00:09Hi, today on Video Games Revisited we're going to be looking at Tomcat, the F-14 Flight Simulator on the
00:14Atari 2600.
00:15Now calm yourself down, I know the words Flight Simulator and Atari 2600 shouldn't really be compatible,
00:20but don't turn your nose up at it too quickly, it's not as bad as you may think.
00:24Now you will need some instructions if you're going to play this game, it's far from pick up and play,
00:28but that's to be expected from a Flight Simulator really.
00:31If you try and play without, you will die, repeatedly, and probably turn your back on it, but this game
00:35deserves far more than that.
00:37Now you may be asking yourself how you're meant to control a Flight Simulator with Atari standard, up, down, left,
00:42right, and one-button controls,
00:43and the answer may surprise you. Tomcat F-14 actually utilises the switches on the front of the Atari console.
00:49Now these switches are used like a little dashboard, the reset switch brings up the threat screen,
00:53where you can control all the options that relate to combat, like selecting weapons, what kind of missiles you want
00:58to shoot,
00:59and even your defensive measures.
01:00Game Select runs through the various stats associated with piloting a plane, like altitude and speed and angle and such.
01:06Left difficulty raises and lowers the landing gear, and right controls the arrest hook.
01:10Now this is the first Atari game I found that uses the switches in this way, and I think it's
01:14really innovative and impressive that they've done this,
01:17especially going to the length of actually disabling the reset switch so that it doesn't reset the game anymore,
01:21you have to hold it down for three seconds in order to reset the game.
01:25And these controls also affect your experience of the game, it's amazing how effective it is to be huddled in
01:30front of the TV with your joystick,
01:32and then leaning forwards to flick the switches to take the appropriate action for whatever situation you're in.
01:37Now I personally think the first person's perspective in this game works really well, and actually looks quite nice,
01:42I mean granted you will spend a lot of your game just staring into blue, as you're gaining altitude and
01:46looking for your next target,
01:48but this is a flight simulator so you really should expect that, and it's nice to have the time to
01:51look through your stats
01:52and make sure you're doing exactly what you should be doing.
01:55The sound in this game is fairly minimal, but it really does help add to the atmosphere as well.
01:59Now this is a combat flight simulator, so there are of course a nice variety of weapons to be playing
02:04with,
02:04ranging from a machine gun to long range missiles and even heat seeking missiles.
02:09Now the combat is a little bit tricky to pick up, but this is more due to how precise it
02:13expects you to be,
02:14but with a little bit of practice and learning how to pre-empt the enemy's movements,
02:18you can find yourself picking off enemies as you fly along, and it's really satisfying to do.
02:22Along with these weapons you have the defensive measures I mentioned earlier.
02:25Now assuming you have your ECM enabled, when an enemy comes up behind you and fires a shot,
02:30you get given a little mini game that pops up on the display at the bottom.
02:33Now this adds another dimension to gameplay, and the idea is to change direction whenever the enemy projectile
02:39starts gaining on you and eventually shaking it.
02:41Now doing this is really effective and it actually makes you quite tense,
02:44reminding you how fragile you are even in your plane up in the air.
02:48So all in all, Tomcat the F-14 Flight Simulator is a nice balanced game,
02:52somewhere between an arcade game and a simulator.
02:55With a little effort you can get yourself up and going in five minutes and know what you're doing,
02:58but obviously the more time you spend on this game, the better you will get.
03:01There are elements I haven't covered in this video.
03:03You can land and refill your jet and you get like an evaluation and a rank depending on how good
03:09you did,
03:09but in all honesty I haven't put the time in to get to the stage where I landed yet.
03:13But all the flight simulator people I know have got patience by the bucket load,
03:18so I'm sure it won't be a problem for them,
03:19and I hope you'll go out, check it out, and hopefully enjoy it.
03:22Until next time, be sure to check out some more of our videos,
03:25and I hope to see you soon.
03:26Take care.
03:31I hope you'll see you soon.
03:35Grazie a tutti.
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