Air Combat
R E V I E W

Air Warrior II
by Doug Helmer

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In This Review:

• System Requirements
• Overall Summary
• Air Warrior II The Game and The Experience
• What's In The Box, Installation, and Set-up
• Air Warrior II Game Play
• Graphics
• Audio
• The On-line Experience
• Air Warrior II Tips
• Air Warrior II F22 Pro/TQS Configuration files

System Requirements:

• Windows 95 486DX/100 Mhz CPU or faster
• SVGA video card 2X or faster CD-ROM drive
• 16 Mb RAM
• Supports most popular joysticks
• Supports most popular sound cards

Overall Summary:

Air Warrior II is one of the finest and most enjoyable flight simulations you could ever own. If you own a joystick you should own this game. But be warned, if you are an advanced fighter jet flight sim enthusiast (e.g. EF2000, ATF Gold, F22 Lightning) you'll think the terrain and sky graphics are a joke, the gameplay overly simplistic, and the radar/situational awareness indicators very difficult to use while involved in furballs involving numerous, tightly packed friendly and enemy aircraft. But don't be fooled by appearances or be put off Air Warrior II by these remarks. Quite simply, the ability to fly over 35 planes with truly authentic flight models and cockpit art, plus the outstanding nature of the enemy AI -- which alone will push your own flying skills to new levels of excellence -- plus the over 300 different missions, six dynamic campaigns, and the highly-sophisticated Mission Editor more than justify the price of owning this sim.

Personally, fellow combat flight simmers, I have never experienced a combat flight sim which so repulsed me at first but then was capable of drawing me in so totally, completely, and most importantly, happily into its clutches. If you want to know why you'll have to read the rest of this review, which I admit is somewhat of an epic, but Air Warrior II excels on so many levels that I just couldn't give it the simple once over.

Air Warrior II The Game and The Experience:

Next time you are loitering in the PC Games section of your local shopping outlet trying to decide how to satisfy your flight sim cravings, pick up the box for Air Warrior II. On the front you'll notice beneath the title the marketing tag line 2 Games in 1, Single Player Windows 95 CD-Rom, Gateway to Multiplayer on-line air combat!. All of this is true, but what they should also include below this somewhat bland marketing verbiage is a warning that says What you are holding has the addictive power of 2 kilos of pure cocaine!

Perhaps that's an unfortunate analogy to use in these "Just Say 'No'" times, but I feel it best describes what happened to me after I had my first taste of this all-engrossing flight simulation game where piston engine-powered aircraft engage in head-to-head combat. But before I get into the details of the game I should give you some personal background first because I believe it will help you to better understand how truly exceptional the Air Warrior II experience has become for me, and can be for you too. (Gosh, if I'm not careful I'll end up accosting people in airports with flowers and Air Warrior II brochures!)

The Inside Story

Before receiving my copy of Air Warrior II (hereinafter known as AWII), I was your typical state-of-the-art jet and helicopter simulation enthusiast. I have spent thousands of hours - like many of you - sitting at my PC engaged in off-line and on-line offensive missions where I successfully bombed ground targets and shot down enemies using the latest in high-tech sensors and weaponry. For the most part, my targets -- whether structural or other aircraft -- were detected, designated, and fired upon before I could even see the aforementioned targets in question. On the defensive side, I spent most of my time avoiding or jamming radar, but on occasion, when things got sticky, I only had to use my evasive combat flying skills (which consisted of the yank-and-crank manoeuvre) to evade SAM's or air-to-air missiles (with the help of flares and chaff to boot!). Only rarely, and only because I did something really stupid, did I ever find myself engaged in the much more intimate form of air combat which is head-to-head, guns only dogfighting.

When such guns-only battles do occur in jet sims, the decisive factors are obviously flying skill and a good initial advantage; however, if both pilots are equally matched in skill and neither pilot has an overwhelming initial advantage, it can take forever to win such engagements because most modern combat jet fighters can turn and climb equally well. And that, my friends, is what makes AWII so different from jet sims: each aircraft in AWII has a certain number of performance-based strengths and weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses which vary far more widely than those you will find in a typical jet sim. So to succeed in AWII you will not only have to be a good pilot, but you will have to know your own plane's abilities as well as the abilities of your enemy's aircraft.

These differences, from flight envelopes to armament to ammo lethality to a dozen other factors, were constantly changing during WWII and are authentically modeled for each aircraft in AWII. Therefore, to become proficient in just one aircraft may take you weeks of flying and fighting time. Add to this the time it takes to understand the 34 other aircraft in AWII and you can see that this ain't no kids' shoot-em-up. Furthermore, unlike a jet sim, in order to take out an enemy fighter pilot in AWII you are going to have to get close enough to see the proverbial whites of your on-line or computer AI opponent's eyes, and that means that every engagement is going to get personal . . . very, very personal! Those are just a few of the reasons why AWII is unlike any other flight sim I've ever flown and it's also why so many thousands of flight sim enthusiasts have been playing it on-line and suffering per hour charges for the privilege for many, many years. How many years? Glad you asked!

I knew from some press releases I had read that Air Warrior had been played for over ten years on-line. "Ten years?" I said to myself. Still babbling to myself, I said "It must have been brutal because the most advanced PC I ever used ten years ago had a monochrome screen." So, I sent an email question about the history of Air Warrior to the exceptionally helpful Product Marketing Manager at Interactive Magic, Lynne Beaman. Lo and behold I got an email back from Kesmai Studio's Designer/Producer of AWII, Jonathan Baron, AKA in Air Warrior circles as Blue Baron. Here's an excerpt from that email:

Ten years ago in 1987, a man named Kelton Flinn developed a WWII combat flight sim game designed for on-line play called Air Warrior. As you can imagine, it was primitive. It made its debut on the Mac II with extremely simple black and white graphics, little in the way of the physics affecting flight, no time of flight gunnery, and so forth. It was, however, the first fully graphic multiplayer online game and this novelty sustained it initially. These were the early days of the medium, where the true wizardry involved how you allowed many folks to fly with and against one another in real time over low speed, high latency packet switching networks of the day."

So you can see, friends, that the AWII you buy today is not some new, just out of beta-testing flight simulation, but a flight sim which reflects the input of thousands of on-line users and over a decade of intensive development. In reality, the only new things about AWII over the on-line version of Air Warrior is that it's for Windows 95 instead of Windows 3.x and it allows you to experience the challenge and excitement that so many others have been paying for by the hour during on-line play.

Granted, playing standalone is not the same as going head-to-head with human opponents, but just in case you're thinking that Kesmai only released AWII for retail in order to attract more on-line players (like I did) you'd be wrong. AWII's missions and campaigns are excellent and the AI enemies have 4 skill levels ranging from rookie to ace, 4 morale levels ranging from coward to insane, and 5 attentiveness levels ranging from unconscious to exceptional, so you shouldn't be worried about getting bored with this game should you decide not to go on-line. Now that I've given you that background, we can now proceed to describing what you actually get for your money.

What's In The Box, Installation, and Set-up:

In the AWII box you'll find the AWII CD-ROM, a 140 page User's Manual, a card which lists the most common keyboard commands, your registration card, an advertisement for the Official Air Warrior II Strategy and Secrets book (more about this later), and a technical notice to help people who want to fly AWII on-line via Compuserve (more about this as well later).

Once you insert the CD you'll find (if you have AUTOPLAY on your CD drive) a nifty install window appears giving you the choice of either playing or installing AWII, installing a trial version of Compuserve for on-line play, installing any of six playable demos of Interactive Magic's other simulation titles, or finally, viewing a non-playable demo of any of four upcoming titles. All-in-all -- a nice, friendly, value-added start to the install process which was painless and proceeded without any difficulty.

Once you have AWII installed and you have selected the icon to play AWII, sit back and relax as the preplay sequence begins (don't be impatient and hit the ESC key, which you can do the next time you play). AWII, like most flight sims, has spent a great deal of time and effort to produce this slick curtain-riser to the actual game, and I must say it's quite something. Of course it's computer animated, but rather than have a bunch of authentic aircraft sounds and voice comms in the background, all you hear as this animation proceeds is this very somber, almost patriotic sounding, military music.

The actual animation involves 4 B-17's being escorted by 2 P 51 Mustangs during a daylight bombing run. Suddenly, 2 Messerschmitts appear from 8 o'clock high, swoop in behind one of the bombers and shoots out the outermost port engine which subsequently bursts into flames. The P-51's give chase and shoot down one of the Messerschmitts and the pilot ejects. Then, and this is one of those classic heartbreaking scenes we've all seen from actual archival footage, the wounded B-17 (with its complement of ten young men) slowly lists to port and drops out of formation to spiral inexorably towards terra firma and its eventual demise. What makes this sequence worth so much description is that I defy anyone to watch it and not get a teensy bit teary-eyed and choked up. I know I did. So . . . ahem, moving right along, once the pre-play sequence is finished you are greeted by the first of several very nicely rendered player interface screens.

This first screen shows a typical WWII British-based airfield with two hangars, a control tower, some planes and even a sheep. All the images in this player interface screen (as well as the many others) are clickable images which take you to other screens or dialog boxes. Specifically, clicking on one of the hangars takes you to the Setup area, the other to the Theater of Operations/Missions/Campaigns interface. Clicking on the tower takes you to the modem setup for modem play and there is a building just below the tower where you can view your recording of your gun camera films (much more on this in a moment). Click on the plane on the runway if you want instant action and you'll find yourself right in the middle of an ongoing furball. If you click on the planes flying overhead you'll find yourself flying with hundreds of other AWII enthusiasts (provided you have already set up an on-line account with Compuserve, Earthlink, Delphi, Gamestorm, or Line One). Finally, if find yourself exceptionally lonely, you can click on the sheep it will go "baaaaaaaa."

Initial set-up is less straight-forward than installation, but only because there are so many choices you can make. My suggestion, if you want to get right into things, is to set up your choice of flight controllers - keyboard, joystick, throttle, and/or rudder pedals -- and leave the rest of the user preferences on the default settings (If you have a TM F22 Pro and TQS setup make sure you see my Tips section at the end of this article or you may end up having fits trying to get things to work). You can mess with all the other setup options later as you get more familiar with the overall play mechanic.

Air Warrior II Game Play:

Okay, in case we've forgotten, AWII is about flying piston-powered, propeller-driven WWII aircraft. Well, not exactly, there are some exceptions to that statement. The first exception is that you can choose from two other eras other than WWII to fly in. These are The Great War (that's WWI for all you new folks) where you get to fly biplanes, and the Korean War. The second exception is that the Germans had a jet powered flying gas can cum one-shot-in-the-butt-and-you-explode aircraft in WWII called the ME262 Sturmvogel which you can fly and the Chinese had the MiG 15 and the Americans the F86F Sabre during the Korean war, which you can also fly. You can also drive one of four different types of vehicles: a truck, a jeep with machine gun, a Flakpanzer, and a tank. Why are those there? They are only there because they are important if you play on-line, so you need to know how to drive one should the need arise. Other than that, they are useless in off-line missions. So with those exceptions aside, I still think AWII is about flying piston-powered, propeller-driven WWII aircraft, so there!

And here, is how you actually play: Take off, fly your waypoint route, intercept bogies, try to shoot them down, then, if you survive, fly home and try to land. You get points for kills, assists, and destruction of structures on the ground. There are eighty-one standalone missions and six campaigns comprised of an additional 220 or more individual missions. Of the standalone missions, there are forty-seven in European Theater of Operations alone, twenty-one of which are training missions (seventeen on the Axis' side and thirty on the Allies' side). The six campaigns are only found in the European Theater of Operations -- three on the Axis side and three on the Allies side.

The campaigns are all based on historical data of actual campaigns flown by the RAF, US, and German airforces. However, not all the missions are exact replicas of actual missions, but many are. You can tell the difference because the authentic missions will have an actual date like August 19, 1942 (the date the 8th Airforce flew a bombing raid on the Aerodrome at Abbeville in France). This example brings up a neat feature of AWII. This mission is part of the "Offensive" campaign, and it is the one campaign where you are not a fighter pilot but the pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress. And just like the bomber pilots in WWII, you'll have to fly 25 missions in order to complete your tour of duty and the campaign. Flying the B-17 is another of those options which has more practical applications in the on-line version of AWII than it does in off-line play. However, in order to fly a B-17 in proper formation and then bomb your targets successfully on-line, you'll appreciate the "Offensive" off-line campaign because you'll need the practice in order to do it right.

What's great about the design of the campaigns is that they are dynamic. So, if you don't do well in the initial missions you will find that your opponents will get more cowardly and stupid so you can atleast enjoy the experience while your skills get better. But there is still a random dynamic to each mission, so even if you decide to refly a mission in which you did poorly or were killed, you probably won't see the same number of opponents, with the same flying skills, or the same amount of courage as you did in your first try. This is just an outstandingly good feature which keeps the gameplay interesting no matter how many times you fly a mission. Speaking of flying skills, there is one feature in AWII which I feel sets it head and shoulders above just about every other flight sim on the market, namely, the gun-camera recording feature.

At any time, in any mission, you can simply hit the 9 key and begin recording your flight with your gun-camera. Once your flight is over (either by choice, or demise) you can then replay the film. While the film replays you can change views, speed up or slow down the film, pause it, or (and this is truly great) hit F8 and take control right at the crucial moment and see if you can change the outcome from when you initially recorded the events. This one feature alone is worth every penny of this sim because it helps you to learn by watching your mistakes as well as giving you the chance to try out a variety of "what-if I did this maneuver?"-types of analysis within the scenario you just recorded.

The play mechanics of actually flying and controlling of the airplanes is very straight-forward. Everything can be controlled from the keyboard, but you'll want a joystick at the very least. As for throttle and rudder pedals? In the words of Staff Sergeant LeRoy Phipps (AKA "Skull" in on-line play) whom I asked about whether one really needs a throttle and rudder pedals for on-line play, he replied "To live long they are required gear."

There are a few things that are a little more difficult to control but are not related to the flying of the aircraft, namely weapon controls. Firing guns and dropping bombs are simple, single key commands (F and B respectively); however, changing from bombsight, to gunsight, to arming bombsight are combinations of three or four keystrokes e.g., to change from gunsight to dive-bomb sight the keystrokes required are ESC, S, D, and ENTER. Those commands take some time to learn which wouldn't be so bad if there were one more key command --- "P" for Pause Game.

AWII is the first and only flight sim I've ever encountered that doesn't allow you to pause the action. No doubt this is due to its on-line roots, but I must admit it was frustrating at first. But like most experiences in life where you are forced into uncomfortable or unfamiliar situations, you adapt and usually are better for it. I really hated the lack of the pause option at first because I've always use it in other sims to stop the action and get my bearings if I lost visual contact with an enemy in a dogfight or if I found myself in a position where I couldn't tell up from down. Not having a pause button, however, forced me to improve my ability to maintain visual contact with my chosen target in a dogfight as well as improve my ability to keep track of my aircraft's position in three-dimensional space. However, all is not lost for the truly new flyers because you can change the realism/difficulty levels by clicking on the Set Up hangar image on the main airfield user interface screen.

There are three different levels of Realism/Difficulty from which you can choose: Novice, Veteran, and Ace. I like the fact that AWII calls it Realism/Difficulty and not just Difficulty because it lets you know that the most difficult or Ace level simply replicates what it was really like to fly these planes and that it is not just some artificial level of difficulty in order to challenge the more accomplished or experienced player. Some examples: in Novice mode you'll have 5X the ammo load than when you fly in Ace mode; in Novice mode you won't stall or experience G-force black, grey, or red-outs, whereas all of these are in effect in Ace mode; and finally, the "Hit Bubble" i.e., the imaginary area around a target where your bullets must land in order to produce a hit on the target is 4 times larger in Novice mode than in Ace mode.

Graphics:

Like I said earlier, the terrain and sky graphics in Air Warrior II are ridiculously flat and simple compared to today's average flight sim. The exteriors of the planes aren't too bad, but they aren't going to win any awards either. There are plane markings and shadow option toggles, and you can also switch the graphic detail on the fly into any one of five different modes by using the 1 through 5 keys on your keyboard. You can also set a minimum acceptable frame rate in the user preferences. Where you do find some exceptional graphics is in the cockpit art. Kesmai Studios can be justifiably proud of what they have accomplished with their internal cockpit art. In fact, the entire Acknowledgments section in the User's Manual is a "thank you" from the artists at Kesmai to the individuals and organizations who provided the photo's and descriptions of the planes you can fly in AWII.

There are up to 12 views in each aircraft's cockpit, and each will show the authentic features of that particular aircraft's cockpit from each of the 12 different points-of-view. The images are beautifully rendered and really help you get over the overly simplistic external terrain and sky graphics. These images are static, however. You won't see any advanced light source shading or be able to click on any of the flight controls. Which brings up an interesting point: the graphics of the flight controls and analog gauges are the same for every plane you fly. This is actually quite reasonable considering all these planes had basically the same controls and gauges. The graphics of the flight controls and gauges DO move when conditions of speed or altitude change or when you set flaps, lower gear, or change the throttle position. And because the instrument panel is the same from plane to plane, it just makes it easier to jump from one to the other and not have to spend an hour reacquainting yourself with the locations of all the gauges as well as the flight surface, throttle, and landing controls.

In defense of AWII's less than stellar graphics, the fact is AWII is about authentic up close and personal air combat so the emphasis is on authentic flight modeling and not eye candy. In fact, once you start getting into furballs you really won't care how good the ground looks. All you will want to know is how far down you can go before you crash into it. On the plus side, I can tell you that speeds at low altitudes feel very realistic, moreso in fact than Janes ATF Gold which is right at the top of the advanced graphics flight sim pack. Also in defense of AWII's simplistic terrain and sky graphics is that one must remember that this is a flight sim that was designed for on-line play for hundreds of players playing simultaneously. Obviously, the kind of 3d accelerated graphics of today were not a priority or even a reality when most of AWII's framework was developed. However, if Kesmai were able to improve the terrain and sky graphics I certainly wouldn't turn it down.

Audio:

What can I say except that AWII's sound effects make up for all the limitations of the graphics, and then some! All of the sounds, and there are hundreds of them, are in stereo and exceptionally authentic sounding. There are two types of sounds in AWII: Sound Effects and Incidental Sounds. There are 20 different sound effects, all of which deal with the sound of your plane and the sound of other planes near or passing you. Like I mentioned, these are in stereo, so when a plane comes up on your right, you'll hear it there. If your left engine starts, you'll hear it on the left. All of the twenty sounds can be turned on or off selectively, that is, customized to your preference. Why you'd turn any off escapes me, but I suppose if you just don't have the computing power, then maybe it's a useful utility. Regardless, the sound effects of wind, buffeting, flaps, gear, bailing out, landing, oil warnings, snapping femurs if you don't pull your ripcord in time, etc., etc., are done very well.

Now, about the Incidental Sounds. These just have to be heard to be appreciated because they are just so damn appropriate. In the on-line environment, the Incidental Sounds are downright hilarious. What the heck am I talking about, well . . . when you are in the HQ for example, you will hear things like typewriters typing, doors opening and shutting, and a sound which I swear is the grunt of a middle aged bald man smoking a 10 cent stogie as he leans over to grab a parts request form out of one of his lower desk drawers. In the Set Up hangar you'll hear a hammer hammering on at least three different types of metal, on the right you'll hear a rivet gun, and somewhere in the middle you'll hear I mechanic hit his thumb and yell a litany of expletives sort of like Fred Flintstone's "Rattas-frakas-srakas" routine. In the on-line environment, according to Baron, there are literally thousands of other incidental sounds in the various conference rooms and HQ's which you won't hear in the box version. When I asked for examples he told me that you'll hear drunken pilots singing, Glenn Miller playing on the radio, even the sound of a fist fight breaking out in some of the general conference rooms.

One sad thing though, is that there are no audible voice comms sounds in either on or off-line play. This again, is due to AWII's on-line roots where voice comms between real players had to be handled via a text line at the bottom of each player's screen. I really believe, however, that if AWII had actual audible voice comms for its off-line play it could help add to the realism for those who just like to fly solo against their own PC. In the place of audible voice comms in off-line play, your computer generated wingmates comments will appear as text messages in the same text line you'll have to use if you fly the on-line skies. So, there are voice comms in AWII, it is just that these communications are textual and not audible.

The On-line Experience:

This is where I really got the AWII bug. Let me just say that getting online wasn't without some trial and error pain (see the yellow sheet that comes in the box if you want to use Compuserve to play AWII on-line). I did get on-line however, and once there it was the most fun I've had with my pants on in a long, long, time. The whole thing about the AWII on-line experience is the fact that you get to fly and communicate with others who are just as passionate about flying combat sims as you are. I think Jonathan Baron of Kesmai Studios summed it up best when he told me that "...although the environment is virtual, the relationships are not."

First and foremost, flying WWII aircraft on-line against other human opponents is without a doubt the most pure form of air combat I've ever experienced. It was also the most humiliating experience I've ever had. I thought I was pretty good, I even spent a week practicing off-line before going on-line, but once in the on-line skies I got my tail waxed time, after time, after time. However, just before I was about to get killed for about the tenth time, I got a message from one of my teammates (you can fly for one of three sides: A,B, or C) saying to hold on and that he was coming to my rescue. Well, that was the defining moment for me. Here was a guy who was coming to save me and we hadn't even been introduced. Unfortunately, he was about a second too late and I was once again shot down.

But as soon as I was back in the on-line HQ, I went to the Radio Room and contacted this player, whose call sign is Skull, and requested he meet me in the HQ for a private interview. Badda-bing, badda-boom and we're in the HQ having a private chat. I asked him lots of stuff and suffice it to say he loves every second of his time playing AWII on-line and he thinks the folks at Kesmai really listen to the players suggestions. He also thinks the AWII box should have a warning telling the spouse of anyone who buys this game that they may not see their mate for days at a time. Inevitably, I told him I was feeling like a bit of a useless weenie 'cause I was getting shot down all the time and he responded by saying that when he started 2 years ago he spent days getting shot down. In fact, he said he got to the point where he was reluctant to go on-line because he was so bad, but every time he got shot down he learned something from the experience. He went on to tell me that he just persisted until one day he actually scored a kill. From that moment he was totally devoted to AWII. He must have learned a lot in those two years because on the last mission I flew that evening with him he scored 5 kills in one three minute dogfight. I, on the other hand, was once again dispatched without ceremony by an another player flying an Me109 shortly thereafter. There was another pilot I met called Raven who deserves special mention. Raven took me up in a B-17 Flying Fortress and let me be the chin gunner. What a blast! We flew in over the airport which he wanted to bomb and I just had to hose bullets at any enemy that got within a thousand yards. I don't know how many other's were also in that B-17 as gunners, but there could have been up to seven other live, on-line players manning the various guns. Unfortunately, despite our awesome firepower, we were still taken out by an enemy fighter. Kinda makes you think about those young heroic bastards that did it for real back in 1942, which, by the way is another reason why AWII is so compelling . . . 'cause it really happened.

I have yet to fly again since that day, but I am compelled to do so again because even after that one experience on-line I have a whole new attitude towards on-line flying with other live players. So what make this so much different and more compelling than say network or modem on-line play? Despite the number of times I've actually flown missions on-line via modem or IPX network, I've never really experienced the type of instantaneous camaraderie which occurred when I went on-line in AWII. This was because in AWII there's just so much more within its on-line environment which fosters relationships and the sense of community which you don't get in typical modem or network play.

The first, and most obvious, reason for this, in my opinion, is the permanent nature of the host server. Having a dedicated host allows AWII enthusiasts to leave messages to other players or to join into the action any time day or night without going through the complexities of setting up a time to play via IPX network or Internet TCP/IP. Of course, you have to pay for this privilege, but as I "heard" one player say to another who "said" he had to sign-off cause of the cost, the other player responded by saying "It's only money!" With that comment just about everyone else on that channel voiced their agreement. In fact, one player I interviewed on-line, one Lt. Doctor Death, said that playing AWII was still cheaper than going to a movie. The other reason was one which Jonathan Baron once again summed up nicely for me "In AWII," he said, "Everyone is equal, everything is fair, and there is no discrimination due to appearance, age, or gender. The only determining factor which exists in AWII is the person's behaviour.

Air Warrior II Tips:

TIP #1:

Read the User Manual carefully. Don't do like I did and just try and figure it all out from the keyboard command card. You really have to read the manual if you want to get the most enjoyment out of this game. Also, don't forget to use the F1 key for on-line help. This is many ways more helpful than the manual because of its context sensitive nature. If you use the Mission Editor to create your own missions, the F1 help is a must because the manual is somewhat devoid of helpful screen shots for reference. The F1 help, however, does include a picture of every confusing dialog box!

TIP #2:

Get The Official Air Warrior II Strategies & Secrets guide by Ben Chiu (there's an ad in the box with a 1-800 number for phone ordering). It will help you immensely with every aspect of Air Warrior from initial set up to winning those air combat engagements where you are hopelessly out numbered. It really is worth the price whether you intend to play on or off-line.

Tip #3:
Setting up your F22 Pro/TQS in Win 95 and AWII's Joystick Set Up Utility:

These instructions assume that you have properly installed your F22 Pro/TQS and have had success in using it in some other capacity before using it for AWII. The reason for this caveat is that if you are new to the installation nuances of the F22 Pro/TQS combination, then there are about a billion other things that could cause you problems and which even these instructions won't be able to fix.

1. Clear your F22 Pro's Memory in MSDOS using the TM Command & Control Center (CC&C) utility.
2. Restart Windows 95.
3. Double Click on the My Computer icon, then the Control Panel folder, then the Joystick icon.
4. Choose the 2 axis, 2 button joystick from the drop down list.
5. Click Calibrate, follow the instructions, then click Apply. Then,
6. Restart the computer in MSDOS and start the TM CC&C utility.
7. Download your Air Warrior .F22 file.
8. Escape out of the TM CC&C.
9. Restart Windows 95.
10. Now you can start AWII.
11. At the main airfield screen, click on the Set Up hangar.
12. Inside the hangar, click on the clipboard then on the word Joysticks
13. Choose the "Generic 2 button Joystick" option for your F22 Pro (Not Thrustmaster FLCS!)
14. Choose the "Keyboard" option for your throttle.
15. If you have rudder pedals, you're on your own because even I haven't got those yet.

Air Warrior II Thrustmaster F22 Pro/TQS configuration files.

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Air Warrior II for Thrustmaster

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