F-22 Interceptor

A flight simulator on a games console was not an obvious proposition in 1993. The Sega Mega Drive was built for sprites and fast scrolling rather than for calculating 3D scenes, yet flight over polygonal terrain was made to work on it. The terrain was sparse and angular, but it functioned - and at a time when most players associated this kind of software exclusively with the PC, that mattered.

The game is built around a modern American fighter and offers a first-person cockpit view, mission structure, and combat against both aircraft and ground targets. Compared with PC simulators, the console version had to simplify: fewer instruments, lighter systems management, controls designed for a three-button pad. The result sits between simulation and action game - enough realism that flight has weight, not so much that you need a fifty-page manual before takeoff.

As a single-player title it relies on its mission progression, with objectives and opposition growing steadily harder. Players familiar with later flight games will struggle mainly with how little information the display gives you and how coarse the terrain rendering is.

You can launch F-22 Interceptor directly in your browser here, so trying it requires no emulator setup. One piece of advice: read the controls first and spend a minute simply flying before you engage anything. Simulators from this period are not intuitive, and the first few minutes usually decide whether a modern player sticks with them or gives up.