''Air Warrior'' was a

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

online

combat flight simulation game Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and mili ...

launched by

Kesmai Kesmai was a pioneering video game developer, game developer and online Video game publisher, game publisher, founded in 1981 by Kelton Flinn and John R. Taylor III, John Taylor. The company was best known for the combat flight sim ''Air Warrior'' ...

in 1988. It was hosted on

GEnie Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic mytho ...

and used that service as a server for client software running on a variety of

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

s. It underwent continual improvement through its decade-long lifetime with Kesmai, appearing on new platforms and host services.

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

purchased Air Warrior in 1999, and became provider of the game, but it was discontinued in 2001. Sequels ''

Air Warrior II ''Air Warrior II'' is a video game developed by American studio Kesmai Corporation and published by Interactive Magic for Windows. It is a sequel to ''Air Warrior''. Development Development of ''Air Warrior II'' was directly overseen by Bill ...

'' and ''

Air Warrior III ''Air Warrior III'', known as ''Air Warrior 3'' in Europe, is a video game developed by Kesmai Studios and published by Interactive Magic and Midas Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows in 1997. The game had been scheduled to be rele ...

'' were both released in 1997 and published by Interactive Magic. Air Warrior was one of the first massive online games, hosting hundreds of users during busy periods. It inspired ''

WarBirds ''WarBirds'' is a series of massively multiplayer online and offline World War II combat flight simulation video games originally developed by Interactive Creations of Grapevine and published by iEntertainment Network in 1995. The game includ ...

'', which in turn inspired '' Aces High'', while other members of the ''Warbirds'' team went on to produce ''

World War II Online ''WWII Online'' is the very first massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) ever created and holds three Guinness World Records. It is in active (continuous) development by Playnet, Inc.'s internal game studio, "Cornered Rat Soft ...

''. Today there are a number of similar games, like ''

WarThunder ''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 ...

'', most of them based on a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...

model.

History

Introduced in 1988 by

,Brooks, M. Evan (2001)
/ref> ''Air Warrior'' was played over modems and hosted on the

online service provider An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider (music, movies), a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, ...

. Players could choose one of a number of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

aircraft to fly, along with ground vehicles, and play in a multiplayer "arena" with hundreds of other players. The game focused mostly on

dogfight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft conducted at close range. Dogfighting first occurred in Mexico in 1913, shortly after the invention of the airplane. Until at least 1992, it was a component in every majo ...

ing, with a secondary strategic role of capturing forward airbases near the center of the map. Several updated versions were released, and additional service providers were added over time. The original version of ''Air Warrior'' ran on

Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

, and

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

computers, had simple black and white wireframe graphics, and cost over $10 per hour to play. Over time, Kesmai produced improved versions of the game, starting with

SVGA Super VGA (SVGA) is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards that extended IBM's VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the I ...

''Air Warrior'' in 1993, and continuing with ''Air Warrior'' for Windows in 1996, ''

'' in early 1997, ''

'' later in 1997, and finally ''Air Warrior III Millennium Version'' in 2000. Development of ''Air Warrior II'' was directly overseen by

Bill Stealey John Wilbur Stealey Sr. is an American game developer and publisher who founded MicroProse with Sid Meier. He also founded (in 1995) and is the current CEO of iEntertainment Network. Business career Stealey took a job with General Instrument as ...

, founder of the game's publisher, Interactive Magic. Kesmai also did business deals to provide access to ''Air Warrior'' through additional on-line services, including Delphi, CRIS,

CompuServe CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

Earthlink EarthLink is an American Internet service provider. It went public on NASDAQ in January 1997. Much of the company's growth was via acquisition; by 2000, ''The New York Times'' described Earthlink as the "second largest Internet service provider ...

, Gamestorm and CompuLink. A version of ''Air Warrior'' for Windows was ported back to the Macintosh in 1997 in an Internet open beta, and then later moved to America Online. In 1999,

purchased ''Air Warrior'', and became provider of the latest version of the game, only to discontinue it in 2001.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' in 1990 called ''Air Warrior'' "the most exciting

argame Argame is one of seven parishes (administrative divisions) in Morcín, a municipality within the province and autonomous community of Asturias, in northern Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = ...

I've played", warning players to "be resigned to spending some money on it, though, because ''time'' flies while ''you'' do". 1991 and 1993 surveys in the magazine of strategy and war games gave it three and a half stars out of five. The magazine in 1993 praised the flight models' accuracy, stating that it forced pilots to choose correctly when selecting aircraft to fly against other humans. The magazine suggested that if Kesmai were to add some upgrades to the offline single-player mode it would "blow away any of the competition". In a 1994 survey of wargames the magazine gave the title four stars out of five, noting its high cost but reporting that it was "Continually being revised and updated". In 1997 '' Next Generation'' named ''Air Warrior'' as number six on their "Top 10 Online Game Picks". They noted that "Kesmai did what was thought impossible at the time - put out a multiplayer flight sim online with a persistent environment."

References

Sources

*Anderson, Brooke P. (1997)
How to Fly and Fight in Air Warrior
Appendix: History of Air Warrior. * *Brooks, M. Evan (2001)

*Book of MacDweeb, 1999
satirical history of Air Warrior for Macintosh in the spirit of the Wingless Cafe

External links

* *{{Internet Archive game, id=msdos_Air_Warrior_1992, platform=MS-DOS 1988 video games 3DO Interactive Multiplayer games Amiga games Atari ST games Classic Mac OS games Combat flight simulators Commodore CDTV games DOS games Electronic Arts franchises FM Towns games Konami games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States World War II flight simulation video games