1982 · Simulation · World War II

Spitfire Ace

Spitfire Ace is a combat flight simulator video game created and published by then-newly created MicroProse for several 1980s home computer systems. It was one of the first video games designed and programmed by Sid Meier. It was developed for Atari 400/800 (1982), Commodore 64 (1984) and DOS (as a booter, 1984). The Atari version was written by Meier and the game was ported to DOS by R.

Released: 1982
Platforms: Atari 8-bit Commodore 64 Commodore C64/128/MAX MS-DOS
Genres: Simulation World War II
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action Historical Warfare
Country: United States
Languages: English

About

Spitfire Ace is a combat flight simulator video game created and published by MicroProse in 1982 shortly after it was founded. It was one of the first video games designed and programmed by Sid Meier, originally developed for Atari 8-bit computers and ported to the Commodore 64 and IBM PC compatibles (as a self-booting disk) in 1984. The game followed on the heel's of Meier's Hellcat Ace, also from 1982 and for the Atari 8-bit computers.

Keywords

world war ii - ww2
combat flight simulator

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game puts the player in the pilot's seat during World War II. The player defends London during The Blitz while flying the Supermarine Spitfire. The game offers 15 different scenarios that include France, Malta and D-Day.

Development

Sid Meier developed Spitfire Ace as a modified version of Hellcat Ace, another game he programmed, released earlier that same year. In his 2020 memoir, Meier described Spitfire Ace as "the kind of game we'd probably call an expansion pack today. It used the same code base as Hellcat Ace, but moved the battle scenarios from the Pacific to the European theater."

Reception

Softline in 1984 called Spitfire Ace and Hellcat Ace's graphics "extremely simple". Computer Gaming World in 1993 stated that the game "has been severely wrinkled by age".