This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2017) |
Industry | Video games |
---|---|
Founded | 1991 |
Founders | Jeff Morgan Trey Smith |
Headquarters | , United States |
Website | graphsim |
Graphsim Entertainment was founded in 1991 as Graphic Simulations Corp. to develop and publish simulation games. Graphsim's first product was Hellcats Over the Pacific for the Macintosh. It was released in 1991 and developed by Parsoft Interactive. [1]
The game's graphics engine was novel in that it rendered flat-shaded polygons over the entire screen area of a color Mac at native resolution. In 1993 Graphsim released the internally developed F/A-18 Hornet for Macintosh. Based on the eponymous McDonnell-Douglas fighter / attack aircraft it was set in a fictitious Persian Gulf theater of war and featured a detailed cockpit display. [2] F/A-18 Hornet was one of the first simulation games to allow multiple players (four players) to fly together and compete over a local-area network (AppleTalk). It would become the first of a series of F/A-18 games. In 1995 F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 was released for Macintosh, [3] which elevated the level of graphics complexity and simulation detail over its predecessor. In early 1997 Graphsim released F/A-18 Hornet 3.0 for both Macintosh and Windows PC, [4] followed by F/A-18 Korea in late 1997. [5] F/A-18 Korea was set in a fictitious future Korea war theater and featured support for 3DFx graphics cards. It garnered a score of 8.7 as reviewed by editors at GameSpot.com. [6]
In addition to internal development of the F/A-18 Hornet series, Graphsim published for Macintosh a few notable game titles including BioWare's Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast, [7] Volition's Red Faction [8] and Summoner, [9] as well as Interplay's Descent 3. [10] Graphsim also published Atari's Falcon 4.0: Allied Force for both Windows and Macintosh, as well as Laminar Research's X-Plane 8, [11] X-Plane 9, [12] and X-Plane 10 Regional. [13]
In 2015 Graphsim Entertainment released FA-18 Hornet for iOS, [14] which remains its only title currently in development.
Year | Title | Platform(s) |
---|---|---|
2003 [15] | F/A-18 Operation Iraqi Freedom | Windows |
Computer Gaming World in 1994 stated that "Hornet feels great", praising the game's authenticity but wondering if some inauthenticity with the autopilot and instruments would have made it easier to fly for beginners. The magazine concluded that "F/A-18 Hornet provides an eye-opening and eminently flyable simulation". [16]
The Incredible Machine (TIM) is a series of video games in which players create a series of Rube Goldberg devices. They were originally designed and coded by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnell, the now-defunct Jeff Tunnell Productions, and published by Dynamix; the 1993 through 1995 versions had the same development team, but the later 2000–2001 games have different designers. All versions were published by Sierra Entertainment. The entire series and intellectual property were acquired by Jeff Tunnell-founded PushButton Labs in October 2009. PushButton Labs was later acquired by Playdom, itself a division of Disney Interactive, so as of now the rights are held by The Walt Disney Company.
Fly! is a flight simulator video game for Windows and Macintosh developed by Terminal Reality and published by Gathering of Developers.
Laminar Research is a small software company based in Columbia, South Carolina, and dedicated to providing software that accurately reflects the laws of physics. Laminar's flagship product is the flight simulator X-Plane. The game works with Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and Linux. They also have mobile versions for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat is a 1991 combat flight simulation video game by Electronic Arts. Chuck Yeager was a technical consultant in the game and his digitized voice is featured in the game, giving encouragement and praise before and after missions. The game is characterized for its balance of an action laden gameplay which focuses on classical dog fights and a simple yet realistic flight model.
A-10 Attack! is a combat flight simulation video game for the Apple Macintosh computer released by Parsoft Interactive in 1995. The game features an A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft that takes part in a variety of missions in West Germany during a hypothetical limited conventional attack by the Warsaw Pact. A-10 boasted one of the most detailed flight models of any game of its era, a physics model that extended to solid-body interactions with the ground and complete aerodynamics for every object in the game, including ordnance. Macworld rated it "Best Flight Simulator" in a review of Mac simulations.
The Falcon line of computer games is a series of simulations of the F-16 Fighting Falcon combat aircraft. The games, mostly published by Spectrum HoloByte, were noted for their high level of realism unseen in contemporary simulation games.
Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer is a flight simulation video game published by Electronic Arts in 1987. It was originally released as Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Simulator. Due to a legal dispute with Microsoft over the term "Flight Simulator", the game was pulled from shelves and renamed. Many copies of the original version were sold prior to this. Chuck Yeager served as technical consultant for the game, where his likeness and voice were prominently used.
Hellcats over the Pacific is a combat flight simulation game for the Macintosh computer. It was written by Parsoft Interactive and released by Graphic Simulations in 1991. Hellcats was a major release for the Mac platform, one of the first 3D games to be able to drive a 640 x 480 x 8-bit display at reasonable frame rates in an era when the PC clone's VGA at 320 x 240 x 4-bit was the standard. The graphics engine was combined with a simple Mac interface, a set of randomized missions, and a number of technical features that greatly enhanced the game's playability and made it a lasting favorite into the mid-1990s. The original game was followed with a missions disk in 1992, Hellcats: Missions at Leyte Gulf, which greatly increased the visual detail and added many more objects to the game.
Bogey Dead 6 is a 1996 flight simulation video game developed by Pegasus Japan and Bit Town, and published by Asmik Ace Entertainment in Japan and Sony Computer Entertainment in other regions. The game features six real fighter planes: the F-4E, F-14D, F-15E, F-16C, F/A-18E and the F-22 Raptor. The game is played from the perspective of an ace pilot for the United States Air Force. The objective is to protect the United States from communist invasion, enemy involvement and terrorism. The game is very similar to the Ace Combat series.
Isometric video game graphics are graphics employed in video games and pixel art that use a parallel projection, but which angle the viewpoint to reveal facets of the environment that would otherwise not be visible from a top-down perspective or side view, thereby producing a three-dimensional (3D) effect. Despite the name, isometric computer graphics are not necessarily truly isometric—i.e., the x, y, and z axes are not necessarily oriented 120° to each other. Instead, a variety of angles are used, with dimetric projection and a 2:1 pixel ratio being the most common. The terms "3/4 perspective", "3/4 view", "2.5D", and "pseudo 3D" are also sometimes used, although these terms can bear slightly different meanings in other contexts.
Falcon is a combat flight simulator video game and the first official entry in the Falcon series of the F-16 jet fighter's simulators by Spectrum HoloByte. Originally developed by Sphere for Macintosh and MS-DOS in 1987 and ported to several platforms between 1988 and 1992, the game earned commercial success and critical acclaim.
A flight simulation video game refers to the simulation of various aspects of flight or the flight environment for purposes other than flight training or aircraft development. A significant community of simulation enthusiasts is supported by several commercial software packages, as well as commercial and homebuilt hardware. Open-source software that is used by the aerospace industry like FlightGear, whose flight dynamics engine (JSBSim) is used in a 2015 NASA benchmark to judge new simulation code to space industry standards, is also available for private use. A popular type of flight simulators video games are combat flight simulators, which simulate combat air operations from the pilot and crew's point of view. Combat flight simulation titles are more numerous than civilian flight simulators due to variety of subject matter available and market demand.
Jet is a combat flight simulator video game originally published in 1985 by Sublogic. The game was released in 1985 for MS-DOS and the Commodore 64, 1986 for the Apple II, 1988 for the Atari ST and Amiga, and 1989 for the Macintosh and NEC PC-9801.
War Thunder is a free-to-play vehicular combat multiplayer video game developed and published by Gaijin Entertainment. Announced in 2011, it was first released in November 2012 as an open beta with a worldwide release in January 2013; it had its official release on December 21, 2016. It has a cross-platform format for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Oculus, and Vive. A spinoff game called War Thunder Mobile was released in May 2023 for Android, with an iOS version released in August 2023.
Jane's ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters is a 1996 combat flight simulator developed and published by Electronic Arts for DOS. It is the first entry in the Jane's Combat Simulations franchise. An expansion pack, NATO Fighters, was released in 1996, and a compilation package for Microsoft Windows was released in 1997 titled Advanced Tactical Fighters Gold.
U.S. Navy Fighters is a combat flight simulation game developed and published in 1994 by Electronic Arts for DOS PCs. The expansion pack Marine Fighters and a "Gold" compilation were both released in 1995.
Top Gun: Hornet's Nest is a 1998 combat flight simulation game developed by Zipper Interactive and published by MicroProse for Microsoft Windows. It is loosely based on the 1986 film Top Gun, and is a sequel to the 1996 game Top Gun: Fire at Will. The game was criticized for its lack of realism and its flight physics.
F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 is a video game developed and published by Graphic Simulations for the Macintosh in 1995.
F-18 Thunder Strike is a 2000 action game for the Game Boy Color developed by Morning Star Multimedia and published by Majesco Entertainment. The game is a simplified first-person combat flight simulator in which the player operates a F-18 Hornet for the United States Air Force, who have has confirmed reports of renewed hostile activity in the Balkans and order an aerial assault on the region.