Launching off the deck of an aircraft carrier in Combat Air Patrol, you are dropped straight into the flight deck of a 1990s naval combat simulator.
Flying over the Gulf in Combat Air Patrol
You strap into either an F-14 Tomcat or an F/A-18 Hornet over the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. The F-14 takes on air patrols and escort duties, while the Hornet handles precision bombing against bridges, patrol boats, and SCUD launcher sites.
Before takeoff, you select your weapons payload, map out your flight path, and check your fuel margins. Mid-air refueling and long transit phases force you to manage throttle settings carefully. If you happen to spot Saddam Hussein on a strike mission and destroy his vehicle, the whole campaign ends in an immediate victory.
The odd charm of calling in sick
The campaign interface includes a few strange choices that set it apart from standard military simulations. You can report to the ship's sick bay to call in sick when a mission payload looks too risky.
Skipping a dangerous sortie gets you out of duty, but visiting the doctor too often makes command suspicious. If you abuse the option, leadership eventually declares you unfit for military service and ends your tour early.
Inside the cockpit, pressing the glance key causes the pilot's head to swivel 180 degrees backward. Your view snaps around to look straight at your co-pilot, who stares right back at you. It is an unintentional Exorcist moment in the middle of a serious flight layout.
Why the Combat Air Patrol MS-DOS game stripped away strategy
Developer Maverick Simulation originally built the title for the Commodore Amiga in 1993 before bringing it over to PC. Publisher Psygnosis Limited released this updated version for DOS in 1995 with textured VGA graphics.
The code derived from the game engine used in Psygnosis's earlier vehicle hit Armour-Geddon. However, the conversion process left one major feature behind on the original hardware.
Amiga players managed ground troop movements in real time while flying air support overhead. The PC edition dropped that strategic map layer entirely, leaving only direct flight combat and basic flight route planning.
Handling like a toboggan on ice
Once airborne, the simulation reveals major flaws in its flight math. Banking your aircraft triggers a weird sliding motion where the nose yaws dramatically while your airspeed drops off a cliff.
Reviewers at the time noted that the jets handle more like a toboggan on ice than supersonic military fighters. Analog joystick support feels loose and floaty, which leads many players to switch back to digital keyboard inputs for fine corrections.
Ground attack single missions clutter the roster, leaving the air-to-air F-14 with very little to do in non-campaign modes. When you finally finish a strike, landing back on the ship requires extreme precision.
Night carrier landings represent the steepest difficulty spike in the entire package. Misjudging your hook angle by a fraction of a degree slams your jet into the rear ramp or sends you skimming past the arrestor wires into the ocean.
Does this mid-90s sim hold up?
The audio side holds up better than the control scheme, thanks to clean sound design and voice work credited to Phillip Morris, Tim Wright, and Mike Clarke. Engine hums, missile lock tones, and radio chatter keep the atmosphere tense during low-altitude bombing runs.
If you enjoy mid-90s simulation games, the cockpit presentation and quick mission builder still offer an interesting afternoon of flying. Just be ready to fight the flight model as much as the enemy air defenses.
You can play Combat Air Patrol online free in your browser right now. Fire up an Instant Action dogfight, test your carrier landings, or try calling in sick to see how command reacts without needing to install anything.