''Jane's Combat Simulations'' was a brand of

combat flight simulators 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 milit ...

and

naval warfare Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. The Military, armed forces branch designated for naval warfare is a navy. Naval operations can be ...

games published for

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

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

from 1995 to 2000, and later by other companies under license by

Jane's Information Group Janes is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane. History Jane's Information Group was founded in 1898 by Fred T. ...

. It is named after editor and publisher of military reference books Fred T. Jane.

Development

Electronic Arts' license was announced in 1995 and intended to lend authenticity and accuracy to EA's growing line of combat games. The Jane's brand was initially applied to games derived from EA's 1994 release '' U.S. Navy Fighters'', including '' Jane's ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters'', an updated version of the original game called '' Jane's US Navy Fighters 97'', and the compilation ''

Jane's Fighters Anthology ''Jane's Fighters Anthology'' is a 1997 compilation of combat flight simulation games released by Electronic Arts as part of the ''Jane's Combat Simulations'' series. The anthology integrated into a single interface the campaigns, missions, and ...

''. Other titles would be developed by studios owned or affiliated with Electronic Arts, with EA Baltimore developing titles focusing on specific jet fighters,

Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games ...

featuring Longbow helicopters, Sonalysts creating naval combat titles, and Pixel Multimedia developing titles revolving around the IAF and

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. The creative leads behind the ''Jane's Combat Simulations'' line were

Andy Hollis Andy Hollis is an American video game designer, programmer and producer, mainly known for his flight simulators. He was one of the founding members of MicroProse. Video game development He began his career at MicroProse Software, where he was r ...

and Paul Grace, designers who previously worked on games such as ''

F-19 Stealth Fighter ''F-19 Stealth Fighter'' is a combat flight simulator developed and released in 1988 (PC DOS) and 1990 (Amiga and Atari ST) by MicroProse, featuring a fictional United States military aircraft. It is the 16-bit remake of the 8-bit game '' Proje ...

'' and ''

Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer ''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 "F ...

''. Development of the game ''

Jane's Attack Squadron ''Jane's Attack Squadron'' is a 2002 combat flight simulator developed by Looking Glass Studios and Mad Doc Software and published by Xicat Interactive. Based on World War II, the game allows players to pilot fifteen reproductions of that era ...

'' began at

Looking Glass Studios Looking Glass Studios, Inc. (formerly Blue Sky Productions and LookingGlass Technologies, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Paul Neurath with Ned Lerner as Blue Sky Produ ...

unrelated to the Jane's brand with the title ''Flight Combat'', but would be renamed after publishing was picked up by Electronic Arts in 1998. The game was plagued with development issues and ultimately cancelled, but after the bankruptcy of Looking Glass Studios, the unfinished game would be acquired and completed by

Mad Doc Software Rockstar New England, Inc. (formerly Mad Doc Software, LLC) is an American video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Andover, Massachusetts. Ian Lane Davis founded the company as Mad Doc Software in November 1999 after worki ...

Xicat Interactive Xicat Interactive was a video game publisher with distribution across Europe and North America. Xicat held several significant licenses, including Gothic; Motor Trend; Jane's Combat Simulations; and Guns & Ammo. Games published/distributed * ...

acquired the Jane's license after it expired at EA, publishing the game for Mad Doc in 2002. The last game to bear the Jane's brand, '' JASF: Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters'', was an arcade-style flight simulator developed by

Trickstar Games Trickstar Games Pty Ltd was an Australian video game development company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. They developed content for Nintendo and Sony-based platforms, as well as Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American mu ...

and published by

Maximum Family Games Maximum Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Walnut Creek, California. Originally founded in 2009 as a publisher of family-oriented titles for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, the company shifted to publishing games of all ge ...

in 2011.

Games

* '' U.S. Navy Fighters'' (1994) DOS ** ''Marine Fighters'' expansion (1995) DOS ** ''U.S. Navy Fighters Gold'' (1995) Windows ** '' Jane's US Navy Fighters 97'' (1996) Windows * '' Jane's ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters'' (1996) DOS ** ''NATO Fighters'' expansion (1996) DOS ** ''Jane's Advanced Tactical Fighters Gold'' (1997) Windows * ''

Jane's AH-64D Longbow ''AH-64D Longbow'' is a realistic Combat flight simulation game, combat flight simulator of the Boeing AH-64 Apache#AH-64D, AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. Released on June 3, 1996, for the PC, this simulation was developed at Origin Sys ...

'' (1996) DOS ** ''Flash Point Korea'' expansion (1996) DOS ** ''Jane's Longbow Gold'' (1997) DOS, Windows * '' Jane's 688(i) Hunter/Killer'' (1997) Windows * ''

Jane's Longbow 2 ''Longbow 2'' is the sequel to '' Jane's AH-64D Longbow'' from ''Jane's Combat Simulations.'' The game was developed by Origin Systems with executive producer Andy Hollis on board, and released by Electronic Arts on November 13, 1997. Gamepla ...

'' (1997) Windows * ''

Jane's WWII Fighters ''Jane's World War II Fighters'' is the 1998 combat flight simulation video game. Set in the European theatre of operations during World War II, it is part of the ''Jane's Combat Simulations'' franchise. The game was considered a commercial failu ...

'' (1998) Windows * ''

Jane's F-15 ''Jane's F-15'', also known as simply ''F-15'', is a combat flight simulator video game developed and released by Electronic Arts in 1998 for the PC. It models the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle. EA's 2000 '' Jane's F/A-18'' used an improv ...

'' (1998) Windows * '' Jane's IAF: Israeli Air Force'' (1998) Windows * ''

Jane's Fleet Command ''Fleet Command'', previously labelled as ''Jane's Fleet Command'', is a real-time tactics naval warfare simulation computer game released in May 1999. It was developed by Sonalysts Inc. and published by Electronic Arts (EA). The game licensed ...

'' (1999) Windows * '' Jane's USAF'' (1999) Windows * '' Jane's F/A-18'' (2000) Windows

Collections

* ''

'' (1997) Windows * ''Jane's Longbow Anthology'' (1998) DOS, Windows * ''Jane's Attack Pack'' (1998) DOS, Windows – ATF, USNF'97, and Longbow * ''Jane's Air Superiority Collection'' (2000) Windows – F-15, IAF, and USAF * ''Jane's Naval Warfare Collection'' (2000) Windows – 688(i), F/A-18, and Fleet Command

Games by other developers

* ''

'' (2002) Windows * '' JASF: Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters'' (2011) Windows

References

External links

''Jane's Combat Simulations''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

{{Jane's Combat Simulations Electronic Arts games Electronic Arts franchises Combat flight simulators Janes Information Services