______                     Fighter Duel Pro 2
(__  __)                     by Steve Plegge
  / /   
 / /  his is not your father's air combat simulator.
(_/  
In fact, it's not an air combat simulator at all. Make that:  Not *just*
an air combat simulator.  What it is, is an air combat simulator with
realistic flight simulator characteristics.  ("It's a floor wax!"  "No,
it's a dessert topping!")  What's the difference? The flight simulator
part of most air combat simulators is almost an afterthought, added on to
give the appearance of a realistic simulation. Call it point-and-shoot
air combat.  With FDP2, first you learn to fly the aircraft, then you
worry about dealing with the bad guys.

Speaking of bad guys, you've got your choice of them:  Up to 4 virtual
foes (at 8 different ability levels, from novice to ace), or you can dial
up a friend (?) and go at it with them.  You and your friend can also fly
together as  playing tag-team duel with the computer-generated
foes.  (There's a chat mode you can use to talk to your enemy / partner
while in flight.)

To get your flying and gunnery skills up to speed, a practice range with
a towed target is available.

FDP2 models 25 different WWII  plus gunners on a couple of them,
and a ground gunner firing AAA (anti-aircraft artillery).  The aircraft
are: American - F4U-1D, F2G, F6F-3, P-38L, P-47D, P-51D, P-61C; British -
Hurricane II, Spitfire Mk I/IX/XIV, Seafire II, Tempest V; Russian -
Yak-3; Japanese - A6M5a (Zero), KI84, N1K2, J7W; and German - Bf-109E,
Bf-109G6, FW-190A8, TA-152H, ME-262, ME-163B, ME-110G.  Each aircraft has
its own flying characteristics, including turn and climb rates, maximum
speed, weapons load, rate of fire, firepower, and damage vulnerability.

Along with your choice of aircraft, both yours and your foe's, you can
choose a land or sea environment, and any of several different locations.
You can even set up a second Amiga to be used as a "rear-view" machine.
You also get your choice of real or Star Wars gunnery, and unlimited ammo
if you want it.

Serious aerodynamics are used here.  Perhaps the best example is that of
high-speed (or accelerated) stalls.  Most folks think that stalls are a
low-speed phenomenon, which happen when a wing is moving too slow to keep
flying.  Airflow separates from the top of the wing, lift goes to zilch,
and the nose drops.  If this happens to one wing before the other, what
you've got here is the beginning of a spin.  (As the old saying goes, "To
go up, pull back on the stick.  To go down, pull back some more.")

Stalls can also happen at high speed.  No matter how fast you're going,
if you put too much angle of attack on the wing, it will stall.  FDP2
accurately models this.  Dammit.  ;-)  If you try to go *too* fast, you
enter the wonderful world of high-speed flutter.  Be sure your life
insurance is paid up!

Other nice touches abound.  If you're flying a twin-engine aircraft
(P-38, P-61, ME-110) and you get one engine shot out, you can tell which
engine is still running... as long as you have stereo speakers.  (Don't
ask me how I know this.  <g>)

Another touch of realism goes by the name of torque roll.  This is when
the aircraft rolls in the opposite direction of the propeller spin, and
can only be avoided by carefully setting the trim - but it only corrects
the roll at one combination of power, altitude, and airspeed. This is one
reason I prefer the P-38; the engines are counter-rotating, so the torque
effects cancel out.

Yet another bit of realism is the gunnery system.  You can't just put
your foe in the gunsight and pull the trigger; you have to lead him.
This is where the LCOS (Lead-Computing Optical Sight) comes in handy.  If
you get only a few hits on him (hits on you / hits on him are displayed
on each side of the gunsight), he may start to smoke.  Tactical note:
When dueling mutiple foes, I like to leave some of them wounded.  They're
less dangerous that way, and they're easier to find if they're leaving a
smoke trail.

You can buy the farm in several interesting ways.  Flying into the
terrain (ground, arch, columns, whatever) will do it.  You can also
(obviously) get shot down.  Or, if you really want to be creative, you
can hose down an opponent too close to you and have him blow up in your
face.  And even if you miss him, you can always engage in the classic
mid-air collision thump / spin / splat maneuver.

Once you do stick it in the dirt, you can replay up to 60 seconds,
depending on how much RAM lives in your Amiga.  Interesting and
informative, but not very good for morale.  ;-/

FDP2 supports digital (normal) and analog joysticks, with a top-hat
(a/k/a Madonna) switch used for view selection.  There are keyboard
controls for wheel brakes (left & right), catapult launch, flaps, landing
gear, hook, rudder, throttle, and view selection.  The joystick is used
for the normal elevator, ailerons, and gun firing.

FDP2 is very addictive, so here's a Public Service Announcement:  You know
you've been playing FDP2 too long when you find yourself stuck in morning
commute traffic, wondering about the roll rate of that Mustang in front of
you.  There is no known cure...

MSRP:  $59.95
Upgrade from Fighter Duel - Corsair vs Zero,
Fighter Duel Pro, FDPro Flight Recorder:  $30.00.

Jaeger Software
7800 White Cliff Terrace
Rockville, MD 20855
(301) 948-6862

In the box:  4 880K 3.5" disks, registration card, 60-page manual
Requirements:  Kickstart 1.2+, 2M Chip or Fast RAM, analog or digital
joystick. AGA-aware.  Not copy-protected.

Jaeger Software has a support category (#24) on the *StarShip* bulletin
board. Jaeger's own Matt Shaw (M.SHAW15) keeps the troops happy there,
and Drew Dorman (GHOST.RIDER) serves as Tournament Coordinator.


Also, you can find lots of FDP2-related files in our software library,
including a playable demo, cheatsheets, aircraft info, and an updated
configuration program (with a low memory version).


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