C&VG


Solo Flight II

Publisher: U. S. Gold
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #58

Solo Flight II

The original Solo Flight as about the easiest flight simulation to get into. Now here's Solo Flight II - a special remix of the original. And it's simply brilliant.

It's got all the neat features of the first game with a revamped instrument console and terrific speech synthesis.

Try the flight practice option and a soothing American voice talks you through your first flight from take-off to landing. A great way to learn how to fly. There's even a soothing American female voice that gives you messages from the "control tower" - about weather and such like.

Solo Flight: Second Edition

The soothing American voice doesn't even panic when you go into a power dive! It tells you when you're too low, too high, travelling too fast - but doesn't shout "Mind the trees!" or "You're a maniac. I'm bailing out!" or even "Argghhhhhh!"

It seems a bit churlish to call this piece of software a game - it's probably the nearest most of us will get to flying a real plane.

But there is a challenge element in the mail run option - you have to deliver five bags of mail to different destinations battling against deteriorating weather conditions and coping with night flying.

Solo Flight: Second Edition

The instrumentation is easier to decipher in this revamped version and the game - unusually for a simulation of this kind - is amazingly easy to get started. The synthesized instructor really helps to get you started.

Solo Flight II continues the long line of accurate flight simulations from ex-fighter pilot "Wild" Bill Stealey's Microprose outfit. In fact it was play tested by "real" pilots during development.

Graphics are simple but extremely effective. Sound is great - and the speech! Well, you won't believe it's coming from your C64. Must be the most accurate synthesis yet heard on a micro. Solo Flight II is the closest thing to flying short of going up in an aircraft. And the price isn't sky high either. Great product - great value.