Hello, my friends, and welcome to this episode of Retro Dogfight!  This one is a doozy, my friends! Last episode, we looked at the much-beloved Amiga-only F/A-18 Interceptor by Robert Dinnerman. I wasn’t aware of this at the time, but he then went on to create the long-running and popular Jetfighter series, which spanned seven games over seventeen years!

So, we decided to take on the daunting task of not just talking about one game in the Jetfighter series, but the ENTIRE SERIES. This includes:

• JetFighter: The Adventure
• JetFighter II: Advanced Tactical Fighter
• JetFighter III
• JetFighter: Full Burn
• JetFighter IV: Fortress America
• JetFighter V: Homeland Protector
• JetFighter 2015

This series began in 1988, the same year as the F/A-18 Interceptor, and continued through 2005. It’s a fascinating time capsule of not only flight simming, but also video gaming as a whole, from the late 1980s to the mid-2000s, and all the technological changes that occurred during that fast and furious time in gaming. We had a lot of fun talking about this series. Hell, some of us even had fun playing the games.

Next time, we’re going to discuss a series that is important not just to multiplayer flight simming, but to multiplayer games as a whole: The Air Warrior series!

Also, as I mentioned previously, we’re doing a Q&A! We’re taking your questions — up until December 15th, 2025 — and we’ll then record an episode answering them to the best of our ability. It should be a fun change of pace that we hope you enjoy!

Thanks so much for listening, my friends, and we’ll see you next time!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 08 – The Jetfighter Series first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello my friends, and welcome to this latest episode of Retro Dogfight! I first have to make an apology. There was a heat wave going on in Los Angeles as we recorded this, so I had a fan going directly on me. I tried my best to hide it, but you can hear it a little bit whenever I talk, so, apologies on that.

For the actual episode itself, welcome to the first episode in which we talk about only one sim! The legendary:

Which came out in 1988 for the Amiga. Now, I never owned an Amiga, but both Chase and Denny were deep, deep, deep into the Amiga ecosphere, so not only are they very familiar with this sim, they take us on something of a deep dive into the history of the Amiga itself.

Now, never having owned an Amiga myself, I was fascinated to hear all this history about the meteoric rise and similarly quick fall of this legendary series of computers. I hope you find it as enlightening as I did. 

Oh, and don’t worry, we also discuss the sim. 

Next time on the show, we’re gonna kind of stay in-theme. F/A-18 Interceptor was conceived by a bloke called Robert Dinnerman, who went on to create and produce most of the entries in the long-running Jetfighter series. 

So, in what will surely be a feat for us, we’ll be discussing the entirety of the Jetfighter series in the next episode. It’ll be a fascinating discussion, as it’s something of a time capsule covering late 80s and 90s flight sim gaming. 

So, thank you so much for listening. We hope you enjoy the show, and we’ll see you next time!

PS. We’re going to record a Q&A! You can use the contact form or the Discord or the comment form to ask us questions! 

*You can find the Amiga books we discussed here.

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 07 – F/A-18 Interceptor (and an Education on the Amiga) first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Welcome to this episode of Retro Dogfight, my friends! Today we’re talking about two classic MicroProse sims that are near and dear to my heart:

• F-19 Stealth Fighter (Steam, GOG)
• F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0 (Steam, GOG)

F-19 was a seminal flight sim for me personally, as it was the first combat-oriented flight sim I ever purchased, and played it for years after its release. It honestly spoiled me for combat flight sims going forward. Its sequel/remake/refresh, F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0, came out three years later, in 1991, and I skipped it back in the day, because I figured, I had F-19, why did I need this?

That was a mistake on my part.

Tune in to find out whether these sims still hold up, and how my co-hosts felt about them in this fun, lively episode.

Next time, we’ll discuss the legendary Amiga sim, F/A-18 Interceptor! Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoy the show!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 06 – F-19 Stealth Fighter and F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0 first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hey friends, welcome to this episode of Retro Dogfight! In this episode, we’ll continue our MicroProse lovefest by looking at three early MicroProse classics, including:

These games are much beloved, early entries in MicroProse’s classic catalog, but were they beloved by us? You’ll have to listen to find out! Hint: Maybe yes, maybe no!

Next time, we’ll continue our look at some earlier MicroProse titles — and some of my personal favorites — F-19 Stealth Fighter and F-117A Nighthawk: Stealth Fighter 2.0! I am particularly excited about this because F-19 is a seminal flight sim of mine. I just cannot wait to talk about these games!

So, thank you so much for listening, and enjoy the show!!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 05 – MicroProse Takes Off first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello my friends, and welcome to this episode of Retro Dogfight! In this episode, Denny, Chase and I look at some of the earliest MicroProse sims, namely:

• Hellcat Ace
• Spitfire Ace
• MiG Alley Ace

These games are some of the earliest, if not the earliest, in-cockpit, “3D” and they’re an amazing time capsule of what these early computers can do, with all the issues that come with them. You’ll find that we were impressed with what these games were able to achieve with such limited hardware back in the day, but they were still kind of rough to play.

Next month, we’re continuing the MicroProse love with F-15 Strike Eagle, Gunship, and Project Stealth Fighter (the prequel to F-19 Stealth Fighter)! Things are getting serious, folks! Can’t wait to see you for that one.

Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoy the show!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 04 – Early MicroProse Sims – The Ace Series first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello my friends, and welcome back to Retro Dogfight! In this episode, Denny, Chase, and I will go back to the beginning of our venerable genre, looking at some very, very, VERY early text-based flight sim games from the late 1970s and early 1980s! The games we’re looking at this time are:

• B-1 Nuclear Bomber
• Computer Air Combat
• Eagles

These games originated in wargaming and board gaming, so they are very, VERY grognardy. Despite this, two of the games turned out to be a lot of fun, while one was an utter pile of garbage. You’ll need to listen to the episode to figure out which is which.

Next time, we’re broaching the earliest MicroProse games with Sid Meier’s Ace series, which includes Hellcat Ace, Spitfire Ace and MiG Alley Ace! This reminds me that I need to finish Sid Meier’s memoir!

Thank you so much for listening, my friends, and we hope you enjoy the show!

*Cover provided by MobyGames

The post 03 – Early Text-Based Flight Sim Games first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello, my friends, and welcome to the second episode of Retro Dogfight! This week, based on an idea from Denny, we’re jumping a little bit out of order — as I hope to typically keep things chronological for my own sanity — and coming in hot with a look at some of the most beloved classic games in the genre: The World War II sims by Lucasfilm. Specifically:

• Battlehawks 1942
• Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain
• Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe

In which I make a daring — and admittedly somewhat embarrassing — confession regarding these games. We had a very, very fun time talking about these old sims, and we hope you’ll have fun listening!

Next time we’re going back to the very beginnings of the genre with some very, very old text-based flight games, specifically B-1 Nuclear Bomber, Computer Air Combat, and Eagles!

Thank you so much for listening, and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the comments below, use our contact form to get in touch, or join the Discord! We’ll see you next time, my friends, and until then, keep checking your six!

*Covers provided by MobyGames

The post 02 – A Look at Lucasfilm first appeared on Retro Dogfight.

Hello, my friends, and welcome to this first episode of the Retro Dogfight (I call it “Retro Dogfighter” in the actual show because I’m a little nervous, please forgive me.) podcast! In this podcast I, along with my friends Chase and Denny, will look back at the classic simulators of old and revisit them for the sake of nostalgia and posterity. 

In this first episode, we’ll introduce ourselves, our background with combat simulations, talk about why we love them so, and ramble a bit about the genre in general. It’s a shorter discussion than we usually will have, but hopefully by the end you’ll have gotten to know us and our backgrounds pretty well.

Now, this will be a monthly podcast, and each episode will cover one or more games. We’re going to try to go in chronological order, but for the next episode, we’re skipping a bit, just to set a tone. Next month, we’ll be looking at the three LucasFilm WWII sims, Battlehawks: 1942, Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact us directly at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the show!

The post 01 – Introductions first appeared on Retro Dogfight.