Personal Compuer Games
1st December 1983
Challenge
Flying is never an easy business. And the good folks at Oric have not deigned to make it easier with their new Oric Flight program.
You are the pilot. You control the plane. And you are responsible when it crashes - oops, I mean when it lands safely.
The Oric flight manual is a rather thin document - three pages in all! But it gives you all you need to know about the art of flying.
Think you can do it? Wait, 'Below the main screen the various instruments are provided in an easy-to-read digital form,' the manual explains. 'The artificial horizon is shown as an artificial horizon display if you are currently banking the aircraft in order to turn around. As it represents the actual visible horizon, it slants in the opposite direction to your banking.'Well, now that we've all read our flight manuals and looked up all the tough words in our pilot's glossaries, it's time to hit the skies.
Your best friend in this game is your instrumentation, and Oric Flight's instruments are relatively non-standard issue. That doesn't mean you have a non-standard friend. Ordinary aircraft gauges and dials can be quite confusing and Tansoft's decision to represent them as digital readouts makes flying that much easier.
Start by getting your bearings. They are given as a number in the bearing readout at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. North is 0 degrees, East 90 degrees, South 180 degrees, West 270 degrees. You must land exactly in an East-West direction.The usual flying rules apply, as well. Keep your nose and throttle high during take-off, but bring back both once you have finished your climb.
The ascent and descent rates are given in feet per second. When ascending, keep an eye on your fuel as you can fly only a certain time before you need to refuel, And running out of petrol at 30,000 feet is never fun.
A good flight simulator for the Walter Mitty jet pilot set. Perhaps not as realistic as some, but the 3D action replay of your crash at the end of the game is enough to unnerve and challenge even the bravest of pilots. Entrance fees to the PCG Oric flying school are surprisingly reasonable...
