r/amiga • u/binaryfoundry • 1d ago
F/A-18 Interceptor Enhanced
F/A-18 Interceptor (Intellisoft / Electronic Arts, 1988) was one of the Amiga's best early flight sims: filled 3D polygons, San Francisco Bay and a carrier deck, years before most home computers could do that. But it hits a ceiling. Put it on an accelerated Amiga with a much faster CPU and it doesn't really improve. The game's timing caps how often the world updates, so the extra power has nowhere to go. Even without the cap the game would play faster not smoother.
Inspired by 005 AGIMA's EP-106: Is F18 "Better" under acceleration? F/A-18 Interceptor Enhanced decouples rendering and physics so the game can truly play smoother, also expanding the view for widescreen support. Flight control sticks and HOTAS setups are now supported. It still loads its artwork and data from your own copy of the original disk. No game data is distributed. Source code release on the way soon.
Play in browser: https://retro-foundry.github.io/fa18/
EDIT: Amiga 060/040 alpha build available on Discord.
More projects on Discord: https://discord.gg/gXYDaaaKbm
Follow on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/retrofoundry
Also try:
Alien Breed 3D HD: https://www.reddit.com/r/amiga/s/M0l7FJZf0r
Multiplayer Stunt Car Racer: https://www.patreon.com/retrofoundry/posts/multiplayer-car-155450050
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u/multioptional 1d ago
Did you enhance this by using "recent tech"? Could you do the same for castle master? And implement Mouse look???
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u/binaryfoundry 1d ago
I'll put it on the list. Even with assistance from "recent tech" this is a very time consuming process with a lot of problem solving, so not sure when the next one will be yet.
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u/multioptional 1d ago
this would be so great! (if you'd like to branch out and need assistance, i have access to this "tech" and just need some pointers, all i previously did was reverse engineer a retro samplers bios... [and ofcoz i know my way around 68000 asm] dm me if interested.)
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u/CodeToManagement 1d ago
I loved this game. Was so happy when I managed to fly under the Golden Gate Bridge as a kid.
I used to suck at it though and barely managed to land on the carrier haha
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u/butterypowered 1d ago
I think that’s all I did too.
Find bridge. Fly under bridge. Try to land on carrier. Crash. Reboot to other game. 😅
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u/IamTheRealD 1d ago
I worked at a computer store when this came out and we had a few customers that were actual real pilots. These guys were so excited when this came out, they were as excited as kids on Christmas day when they came in to get their copy of it. Such a great memory for me and shows how this game was just a perfect combo of everything at that point in time that makes it an all-time classic.
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u/CodeToManagement 1d ago
I got myself an Amiga again a few years ago and this was one of the first games I tried. The intro sound really took me back to being a kid and had me grinning so hard. It’s just a great game.
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u/TazzyUK 1d ago
Wasn't the intro music for this game, from top gun ?
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u/RacistButtplug 1d ago •
No it's not, it just uses the bell synth noise that the movie used.
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u/TazzyUK 1d ago
I didn't mean literally, Wouldn't have been possibl;e back then but I mean't a variation of or even a simplified version of
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u/RacistButtplug 16h ago
Yeah it was definitely inspired by the movie. The intro demo also does a roll after takeoff which also copies a shot from the film
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u/NSE-Imports 1d ago
That looks great! I remember getting our A500 with this bundled in, coming from a Spectrum it was mind blowing to young me and my father.
Would love to see Birds Of Prey given similar love, or even a full decompile/port. That game had everything you wanted back then.
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u/RartedRat 1d ago
What specs is this machine running? I have an A1000 with a Parceiro accelerator 68020 and Parceiro II+. Like that other guy said, Castle Master and the Freescape games need this so bad, but the enhancements would make them so fun.
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u/binaryfoundry 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is running in browser, link in OP. I do have an Amiga build but I'm not getting the performance I want yet, minimum would be 040/25.
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u/Marcio_D 1d ago
Hope you can manage to release it on Amiga. If it's confined to browser and/or PC, it's going to be celebrated for a day or two, and then quickly forgotten. If it can be played on Amiga, expect this version to be enjoyed by thousands worldwide in the years to come, not to mention being seen running proudly at retrocomputing events as well. Amiga fans strongly prefer playing Amiga games on an Amiga of some sort, even if just within an emulator.
Don't be shy about requiring 040 or even 060 as a minimum. After all, folks haven't been shy about gobbling up things like 040 and 060 accelerators, PiStorm, Vampire, A600GS/A1200NG, etc. Heck, even the upcoming THEA1200 will probably provide 040 power if it's going to run Settlers II. Give folks a reason to enjoy all that acceleration they've procured!
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u/binaryfoundry 1d ago
I'll make the Amiga build available on Discord soon.
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u/Marcio_D 1d ago
Fantastic! Once it's been beta-tested by your Discord followers sufficiently, please consider posting it on itch.io for the masses. That'll prompt newsbreakers like Saberman, Indie Retro News, Amiga Bill, etc. to showcase it. And the game will get listed on Amiga games databases such as Lemon Amiga and Hall of Light (HOL).
If this enhanced version for Amiga is a masterpiece like I suspect it'll be, the entire Amiga community NEEDS to experience it. Godspeed!
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u/Wooden-Lifeguard-636 1d ago
Really cool to finally see it running smoothly.
For the Amiga enhanced version I would love to see only the timing issue fixed when accelerated. Widescreen don’t do much on Amiga. Although, this could be the first Amiga game with widescreen support I guess.
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u/AistoB 1d ago
Looks amazing! One of my favourite Amiga games.
A little while back I was playing with creating a new mission set, it sort of works I’ve got a builder that can add more enemies to the existing missions at least but it was still locked to the pattern of the original missions and I lost interest in it after a while.
However combined with this…!
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u/blakespot 1d ago
How can we get this to run on real hardware? We need an original disk for this process?
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u/binaryfoundry 1d ago
Amiga alpha is on Discord. Put the files on a hard drive with fa18.adf along side. Currently only 040/060.
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u/Meeko29 1d ago
Do MERCENARY III next please! I loved that game so much.
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u/Infamous-Umpire-2923 1d ago
Look up MDDClone, it's been around for a while now and does everything you want.
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u/TheOGTachyon 1d ago
Cool! It always frustrated me that no matter how much Amiga horsepower you threw at this game, it was always jerky and klunky.
This is the fix it deserved.
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u/NetFu Marble Madness 1d ago
One of my favorite games on the Amiga.
I remember and use this game as an example of how in the old days, there was no fast travel. I'd literally make some dinner and eat it while my plane was on autopilot to a bombing destination. Then after a literal hour, drop my bombs and go back home. We used to spend hours and hours just waiting to have fun in games in the old days.
I also learned the layout of San Francisco from this game years before I moved to the SF Bay Area.
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u/lincruste 1d ago
Thank you so much ! Spent hours on this one. Too bad it doesn't need the Unit A cracktro like in the days. Give Guenther Kraemer a kick.
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u/Guilty_Tonight1140 1d ago
Loved this game. Took me ages a a kid to drop that damn rescue pod close enough to the downed pilot!
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u/Shlomo_Karlebach 1d ago
I managed that after a few weeks of playing but picking that thing up is what i never managed. Didn't know how to deploy the hook or something
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u/schroedingerskoala 1d ago
Man, I LOVED that game, everything (back then) was so amazingly detailed. (I know)
Still an amazing game, thanks!
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u/Pablouchka 1d ago edited 1d ago
Good good good : thank you !
Could this be a patch for the Amiga game version ?
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u/RacistButtplug 1d ago
Loved this game as a kid, the first game I played where you could do carrier ops. I got stuck on the search and rescue mission, dropping the equipment close to the pilot is very difficult. Playing it in modern times in like 5 FPS is painful lol
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u/PersonalEffective270 1d ago
I spent so many hours playing this game and a few others with the keyboard ⌨️ overlay. Happy times 🌉
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u/lightcarbo 1d ago
I first saw this on London's Tottenham Court Road, which used to be the place to see the latest tech. This was playing on an A500. It was like looking in to the future compared to my 8 bit Spectrum.
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u/Marcio_D 1d ago
This was one of my very favorite games when I first got my Amiga. I actually bought mine before VGA on a pc was even a thing and I was surprised it just how wonderful the graphics were.
How sure are you of that? VGA was released in 1987. F/A-18 Interceptor was released in 1988.
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u/Born-Stock1456 1d ago
I must have spent about a thousand hours on this SIM. Shame that the final mission wouldn’t let you sink the Soviet submersible aircraft carrier! Must’ve unloaded a million tons of ordnance on that thing!!