Janes Combat Simulations: AH-64D Longbow
Released: May 1996
Published by: Electronic Arts
Developed by: ORIGIN Systems
Author(s): Andy Hollis, Will McBurnett
Introduction
Janes Combat Simulations: AH-64D Longbow is a helicopter flight simulation based on the adapted version of the original AH-64A military attack helicopter. Developed by ORIGIN Systems and published by Electronic Arts in 1996, it was the second game in their Janes Combat Simulations series.
Featuring around 200 missions in the Single Mission menu, plus a number of ones taken from Operation: Desert Storm and Operation Just Cause, these take you to various theatres of war including the Baltics, Iraq, and Panama.
In many missions you will have a wingman with whom you will be in communication. In addition you can call in airstrikes or artillery strikes on a target.
The flight model is about as accurate as you would expect, having been based on Janes Information Group data as well as from McDonnell-Douglas themselves.
<intro video caption>
ORIGIN Systems wrote a brand new graphics engine for AH64D Longbow, and at the time of release no other helicopter simulation came close to matching its visual appeal.
An expansion was released a year later called Flashpoint Korea. This upped the ante, giving you a new theatre of war, plus enhancements such as Data Linking targets, the ability to shutdown each engine individually, manually activate the fire extinguisher, set the burst rate of the 30mm cannon.
One key thing missing from the initial release of AH64D Longbow was a multiplayer facility, though it was developed with multiplayer capability in mind.
AH64D Longbow Gold was released in 199x and included both the original game and the Flashpoint Korea expansion pack. It also natively supported running in either DOS or Windows 95. The latest official patch for LBG is 1.04F.
System Requirements
| System Requirements | Intel Pentium 66 MHz CPU, 16 MB RAM, 70 MB free hard disk space. Recommended: Pentium 166 or 200 MHz, 32 MB RAM, VESA 2.0 PCI graphics card, 16-bit audio sound card, joystick/throttle/pedals. <graphics support> <audio support> Thrustmaster FCS/WCS/RCS. |
|---|---|
| Original Media | <media description> |
| Installed Size (MB) | <installed size> |
From where can it be run?
Longbow must be installed to your hard disk. There are several options during installation, based on hard disk space.
Copy Protection
<copy protection notes>
How to Setup
<installation intro>
<screenshots of installation>
Problems
Symptom:
Cause:
Resolution:
Keys
<controls>
To Quit the Game
<quit info>
Supporting Documents
Additional Files, Drivers & Utilities
Save Games
<save game info>
Versions of the game known to exist
| Version | Date | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | <date> | Initial public release. |
Original Floppy Disk Contents
The floppy disks have no specific volume label. Here are each disk's contents:
Disk 1 of x (<media type>):
Directory of A:\ |
|
Disk 2 of x (<media type>):
Directory of A:\
|
Installed Directory Contents
Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:
Directory of C:\<game install directory> |