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''Battlehawks 1942'' is a naval air combat flight simulation video game released in 1988 by LucasFilm Games. It is set in the World War II Pacific air war theatre, and was the first of Lucasfilm Games' trilogy of WWII flight simulations, followed by ''Their Finest Hour'' (1989) and ''Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe'' (1991). The 127-page manual for ''Battlehawks 1942'' includes a 100-page illustrated overview of the Pacific War. ==Gameplay== In ''Battlehawks 1942'', the player can participate in four pivotal naval battles of the Pacific war: * The Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4–8, 1942) * The Battle of Midway (June 4–5, 1942) * The Battle of the Eastern Solomons (August 23–25, 1942) * The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands (October 26, 1942) In each of these battles, the player can experience the same situation from the U.S. side or the Japanese side of the battle. The player can fly authentic aircraft of the era--Wildcats, Dauntlesses and Avengers on the U.S. side and Zeros, Vals and Kates on the Japanese side. Realism settings such as invincibility, unlimited ammo and unlimited fuel, starting altitude and the caliber of the opposition pilots were present, so ''Battlehawks'' was an very customizable game. Each mission started with a briefing, giving the pilot a general outline of what was needed to do. In a departure from the usual flight-sim standards requiring players to perform take offs and landings, Battlehawks 1942 allowed players to get immediately into the action. As with most flight simulators, ''Battlehawks'' has a cockpit point of view, switchable with the keypad for a look around the aircraft. Instruments are few: airspeed, altimeter, bank and pitch, fuel, rate-of-climb, RPM, compass and indicators for fuel and engine/airframe damage. The cockpit also had levers for landing gear, speed brakes (if equipped) and flaps. The ''Battlehawks 1942'' manual includes details Fighter Tactics instructions, such as deflection shooting or how to perform overhead approaches from the same or the opposite course. Mission types included escorting bombers as well as fighter interceptions, which were generally quite challenging and gave a great view of the diversity of the missions that were flown in the Pacific in 1942. Allied players flying Grumman F4F Wildcats would find themselves often vastly outnumbered in a desperate attempt to save their carriers from waves of Japanese Aichi D3A ''Val'' dive bombers. There are also dive-bombing and torpedo-bombing missions on both sides. Dive-bomber and torpedo-bomber tactics were also discussed in the manual. The graphics throughout the game use a sprite-based (so-called) 3D engine, which is based on bitmaps which are rotated and scaled depending on the player's view. Muzzle flashes and tracers were present, the aircraft took hits and caught fire, smoked or exploded with the pilot bailing out with a parachute. Enemy artificial intelligence (AI) also was of high quality. Enemy aircraft would twist, turn, jink and realistically evade enemy fire. The performance characteristics of the various aircraft were realistically modeled so that, for example, the more nimble Japanese Zeros were very good at outmaneuvering U.S. fighters such as the F4F Wildcat. Excellent pilots achieved promotions and several medals in Battlehawks (Air Medal, DFC, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor - if the own aircraft received severe hits, the Purple Heart was awarded). Pacific theater air combat simulation successors of ''Battlehawks'' include: ''Aces of the Pacific'' (1992), ''1942: The Pacific Air War'' (1994), ''Pacific Strike'' (1994), ''WarBirds'' (1997), and ''Pacific Fighters'' (2004). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battlehawks 1942」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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