, to the allied landing and break-out at Inchon, to the entry of red China). Your choice of aircraft is extensive, but also limited to USAF assets (meaning that there's still room for a sim that has you flying FJ-3, F-9 and Corsairs from aircraft carriers, ala "Bridges of Toko-Ri" and "Men of the Fighting Lady"). You'll fly the F-80, America's first true combat jet (and the winner of the first all-jet dogfight), the F-51 Mustang (the legendary prop-fighter of WWII now out of its element flying strike missions and CAS), the early F-84 (a straight-wing jet fighter later designed with swept wings, but not in time for Korea) and of course, several versions of the F-86 itself. Though you get to fly the MiG-15 (a fighter based on the Focke-Wulfe Ta-183 prototype designed by Kurt Tank for the Luftwaffe near the end of WWII), the sim makes it clear where your attentions are devoted (i.e., there are no careers for flying Yaks or Lavotchkin fighters). Each of the plane's are wonderfully distinctive: like the real thing, the game's F-84 is bedeviled by its non-stabilator tail and non-swept wings, but its stability and resilience to damage will reward the faithful; Giving Mustangs the ground-attack missions that should have been tasked to the P-47 (a Mustang contemporary of WWII that was actually an ancestor of the F-84, and possessing, for a prop-fighter, the same stable flight performance and better able to absorb damage) was probably a bad idea, but Rowan uses the inclusion of any prop-fighter to highlight the sensation of their jets - the Mustang of this game is hardly the dumb-downed jet of "Sabre Ace", but so retains the nuances of that prop-fighter that you have to remind yourself that you're not over wartime Europe; the F-80 is the perfect jet for beginners - neither so agile that it's inclined to spin, nor so stable that you'll find yourself wrestling with the controls while trying to anticipate enemy fighters; the ultimate experience of course is the F-86, which will definitely spin if given half a chance, and will likely spin if given any chance. All allied aircraft share the flaw of being outgunned by the MiG-15 (which carried a rapid firing cannon against the machine guns - inadequate by WWII standards - lofted by our planes).

Combat is challenging at every level - there were no HUDs in Korea, so just finding your targets is akin to impossible (the game "allows" a semi-3d scanner reminiscent of the one in the X-Wing Fighter games; echoing the "Air Warrior" series, the game also features dots alongside the edges of your screen hinting at the location of fighters both friendly and otherwise). Realistically, aircraft appear as fast-moving specks on the horizon, then as blazing stars (likely the sun bouncing off that aluminum) and only into fully realized airplanes once they're practically sitting on your hood. Apart from the combat, flight is also a challenge, but a rewarding one (not even downing MiGs is as empowering as saving your plane from a spin - just remember to ram the nose down, lateral neutral, and use full rudder opposite direction of the spin). The campaign mode is also interesting - allowing you to choose how deeply you want to control its course. Unsurprisingly, the campaign mode has the most promise, requires the most attention and suffers the most from the game's inclination to CTD. In the end, I just had no patience to fly the same mission over and over again, knowing that a CTD would set me back to square one. So much of this sim went unrealized, but I've kept it around, if only for its instant action, a few minutes of some of the most demanding and fleshed out air combat I've seen on a computer, and the saddest sign of what could have been the best flight sim of all time.

bitter-sweet failure of a sim

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

First, a caveat - when I tried this sim on my P4-winXP, it wouldn't respond to joystick inputs. Even when re-calibrating in-game (which just sends you to the WinXP control panel), and downloading the official patch failed to help. With a 3rd party patch I realized a mixed blessing - I could now fly the sim well enough to realize how good it could have been if not for some serious flaws. While I haven't determined which of these problems were endemic to the pre-patched game, they mirrored the same problems I'd found on the Empire Interactive/Rowan game "Wings of Gold", a promising WWI sim. "MiG Alley" (MA) was one of two sims that appeared in the late 1990's dedicated to the Korean air war - the co-called "forgotten war". World's apart from "Sabre Ace", MA was still bedeviled by horrible bugs, again eerily recalling WoG - graphics re-draw (in which the program will re-draw the next graphics frame w/o fully erasing the previous one - reminding you that you are in fact looking at graphics and also making for a more psychedelic experience than you'd expect in a military flight sim), numerous freezes and the all powerful CTD (crash to desktop)! Bugs aside, MA reveals an uncompromising sim from a developer with a uniquely uncanny choice in its subjects, one obviously designed for the serious aviator (WWI sims were on the decline when WoG appeared and remain eclipsed by sims based on WWII Europe; "Flight of the Intruder" remains not only of the most demanding hardcore sims of all time, but one of the few that focused completely on [SE Asia]. USNF '97 graciously included VN among its otherwise blandly generic missions. "Strike Fighters" included [SE Asia]. War-era planes, but had them fighting a fictitious war in the mideast).

In MA, you fly single missions or in segmented campaigns in the Korean war, a comparatively short though bloody war in which fortunes seemed in constant flux (from the North's initial overwhelming of the US-backed South, to the allied landing and break-out at Inchon, to the entry of red China). Your choice of aircraft is extensive, but also limited to USAF assets (meaning that there's still room for a sim that has you flying FJ-3, F-9 and Corsairs from aircraft carriers, ala "Bridges of Toko-Ri" and "Men of the Fighting Lady"). You'll fly the F-80, America's first true combat jet (and the winner of the first all-jet dogfight), the F-51 Mustang (the legendary prop-fighter of WWII now out of its element flying strike missions and CAS), the early F-84 (a straight-wing jet fighter later designed with swept wings,... and of course, several versions of the F-86 itself. Though you get to fly the MiG-15 (a fighter based on the Focke-Wulfe Ta-183 prototype designed by Kurt Tank for the Luftwaffe near the end of WWII), the sim makes it clear where your attentions are devoted (i.e., there are no careers for flying Yaks or Lavotchkin fighters). Each of the plane's are wonderfully distinctive: like the real thing, the game's F-84 is bedeviled by its non-stabilator tail and non-swept wings, but its stability and resilience to damage will reward the faithful; Giving Mustangs the ground-attack missions that should have been tasked to the P-47 (a Mustang contemporary of WWII that was actually an ancestor of the F-84, and possessing, for a prop-fighter, the same stable flight performance and better able to absorb damage) was probably a bad idea, but Rowan uses the inclusion of any prop-fighter to highlight the sensation of their jets - the Mustang of this game is hardly the dumb-downed jet of "Sabre Ace", but so retains the nuances of that prop-fighter that you have to remind yourself that you're not over wartime Europe; the F-80 is the perfect jet for beginners - neither so agile that it's inclined to spin, nor so stable that you'll find yourself wrestling with the controls while trying to anticipate enemy fighters; the ultimate experience of course is the F-86, which will definitely spin if given half a chance, and will likely spin if given any chance. All allied aircraft share the flaw of being outgunned by the MiG-15 (which carried a rapid firing cannon against the [firearms] - inadequate by WWII standards - lofted by our planes).

Combat is challenging at every level - there were no HUDs in [SE Asia], so just finding your targets is akin to impossible (the game "allows" a semi-3d scanner reminiscent of the one in the X-Wing Fighter games; echoing the "Air Warrior" series, the game also features dots alongside the edges of your screen hinting at the location of fighters both friendly and otherwise). Realistically, aircraft appear as fast-moving specks on the horizon, then as blazing stars (likely the sun bouncing off that aluminum) and only into fully realized airplanes once they're practically sitting on your hood. Apart from the combat, flight is also a challenge, but a rewarding one (not even downing MiGs is as empowering as saving your plane from a spin - just remember to ram the nose down, lateral neutral, and use full rudder opposite direction of the spin). The campaign mode is also interesting - allowing you to choose how deeply you want to control its course. Unsurprisingly, the campaign mode has the most promise, requires the most attention and suffers the most from the game's inclination to CTD. In the end, I just had no patience to fly the same mission over and over again, knowing that a CTD would set me back to square one. So much of this sim went unrealized, but I've kept it around, if only for its instant action, a few minutes of some of the most demanding and fleshed out air combat I've seen on a computer, and the saddest sign of what could have been the best flight sim of all time.

bad

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: October 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is a dissapointment. But when I bought it I wasn't expecting much. The controls are terrible. How could anybody read the cockpit instruments? The grapics are ok but the pixelation isn't all that great, the worst part as that this doesnt have training. If you want a good sim get USAF.

A Flawed Classic

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: August 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

A great flight sim with a great big flaw. It's greatness stems something to do with the guns only, jet fighter combat scenario. The sheer speed of the flying, coupled with close up and personal weapons delivery (machine guns at 300 yards) make the game a blast to fly. Mig Alley is nicely packaged and the documentation comes complete with a reproduction of a Restricted RAF handbook, written during the Korean War that describes, first hand, the experiences of a British pilot who flew with the USAF and offers up some excellent descriptions of the air war (a nice touch and well worth reading from cover to cover).

Flight models are outstanding with the controls feeling really heavy if you do something too severe - even without an FFB stick. Since aircraft like the F86 are subject to compressor stall even when they're asleep in the hangar, aerial maneuvering if a very sedate affair, more akin to high altitude Tai Chi rather than an airborne Karate meet. While this high altitude ballet is a real joy - and the low altitude stuff ain't half bad either. Perhaps the best single mission of them all is the Red Air Force attack on your airfield which starts as you return from some mission (probably napalming some naughty commies) only to find 16 YAK-9's swarming all over your turf while swilling gallons of vodka and calling General MacArthur rude names. Naturally, this just won't do and this scenario usually ends up with gazillions of aircraft milling around at 10ft off the deck with everyone hell bent on shooting something that can be called a kill when they submit their highly exaggerated combat report.

The target padlock system is the most intuitive I have ever come across; the canopy cues and the floating artificial horizon provide continuous positive orientation and it is just about possible to have an entire furball without unlocking the target once. "Get outta here before I slap your face" I hear you say - but it's true I tell you, it actually works.

Graphics are generally good, ground texture maps represent a dull landscape fairly well - things like trees and buildings provide an adequate impression of built up areas but, like most simulators, tend to `pop up' rather unconvincingly. Flying top cover has its visual rewards, with haze and contrails adding realism. Formation flying at high altitude is extremely difficult and frustrating so unless you have a complete simulation suite with stick, throttles, rudder, ejector seat, instrument panel, F86 cockpit tub, full avionics, oxygen and a ground crew of thirty people, you are better off engaging on the autopilot and just enjoying the ride.

Missions are a bit paltry in terms of quantity, but you can fly a variety of unusual aircraft on the allied side and two versions of the MIG15 on the North Korean side. Mig Alley provides some interesting ground attack missions using prop and jet aircraft, all based on historical missions so there are no nasty surprises - essentially once you have completed your bombing/strafing/air combat sortie, you get to fly home in peace. Other flight sims tend to throw in an extra twenty squadrons of bad guys just when you are trying to haul your bullet-riddled, avgas-leaking, wing-flaming, undercarriage-dragging, flap-drooping wreck back to base. Another nice concept is the ability to customize the nose-art on the aircraft - so if you have a drawing package handy, why not whip up some dirty picture to plaster all over your aircraft - this is sure to frighten the bejesus out of those North Korean flyboys (or make them defect, depending on how excited they get).

Regrettably the game producers have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The first is the music which is so unbelievably awful that it is difficult to describe in the English language - it's...it's...like a Latvian clog dancing team playing the piano accordion at a funeral, somehow strange - yet frightening. While funereal organ music is not catastrophic, the next bit is! The second (and major) snag is the multiplayer mode - or should I say, lack of it. It is almost impossible to play against anyone online. This is truly tragic since I spent ages at MCOM waiting for someone to turn up and have a game - I was there so long I had three birthday parties sitting in front of my computer. And when someone did show we couldn't get the game to work - what a crock! Ultimately it means that the game has a short shelf life - once you've played it out there's nowhere to go. Other gripes are: poor intro animation sequence (come on people, be creative); irritating user interface; lack of flyable aircraft (no twin Mustangs, Corsairs or YAKs); no carrier operations (you can't refly the `Bridges of Toko Ri' and return safe home to the charms of Grace Kelly to show her your joystick) and clumsy map visuals: but these would be probably be acceptable if the multiplayer aspect was corrected (I would still whinge but I would take less space to do it in).

As a stand-alone game it fills the Korean War niche, not completely, but enough, and most of the game experience is exemplary, but the multiplayer bit... oh, the horror.

Almost too realistic

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: May 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I was drawn to this game because of my love of the F-86, only after getting into it a bit more did I discover the depth of the sim. Being a former FAC, I really liked the fact that Interplay had included one for the ground attack missions. Air to air was very good, graphics great, and performance models good, but it was the mud moving that really hit home. Targets were difficult to locate (as they should be) without someone telling you where they are. Buy it!

Good simulator in an area with few competitors

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: March 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game just over a year ago and still play it quite often. As noted in the editorial reviews this game has few flaws, especially when you consider the competitors for simulators of this period. I particularly would like to have had a flyable model of the F-4U Corsair as it is one of my favorite aircraft of the era, particularly in ground attack, it ruggedness and payload capacity made it a much more effective ground attack aircraft than the P-51 Mustang with it's venerable liquid cooled engine. The F-4U4 Corsair also packed a heavier punch with it's 4 x 20mm cannon instead of the 6 x .50 caliber Machine Guns found in the F-80, F-84, F-86, and Mustang. Imagine how much more fun it would have been to blaze away at ground targets, especially armor such as the T-34s in the game with 4 x 20mm cannons instead Machine Guns.

One feature that I didn't like was that it is impossible to frame air or ground targets without going into pad-lock mode, also when the relative location of the target slips from your cockpit field of view you get an external view of your own aircraft with the target visible behind it. This can be disorienting, particularly in a dogfight. I would have preferred it if you remained in the cockpit with some sort of arrow or other indicator to let you know the position of the target. In dogfights this is possible with the perspective indicator but it is impossible in ground attack mode.

In evaluated this simulator at 4 stars because of these two shortcomings, which are relatively minor considering the other fun features and challenges build into this game. And one thing the editorial reviewers left out was the historical footage included on the CD-ROM, this adds to the atmosphere of the period considerably and reminds us again of 'The Forgotten War'.

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