My original interest was and has always been planes. Since the age of 12 I have been fascinated by planes and especially military aircraft. In my younger days the interest started out as a plane spotter and I would go out armed with cheap plastic binoculars and the year edition of “The Observer’s Book of Aircraft” published by Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd. I still have the 1960 and 1961 editions in my collection. I had a rare advantage when living not too far from Boscombe Down in England then a major aeronautical research base. I would climb a hill that overlooked this base and spot many 1960’s aircraft prototypes being flown and tested. Another offshoot of this hobby was the building of plastic scale model aircraft from the range of the famous Airfix kits. This passion later resulted in my wish to join the Royal Air Force at a very young age.
Today this interest has developed into the Personal Computer game sphere with the wide range of flight simulation software available. I am particularly interested in the military historical ones that simulate either the WW2 or Vietnam war periods. On my PC, I have the titles “Battle of Britain II“, or BOB2 for short, from A2A Simulations as well as “Yankee Air Pirate 2“, or YAP2 for short, made by a team of enthusiasts of the Vietnam war period. These simulations actually depict historical events as well as reproducing aircraft in detail and providing an entertainment factor. This type of software has an ongoing interest because enthusiast regularly add scenarios or objects to enhance the simulation. There is also much research into historical events. As an example YAP2 uses real events as recorded or told by war veterans.
The YAP2 team are now working on a new flight simulation package centred on the Asia/Pacific theatre of WW2. It will be named “Rising Sun” and because YAP2’s business is story-telling, the area to be covered by Rising Sun (or Kyokujitsu in Japanese), is well-known history; Pearl Harbor, Doolittle and Midway. In Rising Sun, the game, the stories will lead the player into sitting in the places of Japanese, Chinese, British, Thai, Australian, Russian and American pilots. This PC simulation is being developed around an existing Third Wire Productions engine, probably “Strike Fighters” but maybe other versions will be provided to run on any Third Wire PC game.
Rising Sun is in the testing phase and I look forward to it being commercialized soon. When it does come out I will be installing it on my PC. That done, I will do my Biggles act get strapped-in, hand on the joystick, full throttle and take off into the virtual Asian and Pacific skies of the 1940’s. DO NOT DISTURB MAN AT PLAY!
Below a video scene of the Battle of Wake Island from "Rising Sun" in development by the makers Yankee Air Pirate.
Update: Rising Sun has been released on 7 December 2010. See their website on this link Read the review on this link