''Spitfire Ace'' is a combat flight simulator video game created and published by

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...

in 1982 shortly after it was founded. It was one of the first video games designed and programmed by Sid Meier, originally developed for

Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 650 ...

and ported to the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

and IBM PC compatibles (as a

self-booting disk A self-booting disk is a floppy disk for home computers or personal computers that loads directly into a standalone application when the system is turned on, bypassing the operating system. This was common, standard, on some computers in the lat ...

) in 1984. The game followed on the heel's of Meier's ''Hellcat Ace'', also from 1982 and for the Atari 8-bit computers.

Gameplay

The game puts the player in the pilot's seat during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The player defends

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

during

The Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

while flying the

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...

. The game offers 15 different scenarios that include France, Malta and

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

Development

Sid Meier developed ''Spitfire Ace'' as a modified version of '' Hellcat Ace'', another game he programmed, released earlier that same year. In his 2020 memoir, Meier described ''Spitfire Ace'' as "the kind of game we'd probably call an

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or Miniature wargaming, miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules ...

today. It used the same code base as ''Hellcat Ace'', but moved the battle scenarios from the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

to the

European theater The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main Theater (warfare), theatres of combat during World War II, taking place from September 1939 to May 1945. The Allies of World War II, Allied powers (including the United Kingdom, the ...

Reception

'' Softline'' in 1984 called ''Spitfire Ace'' and ''Hellcat Ace''s graphics "extremely simple". ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was 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 199 ...

'' in 1993 stated that the game "has been severely wrinkled by age".

Reviews

*'' Fire & Movement'' #76

References

External links

* * 1982 video games Atari 8-bit computer games Battle of Britain video games Commodore 64 games Video games designed by Sid Meier U.S. Gold games Video games set in France World War II flight simulation video games Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games {{computer-game-stub