Released: October 1998
Published by: MicroProse
Developed by: MicroProse
Author(s): Tsuyoshi Kawahito, Warren Capps, Tim Goodlett, Chris Coon, Brandon Gamblin, Will Gee, Rob Hafey, Rob Knopf, Matthew Bell, Evan Brown, John Cameron, Stacey Clark, Rob Cloutier, Erik Ehoff, Sam Laskowski, Michael Reis, David Thompson, Roland Rizzo, Mark Cromer, Susan Clausen Paquin
European Air War was MicroProse's sequel to the award-winning 1942: The PacificAirWar which was released in 1994. It was a combat flight simulator set in the Battle of Britain and the Allied air offensives in Western Europe during 1943-1945.
The Pilor Career mode allows you to become a pilot in the RAF, Luftwaffe or USAAF. As you progress through your career by succeeding in a variety of missions, you are promoted which, among other things, gives you more control of other planes in your squadron.
There are 20 flyable aircraft with authentic cockpits and flight models, including the P-51 Mustang, P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, Tempest, Typhoon, Focke-Wulf Fw-190, Messerschmitt Bf-109, Bf-110, and Me-262.
See Also
European Air War (Windows)Work began on the game in 1995, but in 1996 part of the development team left, and a second team took over. This apparently caused some existing bugs to not get fixed, but brand new features were added that were not originally planned.
The 1942: The Pacific Air War's graphics engine was taken and reworked over 3-4 years of further development. The new engine now allowed for up to 32 planes visible to the pilot, and up to 256 in the air at any one time! The visuals now offered 16-bit graphics with 8-bit textures.
A demo of the game was created and released in July 1998 and this was later provided on the October 1998 PC Gamer cover disc. Unlike 1942: The Pacific Air War, EAW did not get any official expansions but the user and modding community loved the game and became very active. In August 2005, the source code was officially obtained and soon after The Code Group was formed who, among other groups, released numerous bug fix patches and enhancements.
EAW got rave reviews at launch while it was up against stiff competition from Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator and Janes' WWII Fighters, but even today, despite somewhat dated graphics, it provides a level of immersion and realism that is unequalled among vintage combat flight sims.
The game must be installed to your hard disk. Several options are provided by SETUP.EXE, ranging from a 'Compact' install that will use just 2 MB of space up to 'Full' install that uses 552 MB. The CD-ROM must be in the drive to play the game regardless of the choice of installation.
European Air War does not have any copy protection.
From Windows 95, insert the CD-ROM and wait for the AutoRun to start (or manually run SETUP.EXE):
Symptom: I'm trying to run EAW on a modern version of Windows (7 and higher).
Cause: The game was designed to run on Windows 95.
Resolution: Numerous unofficial patches have been created to get the game running on modern-day Windows. I recommend you buy the GOG version - they put in some hard work to get the community version 1.28 running well. It contains wrappers for DirectX, 3dfx GLiDE, IPX for multiplayer over a LAN, and DirectInput for configuring USB controllers include gamepads.
Press ALT-Q to quit to the Windows desktop.
Works with DirectX 5.0 or higher. Limited to 5 minutes of gameplay at a time.
Among other things:
1. New "wing-leveler" autopilot mode added. This function (SHIFT-A by default) will maintain current altitude, heading and speed.
2. Bailouts are modeled more realistically. Depending on the aircraft's orientation, speed and G-forces (level and slow is best), there is a chance for parachute failure, or for various levels of injury (hitting the aircraft) during egress.
3. Ground collision is revised to better permit gear-up landings (ditching).
4. Problem with virtual cockpits on cards not supporting 8-bit textures (such as Riva 128) is now fixed.
5. AI pilots will now properly perform ground attacks when ordered.
6. Ground control and AI squad leader use better logic for ordering retreats.
7. Bombers defensive logic is improved. Tail-gunners have improved bogey-tracking ability, and dive-bombers use proper evasive maneuvers when attacked.
8. Bomber Escort and Bomber attack AI is improved. Escorts will try to stay in more strategic positions during combat, and attackers will be more aware of the escorts.
9. Retreating enemy AI will no longer attempt to land if under attack.
10. AI rocket aim point adjusted for better accuracy.
11. Ground control uses better vectoring and bogey-spotting logic.
12. General dogfighting AI is adjusted to take more advantages of individual aircraft's capabilities.
13. AI and autopilot landing logic is improved, though don't trust your life on it if your aircraft is damaged.
1. New HUD feature: Next to the plane type in the targeting HUD, a * character will appear (e.g. *Bf-109) if that aircraft is your wingman, or a # if he is your squad leader.
2. Ending Campaign Missions: After you bail out, ditch the plane, or land and shut off the engine, you are now properly asked if you wish to exit. If you choose to stay, you can use F9 or other view keys to watch the rest of the action. Press Escape when you want to leave.
3. Ending Multiplayer (Coop) Missions: If your plane is destroyed, you bail out, or you are killed, you can jump into the next available AI plane in your squadron.
4. Multiplayer Lag and Warping: These problems have been reduced, and a respawn/framerate bug has been fixed.
5. AI Enhanced: Combat tactics have been improved.
6. Bullet and Armor Values Rebalanced: Bullet modelling has been adjusted, so in general bullets have more power.
7. Tailgunners: Tailgunners are now properly affected by G-forces, and aren't always as accurate. It is still dangerous to park yourself behind one, though.
8. Program Stability: A crash bug involving ALT-N and some other stability issues were fixed.
9. Chris Coon of MPS EAW Team: graphical tweak in visibility if you are in a high-res mode, so now planes will properly appear as tiny dots sooner than in 640x480.
10. AI Enhanced: Combat tactics have been improved; Chris Coon of MPS EAW Team: more vertical or turning fights as applicable, less split-S. It is tough to balance so-called "fuzzy" logic, with all the different factors and variables involved in their decisions (accomplishing their mission, protecting their wingmen, staying away from clusters of enemy, etc). Most of the adjustments made were in the aggressiveness of lining up for a shot "now" versus maneuvering to get extra close. I think before (this patch), there was too much maneuvering and maybe not enough shooting.
11. Chris Coon of MPS EAW Team: Improved gun usage for AI aircraft. Chris Coon of MPS EAW Team: That was mostly a tweak, their decision process when to use cannons. Some of the AI skill levels were a little too conservative.
GOG did have a v1.28 available at one point, but this was taken down.
An unofficial AI mod for European Air War. This is a hex-modified version of EAW version 1.2 that has some changes in the exe. Installing it won't break anything, so don't worry, it works with all the other aircraft, terrain and skins out there.
Replaces the v1.2a eaw.exe by Dave S.
Contains files to increase the heads up display (HUD) font size in European Air War. This is useful for higher screen resolutions for which the default font gets very small. LARGEHUD.FNT and LARGEHUD.FSP are the font files. They are just an extraction and rename of one of the fonts (MAINTALL) included in the EAW font.cdf file.
Version 1.2 but with the no-CD crack.
Lots of bug fixes from the original game, plus over 41 updates/enhancements, including:
* Flyable bombers now selectable, with just the two selection screens (Allied and Axis).
* Individual engine starts with Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, Ctrl-3 and Ctrl-4.
* Much better multiplayer choices than is available in the 1.2 system.
* WW1 style take offs.
* Gun convergence (bullets make contact at a set distance on early versions, however it can be adjusted on later versions in the eaw.ini file).
Major changes:
1. The use of external "dat" files such as "TMod.dat".
2. The "CDF.set" and "Dir.set" system which allows the exe to use custom CDFs and find needed files in nominated folders rather than having to move files into the EAW folder.
3. The ability to use 24bit bmp files for skins and terrains (D3D only).
4. Multiskins- entire squadrons with individual aircraft markings.
5. Gun convergence.
6. The use of convoy files which can determine the make-up of trains and both land and sea convoys. "Convoys.dat" in particular associates sea convoys with up to 255 targets, and contains set waypoints.
7. More interdiction mission types which are selectable in single missions and multiplayer.
8. Massive changes to multiplayer which give the host the ability to choose settings similar to those available in single missions. They also allow a player to join an existing mayhem, or to communicate with players already in a game if it is not a mayhem.
9. Single engine starts for engines 1, 2, 3 and 4, with "wet starts".
10. New aircraft selection screens (Allied and Axis), but with the ability to use the old "picpln" screens and menus through an eaw.setting.
11. More cockpit gauges.
12. A maximum of 256 TMods
13. An improved cockpit view system using files containing data which offsets the pilots head to optimise the views.
14. Single mission "encounters" so that if you are flying over an enemy base on the way to a target there is the possibility that fighters may scramble from that base.
15. Several new eaw.ini settings
16. Individual "Savedata" folders.
17. Artillery activity on land close to frontlines.
Installs 1.28c with the DirSetExeManagerV5. filemanager.
This enables you to select one of three versions of the eaw.exe, and eight theatres in addition to the default 1.28C ETO theatre which had the Allied Carrier.
The theatres are DAW, KAW, Malta, Russia-Germany (winter), SWOTL, SPAW, SPAW45 and SAW.
1. Multiple controllers are usable.
2. The mousewheel can be used as a throttle.
3. Rearming feature for online play.
4. "Kill Shooter" feature for online play. This feature prevents "sniping" off players as they spawn.
5. Bug fix for bomb dropping. In online play in the default game, it still appeared as though the bombs were still on the hardpoint after dropping.
6. In online mode, a chatting player can not shoot.
7. You can now join an online game in progress.
8. New "End Mission," "Quit Game," and "Pause" routines for Multiplayer. In the default game these would cause pauses for all players.
9. "Warp" correction - cartwheeling planes due to lag and other issues - has been adjusted.
10. Chat mode can be made "hot" so you don't have to hit the first letter twice.
11. "War Emergency Power" setting implemented.
12. "Computed gunsight" has been implented. This code was left out of the 1.28c executable.
The biggest change in 1.28e is that individual aircraft data can be used.
Those "30 plane" files such as "planes.dat" have been broken up into single plane files, to enable packages to be made. There are two types which work together in combination, one containing flight data, and the other containing graphical data. It is done this way so that although a user might choose an ETO, desert, or a South East Asian Spitfire V skin, the flight data will be the same.
It also uses 1024x768 screens, and a more flexible mainscreen menu system. No final decision has been made yet, but it is likely that 1.28E will support a 128 objects per tile eaw_ttd.dat file rather than the old 64 objects per tile.
Gives you a stand-alone UAW1.29 installation
It has the old and new map versions of the 1.29 exe, and 9 different theatres.
BoB, DAW, ETO with planesets, Malta, Ray's 2015 ETO, SWOTL, SPAW, SAW, ETO Trains and barges.
The CD-ROM has no specific volume label. Here are the disc's contents:
Disc 1 of 1 (CD-ROM version 1.0): Directory of D:\ DIRECTX <DIR> 18-10-1998 21:23 |
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