Alpha Storm

The plane crashes if you waggle the joystick at a frequency measured in hertz. Alpha Storm from 1997 is a great example of how a flight simulator without precision and concessions simply doesn't work — and that is exactly why I like it.

It is an arcade flight simulator in which you pilot a fighter jet in a conflict somewhere in the Middle East. It is not a complicated tactical strategy but plain arcade — you fly, shoot, dodge enemy fire and complete missions. The game drops the pointless procedures that professional simulators burden you with and gets straight to the point. You steer with a joystick or keyboard, shoot or drop bombs, and fly on. Simple, direct, no beating around the bush.

But here is the problem. The controls are suspiciously sensitive. Every small movement of the joystick pulls you off course, and the plane reacts like a hysteric who has been poked with a finger. There is no room for finesse, and when you try to correct your heading, you end up in an emergency manoeuvre. The flight physics is obviously abstract — it is not close to reality, but it is not consistently arcade either. A middle road that frustrates. The graphics are honest DOS fare for the time, the landscape beneath you is recognisable, the enemy flies and shoots. The sounds are characteristic — strong engine growl, gunfire, explosions. It all works, but none of it thrills you.

Alpha Storm got wedged into a gap where it simply could not be categorised. It was not realistic enough to match professional simulators, and not arcade enough to compete with Ace Combat or the class of games where we don't play at being pilots but simply fly and destroy. Its time is already gone — similar games got their DNA from creators with a clearer vision.

When you play it in an emulator today, you can feel that passion of the nineties, that effort to build something between realism and entertainment. It doesn't work, but if you are curious what it looks like when a creator takes on an ambitious goal and fails to achieve it — and yet the whole thing stays functional and finished — it is worth a few minutes.