Microsoft, the company that has peddled the plain-vanilla Flight Simulator products for nearly as many years as it’s been in business, has more recently introduced a product branch with a little more kick, the Combat Flight Simulator games. Now they’ve brought the spiciest, most dashing flight sim, developed at Zipper Interactive, to market: Crimson Skies.

In Crimson Skies you play the part of Nathan Zachary, leader of a group of sky pirates in 1937. The version of 1930s America is sort of a parallel universe (remember Interstate ’76?) in which North America has broken into a couple dozen nation-states, and the popularity of airplanes seems to have far outstripped the automobile, train, and "steamer" combined. Armed zeppelins are in common use, even as flying launch pads and landing points for fighter aircraft.

Approaching a zeppelin, in Crimson Skies.

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You’ll be flying fighter and bomber planes that are even more fanciful than the fate of the United States. Crimson Skies puts eleven imaginative combinations of swept-forward wings and powerful propellers under the control of your joystick or keyboard. Visually, the plane designs are captivatingly artful, and there’s a real variety of handling characteristics. Tinkerers will be able to customize the designs, or you can steer clear of such sluggish effort and still change your plane’s mounted weaponry before a mission.

As a flight sim, Crimson Skies keeps it sweet and simple. This is an arcade flier, albeit with all kinds of realistic touches. It helps that takeoffs and landings are normally done at an airborne zeppelin, automatically; this keeps the focus on the missions and story. Controls aren’t as command-intensive as a full-scale flight sim, and the aircraft are more agile and forgiving. Weapons targeting is especially helpful, where you don’t need to take your speed or the wind into account, and an automatic "spyglass" feature pops up to track a targeted enemy when he or she flies out of view.

A lot of what propels interest in the Crimson Skies missions is the over-the-top story, acted with such enthusiasm and 1930s campy attitude that it’s irresistible. The cut scenes are hardly animated at all —mission maps and such—with the actors doing all their work on the audio track. Rather than being limiting, the effect is as if the characters were sitting in the room, watching the computer screen with you and playfully bantering. The zippy dialogue continues in-mission, although some comments come up too frequently.

Multiplayer options are about what you’d expect—the usual Zone support included. Watch out for a nasty bug that may manifest itself when a multiplayer game can overwrite your campaign save games. This can be fixed with the free patch, downloadable from Microsoft’s Web page. The patch is also supposed to speed up the dismal mission load times somewhat, though I didn’t time it to see.

Chock full of style and fun, this game is quite an accomplishment. The first time you run a barnstorming mission, you’ll wonder why this sort of game hasn’t been done before. Addictive and attractive, graphically slick and energetically campy, in Crimson Skies high-flying adventure awaits. My grade: A-.

Crimson Skies won’t shoot down your PC if it meets the following minimum requirements: Multimedia PC with a Pentium II 266 MHz, Windows 95/98/Me/2000, 64 MB of system RAM, 675 MB of available hard disk space for a typical install (plus 250 MB for swap file), quad speed (4X) CD-ROM drive, Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device, DirectX 7.0a (included on CD) or later API, DirectX-compatible sound card, DirectX-compatible 8 MB VRAM PCI or AGP video card that supports 640x480 256-color resolution, a super VGA 16-bit color monitor, and speaker or headphones for audio. For additional details, including requirements for multiplayer play, see the bottom of the Crimson Skies box.

Crimson Skies
[street: $49]
Microsoft/Zipper Interactive
ESRB rating: Teen ("T"), ages 13+, citing "animated violence" and "use of alcohol"

The Pac-Man Is Back, Man
Review by Chris Seip

Well, happy birthday to Pac-Man. Can he really be 20 years old already? Hasbro has been celebrating this event with a fully 3-D re-imagining of his adventures. But we’re here today to talk about Microsoft’s birthday present, a slightly enlarged re-release of Return of Arcade, which now includes the game which introduced Pac-Man’s sweetheart.

This year 2000 release is named Microsoft Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition, featuring all the arcade re-creations from the original Return of Arcade, with Ms. Pac-Man borrowed from its follow-up title, Revenge of Arcade. The arcade classics simulated in Anniversary Edition are: Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, Galaxian, and Dig-Dug.

Arcade classic Galaxian, part of Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition.

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I have mixed feelings about this release. Being a fan of arcade classics, I’m happy to admit that these renditions are spot-on perfect. The original sounds, graphics, and gameplay are presented accurately, minus the need to feed tokens or quarters into the machines. Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition is exactly as good as the original Return of Arcade was in 1996. That’s both the good news and the disappointing news.

What’s difficult about the Anniversary Edition is to consider how many ways this package could have been improved. This isn’t just idly wishing that a software package were something that it isn’t. The Anniversary Edition is so nearly frozen in time, you have to wonder whether a Microsoft team didn’t spend even a few minutes considering whether they should invest some effort in this release. Apparently the market for arcade classics is tiny indeed.

Ms. Pac Man is now part of Return of Arcade (Anniversary Edition).

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Did Microsoft decide to bundle their Arcade titles together to increase value this time around? The only step in that direction was the inclusion of Ms. Pac-Man. If you want to play Microsoft’s excellent version of, for example, the (underrated) game Mappy, you’ll have to pay separately for the handful of arcade games on Microsoft Revenge of Arcade. Sorry. It wasn’t for lack of room on the CD, since the Anniversary Edition CD holds only 18.5 Mb of gaming goodness, including DirectX 7.0.

Did they update the classics with spiffy 3-D graphics, new worlds to conquer, and on-line multiplayer connectivity? While "the Hasbro approach" has its appeal, that’s not what Microsoft’s Arcade titles have been about, and I’m content with their "pure" re-creations of the originals. So let’s move on.

Did they beef up compatibility with recent versions of Windows? If there were any such "under-the-hood" changes, they were invisible to me. I can say that the Anniversary Edition ran well on Windows 95 through Windows Me, but it refused to run on Windows 2000. The refusal message (that offers no explanation) inconveniently came up only after the installation process had happily completed.

Well, at least the arcade games have consistent Windows/control interfaces, right? Not exactly, Chester. Ms. Pac-Man was brought over from Revenge of Arcade without any such consideration, so its initial window is uncomfortably small on most screen resolutions, and its keyboard shortcuts (for Pause, Full-Screen mode, Single-Player Start Game, etc.) don’t match the other games. Those keyboard shortcuts can be handy if you like playing the games in full-screen mode, since the Windows pull-down menus aren’t clickable, so the inconsistency can indeed get in your way.

How about added Windows features? My fondest idea to improve the Windows hosting of these games would have worked something like the "Auto" font size in the Windows Command window, which allows the font to resize itself as you enlarge or shrink the Command window. Wouldn’t it be handy to resize these little game windows? Ah well.

Mixed feelings earn Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition a mixed grade. For faithful arcade re-creations, they’ve earned an A. Microsoft doesn’t seem to have much competition in this area. For the lack of improvement over earlier releases, downgrading that A is left as an exercise for the reader.

Microsoft Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition might be a happy anniversary if your system meets the following minimum system requirements: Multimedia PC with a Pentium 90, Windows 95/98/Me, 16 MB of RAM (32 MB of RAM for Windows Me), 20 MB of available hard disk space + 50 MB of available space for swap file, quad-speed (4X) CD-ROM drive, local bus SVGA video, 256-color display, and a Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device. Joystick recommended. Sound card plus speakers or headphones required to hear audio.

Microsoft Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition
[street: $30]
Microsoft
ESRB rating: Kids to Adults ("K-A")

Lighter Blue: Mini-Reviews

Nuked! … in a Red Alert 2 multiplayer game.

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Smooth game play and interface, clever graphics, thumpingly good action music, hilariously effective cut-scenes (videos), and unit balances honed to a fine degree of perfection—these are grade A goodies. Some RTS fans wished for a total revitalization of the genre, and Red Alert 2 may disappoint by staying pretty close to the mold. And, Red Alert 2 hasn’t copied every single interface convenience from its competitors. Take that as you may.

Enthusiastic and slick video work enhances Red Alert 2.

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One of the most engaging elements of Red Alert 2 is in taking the battle to the streets of America, and sometimes to very familiar landmarks; you will fail to protect the Statue of Liberty in the first mission of the Allied campaign. There are two campaigns, Allied and Soviet. The spirit of these campaigns is greatly enhanced by some of the best video acting committed to CD-ROM cut-scenes: sometimes hammy, sometimes very funny, sometimes shocking, but very professionally conceived. I wish there were more tutorial levels for RTS newcomers, but on the other hand the multiplayer modes cannot be improved. On balance, grade A-.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
[street: $40]
EA Games/Westwood Studios
ESRB rating: Teen ("T"), citing "animated violence"