Jane's Combat Sims [Archive] - Official Fighter Ops Forums

D-man

06-07-2006, 12:23

I have USAF (2000) and F-15E (1998) by Jane's. USAF is awesome if you want have fun blowing things up using a variety of aircraft with not so realistic procedures. I have flown though the entire game 3 times.

F-15E is much more detailed, functional, and realistic inside the cockpit. The overall graphics have much to be desired as it is pre-2000, but the specifics and realness in the gameplay make up for that.

Anyother Jane's players out there? Questions and coments welcome.

Shatterer of Worlds

06-07-2006, 17:56

I have flown dozens of flight sims over the last few decades and Janes F-15 ranks as one of the coolest sims I have ever flown. I really liked the Janes stuff.

Funky

06-07-2006, 18:01

What happened to Jane's Simulation anyways?

Raptor-F4i

06-07-2006, 19:59

What happened to Jane's Simulation anyways?

Shut down by EA because they need to make room for flavor of the hour games with no replay value whatsoever.

Sehm

06-08-2006, 12:21

agreed. personally, I find Janes F/A-18 the best and most rewarding flight sim to this day. It had some flaws, but the feeling of bringing home a wounded bird on the carrier deck at night.. wow! and the comms should be the standard for FO :smile:

Shatterer of Worlds

06-08-2006, 13:20

Longbow II was a lot of fun also.

Redstormer

06-08-2006, 14:04

Longbow II was a lot of fun also.

Enjoyed that sim very much! Many hours spending crossing the battlefield in search for Main Battle Tanks and taking out the AAA! :thumb:

(V)CVW11 BonKeRS

06-13-2006, 12:51

<S>

Hi, hows it going. I simply cannot get enough of Jane's F/A-18. From the launch off the carrier, flying the coolest aircraft in the world (only what I think) bomb, air to air, it's all great. We have a squad called the CVW11 (www.vcvw-11.net) and Jane's F/A-18 is our main sim. I have even made some video and I would like to share this one with you guys. It is the newest one that I have put together, thought you guys might like to see the super hornet in action. Hope you enjoy and if you wish let me know what you think, cheers.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=C3EB7E8274AB8BFB

BonKeRS
www.vcvw-11.net

Lance

06-13-2006, 15:45

i started playing Jane's with the ATF Simulator where you could fly all sorts of stuff, moved onto IAF, USAF, F-15 (all in one Pack at a store), F/A-18 was the last one i flew to date. I also flew the WW2 Simulation they made, that was fun, made me buy IL-2!!

Flip

Sehm

06-13-2006, 18:11

lowwing_99

06-13-2006, 22:45

I had Janes F/A 18. I had a lot of fun with it. I just sold it on Ebay because I started flying Falcon 4.0, can't say much about this one yet because I'm having trouble with it. The only reason I switched is because I wanted to get a jump on how to drive a viper because when FO comes out I'm transitioning to the F-16 for my pit. For right now I'm using Janes Fighter Anthology until I get the bugs worked out of Falcon 4.0. Anthology was my 1st Janes sim. It's ok but there is a difference in the quality between the 2, F/A 18 is a lot better. F/A 18 has a few quirks to it, & the manual isn't written very well but all in all it's ok.:blank:

MichaelH

07-02-2006, 13:17

i just got jane's f/a-18, can you still play it online or has it been shut down totally?

Sehm

07-02-2006, 15:32

head over to www.simhq.com and visit Janes F/A-18's forum, I think there are still some enthusiasts playing it online :wink2:

Playloud

07-08-2006, 22:00

Janes ATF is what got me interested in military planes. Before ATF, I could identify the B1, B2, B52, and the stealth fighter (I didn't know it was the F-117). I started reading more about planes on the Internet. Eventually, I bought Janes Fighters Anthology, and I thought that game was uber realistic =)

I also bought Janes 688(i) Hunter/Killer, which was great.

I borrowed Janes USAF from a friend, but I was really dissapointed in it. My computer was not powerful enough to play more than the training missions (multiple planes = lag), and I felt the planes all flew the same (not enough difference between an F-15, and an A-10).

My brother bought Falcon 4.0 while I was on drum corps tour (see my avatar). I don't really know why he bought it, as he never showed any interest in playing a sim. I tried it when I got back from tour, and I found it too difficult. A couple of years or so later, I reinstalled Falcon 4.0, gritted my teeth, and learned how to fly. I was amazed at the amount of detail in the game (and how bad the ATF/FA flight models were by comparison). The dynamic campaign forced me to lose interest in any other combat sim out there.

I tried Janes F/A-18, but the flight model seemed very unreal. Perhaps it was just because I was used to Falcon 4.0 by then. I don't know.

I can't wait for Fighter Ops to be released. I am sure it will be the first sim since Falcon 4.0 to really grab me.

Shatterer of Worlds

07-08-2006, 22:19

Playloud,

Thanks for reminding me about 688. I forgot about that one. I played a lot of that also. :smile:

Playloud

07-08-2006, 22:44

Playloud,

Thanks for reminding me about 688. I forgot about that one. I played a lot of that also. :smile:I remember the one time I tried playing that game multiplayer. We couldn't find each other no matter what we tried. Even when I was on the phone with the person (telling each other where we were), while an flank speed. It was frustrating. hehe

Playloud

07-08-2006, 22:46

What I was more excited about than anything, was Janes World War (which USAF was supposed to be the first title of). All the Janes games would connect for one big war. Sub sims, helo sim, plane sims, tank sims, etc. It was a shame they only made ONE title for it.

MichaelH

07-10-2006, 00:48

I remember hearing about that one, it would have been amazing. It would have been great if they could have mixed it with a troop game aswell, nothing like a bit of close air support.

Jackal

07-12-2006, 12:12

Hello to all of you, glad to be here.
I'm also nowadays fond of Jane's good flight sims, especially for Fighters Anthology (my first one!) and I.A.F. - I'm flying USAF since eight months ago, I bought it perhaps a bit late but I don't care of this, it's a great product.
Only a shame that those at EA decided to wipe that brand out.

Jackal out.

(V)CVW11 BonKeRS

07-14-2006, 06:46

No Fear

07-22-2006, 06:24

Hi guys!I have been a Janes flight sim fan myself,and USAF has been my favourite!

The game has been improved with the SP 9.2 add-on.And to think it's been almost 7 years since its release!

Just a few facts about it in case you are not aware of it:

'You are now able to fly missions from Aircraft Carriers, in V/STOL Aircraft & Helicopters, Stealth, ABL, SR-71 recon, right down to old fashion carpet bombing in a B-52 or Cargo runs.You will also be able to operate an M1A1 and fight on the ground with all of the other ground objects.There are 50 campaigns in Super Pro 9.2 and some of the campaigns have as many as 100 missions in them.There are over 400 aircraft in Super Pro 9.2 and almost all of them are flyable. The list is to long to name all of the aircraft so here is a list of all of the countries that have airforces in Super Pro 9.2. Each of the countries in the game have several aircraft in their airforces.

U.S.A., Great Britain, Canada, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Libya, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Greece, Cuba, Vietnam, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Serbia, Czech Republic, Albania, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Germany, Russia.That's 33 countries in all.

[Aircraft Carrier's]:

CVA-62 Independence, CVA-63 Kitty Hawk, CVN-65 Enterprise, CVN-68 Nimitz, CVN-69 Dwight D. Eisenhower, CVN-70 Carl Vinson, CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt, CVN-72 Abraham Lincoln, CVN-73 George Washington, CVN-75 Harry S. Truman, CVN-76 Ronald Reagan, LHA-1 Tarawa, LHA-2 Saipan, LHA-5 Peleliu, LHD-1 Wasp, CVS-R05 Invincible, CVS-RO6 Illustrious, Charles De Gaulle, Clemenceau, Kremlin Kuznetsov.'

And there is another add-on,SP 9.4 coming soon!

liquid_rockface

07-22-2006, 08:17

I remember I found a way to make all the planes (and even some tanks and ships and stuff haha) flyable in ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighters). Of course this is now a very old game and probably won't run on today's machines, but was just wondering if anybody else played ATF and also worked out how to unlock the planes?

f-18hornet

07-22-2006, 11:48

I remember to my first sim and that was I.A.F. Today I cannot play this good game because it's not compatible with win. XP.:sad: Is there today any patch for fix this problem with game yet?

Vampyre

07-22-2006, 14:23

I remember to my first sim and that was I.A.F. Today I cannot play this good game because it's not compatible with win. XP.:sad: Is there today any patch for fix this problem with game yet?

Have you tried to run it in win98 or win2000/ME compatability modes?

Lance

07-22-2006, 15:52

ive done that once..looks like crap.. :-(
I loved IAF!
Flip

D-man

07-26-2006, 15:55

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back here. Afterall, I did start this thread. Anyway, I'm glad to see this much knowledge and interest in Jane's Combat Sims. Many thanks to Raptor for telling us why Jane's shut down and a big high five to No Fear for the add-on info.

lowwing_99

08-10-2006, 21:23

I had the full box version of Janes F/A 18. Because of my pit being an F-16 I switched to Falcon 4.0 & I sold my Janes on Ebay. I started having problems with Falcon 4.0 so I bought a disk of Janes F/A 18 on Ebay so I could fly until I get my problems ironed out. I don't have a keyboard referance. Does anyone have a spare card?

Smut

08-18-2006, 09:36

Shut down by EA because they need to make room for flavor of the hour games with no replay value whatsoever.

Well it may seem that way now but at the time it actually made sense from a biz standpoint. Jane's Combat Simulations was a brand name, the result of a license deal between EA and Jane's Information Group. Unfortunately for us, F/A-18 was the end of the road for Jane's Combat Simulations - EA had decided not to renew the license. The original deal was very much the baby of Paul Grace and when he left EA we knew the end was near. The simulation market was drying up, and it made little sense from a return on investment standpoint to continue. Like it or not, the hardcore flight sim market is a very small market compared to console titles or PC genres such as FPS or RTS games.

Even if JCS had continued, there would not have been another flight sim from our office (EA Baltimore, the dev team behind JF-15 & JF/A-18) anytime soon. We were all burned out and wanted to do something *completely* different. We were working on a PS2 title (a revisiting of EA's "Strike" property) after JF/A-18 and it was very much our choice to do so. I've read that EA "suits" forced us down that path but nothing could be further from the truth. Later the PS2 project was yanked from us and we found ourselves doing another PC simulation (NASCAR). Can't say I was a huge race fan, but it was great to work with Andy (Hollis) again and things were coming together nicely. IMHO, our eventual downfall was the result of three things:

1. Our office was too small - not quite a studio at ~15 people. This and our remote location (EA HQ is on the West Coast) made us an easy target.

2. EA.COM - EA was late trying to cash in on the dot com bubble and got burned, badly. This led to massive belt tightening throughout the company (see #1)

3. Our "realignment" from reporting to EAHQ directly to Tiberon. At first this seemed like a good idea. Tiberon was in the same time zone as us and was the powerhouse behind much of EA Sports (i.e. Madden). However we soon learned the way they develop games and the way we develop games were very different. They had large teams of younger folks constantly building upon last years game. We had a small team of older, very experienced folks that was starting from scratch with zero code. The shortened answer is there was friction between us and Tiberon and that was a bad place to be in at the time (see #2).

That said, EA was very good to us with the severence package. Some of us tried to move on together (the stillborn Cryophyte) but drama, bad timing and bad luck doomed us.

Glad some of you still enjoy JF/A-18. I'm thinking about getting back into LB2 myself as I never had the chance to really delve into back in the day. I just need to dust off my old TM gear...until then my boy and I play a lot of NWN together. When we're not on the water, that is.

-Smut

Buckshot

08-18-2006, 18:20

Welcome to the forums Smut, as someone (along with most other simmers) who enjoyed many of the Janes series of simulations, it's an honour to have you here.

Pacman

08-18-2006, 19:08

Likewise here Smut.

Thank you very much for taking time to reply to this thread.

Sincerely,

Dirk

Smut

08-18-2006, 20:04

Thanks Julian and Dirk. Best of luck with your project. I'm very impressed with your goals, and I'm pulling for you - I hope you end up turning the cycle around which would be a very good thing for sims.

<salute>

-Smut

Jackal

08-19-2006, 07:40

ive done that once..looks like crap.. :-(
I loved IAF!
Flip

Hello, Flip.
I saw your post only now, but I'm a rookie here yet :smile:
I too am a IAF addict even today, and got the some troubles of yours when I tried to run IAF on XP.
Well, here's the good news: after I downloaded and installed MS Virtual Machine 2004 on my system, and configured a virtual Windows 98 machine, then I got IAF installed and running back again well and full healthy.
This is my suggestion, please be aware only about those following:
- the program is stable, but in some way I suspect it's a "little" hungry of RAM, so to my little experience having at hands 1Gb at least wouldn't be too bad;
- the virtual system to create doesn't like modern video cards too much - I know something about my ATI X600 Pro, recognized as a S3 by default for the reason above. So you'd better to check this matter first, and eventually Windows 98 proper drivers' actual availability.

Well, hope this helps. And good luck, first of all, also because I still believe that Jane's flight sims still rule...
:bigeyes: :guns: ...eerr, of course, only until FO won't come out at last :whistling :wink2: !
Jackal out.

No Fear

09-01-2006, 14:11

Hi guys!

Being a huge Jane's USAF fan I decided to make some videos using fraps and vegas.Now they are nothing fancy,since my maximum resolution is 1024x768 and my graphics card is not a very good one plus I am no expert when it comes to vegas or video editing/rendering,but here they are and you be the judge!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CySvzaMdfJU
With F-14s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JOBih_QhSU
With SU-33s & SU-35s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m3GOJPIZQs
With F-5s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe4K9rXUHFU
With Maverick's dogfight against Jester&Viper(voice over!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWvYM_sfFKo
With Maverick and Iceman's dogfight with the MIGs(voice over!)

It was about time we saw some Jane's USAF videos,don't you think?

Have a look and tell me what I could change/improve,OK?

Thanks.

Wheels

09-03-2006, 12:20

I'm not an expert in making films, but these look very nice to me ... music too :p

I stopped playing them because I never found a windows XP patch for my jane's sims...
I've played IAF, USAF... best combat flightsims ever played
For Windows XP i've bought Fighter Squadron I think it's called, but that one never made up the loss of my IAF and USAF.

d*mn I miss those games

No Fear

09-03-2006, 14:30

Hi Wheels,glad you liked the videos.:smile:

As for the XP troubles you mentioned,they've been resolved long ago.USAF CAN be played in Win XP!

Also I made another video related to Top Gun again about the first dogfight scene from the film with Cougar and Maverick against the fictional MIG-28s!The only thing is that somewhere in the middle of the clip the screen goes black for a few seconds but then everything is OK.Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBJ1ad9O-_c

Enjoy!

Wheels

09-03-2006, 19:29

hahahahah the Top Gun film is really good ... the idea and the flying ... just love it :d

thx for the solution I have been looking for for nearly 5 years, but I've sold my game a long time ago :'(

No Fear

09-04-2006, 01:41

Wheels you don't actually need the game itself (the CDs).

Visit the site and you'll see!:wink2:

Again thanks for taking the time to watch the videos.:smile:

No Fear

01-22-2007, 03:35

Hi guys and gals.

Here is an article/review I wrote about Jane's USAF:

http://www.simhq.com/_air8/air_278a.html

It's about all the amazing improvements of the game.
Hope you enjoy it!

Lance

01-22-2007, 10:15

Hi guys and gals.

Here is an article/review I wrote about Jane's USAF:

http://www.simhq.com/_air8/air_278a.html

It's about all the amazing improvements of the game.
Hope you enjoy it!

nice work!

Flip

f-18hornet

01-22-2007, 10:34

I don't know why but Jane's USAF is so popular. It's look like better IAF-that was cool sim!

No Fear

01-22-2007, 14:15

I don't know why but Jane's USAF is so popular. It's look like better IAF-that was cool sim!

F-18hornet in a way you are right;USAF and IAF are similar but if you read the article you will see that they are not so similar any more!:wink2:

@Flip:Thanks man.:smile:

liquid_rockface

01-22-2007, 19:39

Wow, where have I been! I completely didn't know about those USAF add-ons!! How cool! IAF's graphics were nowhere near as good as USAF's. I installed it to check what it's like (I got a 3-pack disk of F-15, IAF and USAF) and the graphics were quite terrible.

Jackal

01-24-2007, 10:24

You did really well, _rockface... I'm fond of USAF still today, and this will be at least until FO will be released! :thumb:

@No Fear: well done once again, bro...:thumb:

Jackal out.

Cosmin

01-30-2007, 19:45

Uh, Jane's Combat Simulations...:thumb:
I basically started my simming career with Jane's F-15 and what a game it was. I had my most rewarding flights in that game. I'll never forget those NOE flights deep into Irak with all the bordom from the takeoff till near Baghdad. And boy, the light show that city was.:bigeyes: I had some desperate dogfights and in some missions the tactical complexity was overloading... mission profiles (hi-lo-hi, lo-hi-lo, hi-hi-hi, lo-lo-lo), ordonance (Durandal, my love:red: ), comms, do I drop my stores and get into a furball or do I call the Eagles and hope they're be here in time? Decisions, decisions.

I just loved the Desert Storm campaign, not so much the Iranian one, but it was ok too. Many times I adopted a lo-lo-lo profile and began my ingress at about 200-300 ft. AGL using my TF radar, but after a while, seeing my TEWS flooded with all kind of emitters decided to switch the radar off and go on full manual... and so I was buzzing the dunes "at the hight of a camel's eye" as the Brits used to call it... sometimes going as low as 5-10 ft. Then... Baghdad! It was like 4th of July... man, was I eager to drop my bombs and get the hell outta there.:blank: And again... buzzing the dunes at full mil power with my eyes glued to the TEWS...

In retrospect, I think it's the only sim that made me experience sheer joy just for crossing a virtual border. :lol But hear me now as I say to you... crossing back into Saudi Arabia or EAU was awesome.:victory

I can barely wait to get my hands on FO's Strike Eagle... oh boy, oh boy. Good ol' times made better. At least so I hope. :)

Well, I flew other Jane's titles: IAF, USAF and F/A-18, and I still have the CD's, manuals and even boxes for all of them but the one that'll always have a special place in my heart will be... Jane's F-15 - "Air superiority by the book".:gleam:

WolfDuck

02-08-2007, 12:21

I started flying with Jane's F-15, which i still love, but Jane's F/A-18 has definetly won my heart, I don't fly as much as i used to, but i do try to get up there. Hyperlobby is an amazing way to get connected. Someone mentioned about getting the keyboard layout for f/a-18, if you go here, http://www.248th.com/warthog/index_systembackup.html
you should be able to find it.

SUBS17

03-05-2007, 02:38

Just done a Squadron mission today with Janes F/A-18 its quite good with the Iraq theatre from Janes F-15E using TSH.

Deckerd

03-05-2007, 07:22

i've done the silkworm missile mission yesterday. The iraq theater is a great fun...Though i must say some missions are far too difficult in warfixmode. Good to see people still playing it

SelfDefense

03-27-2007, 18:10

All of you fixed-wingers have got your heads in the clouds so much it seems that you've forgetten the awesome (for the time) Jane's Longbow 2. My fav heli sim. Obviously the graphics left lots to be desired but it was (as far as I remember) the first time you were able to play as the gunner or pilot. Fun stuff!

pfft! typical zoomies!!

;)

KING_RICHARD

03-27-2007, 22:03

bf2 suits my heli needs, nothing better than the feeling of circling a checkpoint and seeing driver kill assist on the screen the whole time!!!!

OneShot

05-01-2007, 14:32

Hi all around ...

While the JCS Brand is dead, at least one of the developers who released games under that brand has survived and is still kicking. Sonalysts Combat Simulations who created 688(I) Hunter/Killer as well as Fleet Command (both under the Janes Brand) and Sub Command. Their latest game (tho that is kinda exagerating, its from 2005) is Dangerous Waters. A tactical ASW simulator where you can play a P-3C, MH-60, FFG, Akula Class, Kilo Class, Seawolf and Los Angeles Class subs.

If you are interested in more : http://www.sonalystscombatsims.com/

As of late I have gotten back into Janes F/A-18 a bit ... took the time to install it and the TSH 3.5 Mod ... looks and plays nice :wink2:

Cheers
OS

BonKeRS

10-14-2007, 11:21

<S> All,

I wish to offer an open invitation to all new and old Jane's F/A-18 pilots to a Flatten The Tower (FTT). Open to all pilots.

Intentions is purly to have a little bit of old school fun.

Coms will be up using Ventrilo 2.3 and all are welcom to join in.

Planning the FTT for next Saturday evening/night the 20 Oct 2007. If interested please reply or PM me.

Hope to see some new faces and many old ones.

Cheers,

BonKeRS
www.cvw-11.net

BonKeRS

10-14-2007, 11:21

<S> Again,

Sorry my bad, Just a few amendments. I hope to have wheels up 1100 AEST 21 Oct 2007 (GMT +10). Which I think is about 2100 20 Oct 2007 in New York.

Flatten the Tower is a stock mission that comes loaded with JA18 and is in the NCAPE Theatre. Will be online before wheels up to help with any quick fixes.

For all of those that are interested I hope to see you all in the Hyper Lobby. If you have any questions or suggested load outs feel free to post them in.

Usally it is kept simple and sporting:

2x 480 gal external tanks
2x Mk-84 2000lb
2x AGM-88 HARMS
1x AIM-120C
2x AIM-9M

Cheers,

BonKeRS
www.cvw-11.net