Amigas "Wings" Diary

[Creaghorn 10]

here is my first contact with the WW1 aviation virus. from this diary i had the first knowledge about events and aces. it was written so immersive i had the feeling i was really there. something i missed since flying with newer sims. now, after almost 20 years here's the opportunity to have some nostalgia and read the diary again. nontheless month between june and august 1917 are missing, otherwise complete. enjoy the read. i can only recommend it, also for people who never played wings in those days

 

 

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Wings was the best!!

[Von Paulus 8]

Thanks Creaghorn! This is much appreciated.

[Winston DoRight 3]

If some of you young pups don't know what Wings was, it was a flight simulator on the Commodore Amiga computer. Quite advance for the time, around 1989 wasn't it?

 

Look here:

[+Polovski 460]

Fab, loved wings (as much as Red Baron 1 running at 5 fps on my Amiga :))

 

The music I love too, simple by today's standards but catchy and evocative.

[NS13Jarhead 6]

Wow, what memories!

 

I ran the game on my Amiga (1000) with the basic 256kb memory ramped up to 512kb. I think I paid about $1,500 for the rig back in 1985!

 

Of course I was never able to make it all the way through the game, so I never saw all of the memos. Those darn ground attack missions always got me - never could quite get the train before it moved out of range.

[+Paarma 0]

Yes i share your opinions. The Wings had very much immersion and role-playing elements. The diary, that ww1 era music, hall of fame and other features still not much seen todays simulators. that time the graphics was amazing too. Im happy to see that other people have same feelings of old simulators like Wings, Wing's of Glory, knights of the sky, rb1 and rb2 etc.

All had features that example many pure flight simulator today doesnt have.

[Rickitycrate 10]

I still have mine and know exactly where it and the Amiga is because I moved the box yesterday. As I recall the pilots head would turn toward the closest E/A thus giving you some situational awareness. I have the Amiga 500 with the memory booster that plugged into the side. I wish I knew someone that wanted it now. That and my portable C64.

[Rooster89 0]

I never played Wings before and after reading some of the diary, I really wanted to give it a try. So I found Winuae Amiga emulator online and downloaded it and tried to set it up, only to find you need to buy the kickstart ROMs to even use the thing. I only wanted to try playing Wings so I gave up, saying "guess I'll never play that one."

 

But then I remembered seeing a game called Wings (that had a screenshot almost exactly the same as the one Jarhead posted) available for the Gameboy Advance. So I downloaded a Gameboy Advance emulator and Wings. Im not sure if its exactly the same as the Wings you fellas know, but it has to be really close. Give it a try if you want.

 

Gameboy Advance emulator- http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/gba/vboyadvance.html

 

Wings- http://www.coolrom.com/roms/gba/14337/Wings.php

 

Just place the Wings files into the VisualBoyAdvance folder and then start the emulator. Go to file/open, then select wings.

 

have fun,

-Rooster

 

 

[Rickitycrate 10]

I have it on the Gameboy. Only reason I bought the Gameboy. But man that screen is so small and no joystick.

[+Paarma 0]

There is many amiga game "adf" diskimages released as freeware today.

 

Here you get the wings but you need to register. Then you need amiga emulator whitch is free too.

 

http://www.cinemaware.com/clsgame_wings.asp

[Tonyo - legion 2]

AHH the happy memories, I've gotten rid of my old amiga many many years ago,

 

I've still got it on the Gameboy but never touch it these days.

 

I started of with the good old shoebox the commodore C64, then moved on to the Amiga then PC.

 

My first PC was a 486 DX 33 with a 100 meg hard drive - WOW - well it was big back in those days

 

Happy times - I still have kept my original wolfenstein & doom disks though

[tone12 0]

i remember when this was released on the old amiga very well. i also remember that in order to run it u had to buy a half meg upgrade which i think i payed around 50 pounds for

 

its funny lookin back at those days.

[Maeran 20]

Wings and Frontiers Elite were pretty much all I played in the early 90s.

 

I remember showing my first girlfriend Wings, expecting her to be enthralled. Funny the things you learn about women.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

I spent hundreds of hours playing Wings on my various Amigas over the years. It was the source of my fascination with WW1 and the air war, and the only WW1 flight game I played until I found OFF. It even came with a book densely packed with info on pilots, planes, battles, etc. that's as good as any I've found. Amazing for its time (just like everything else Amiga), I still hear the music in my head when I fire up OFF. And I still vividly remember the characters, Colonel Farrah, Holy Joe, etc.

 

If you want to give Wings a try via an Amiga emulator, and might be interested in other Amiga games, I highly recommend Amiga Forever, a commercial product that comes with licensed Amiga ROMs, which are not free. It comes with Wings and hundreds of other great Amiga games. The Value Edition's only $9.95 and would be enough to play Wings if you have the ADF from Cinemaware's site that Paarma linked.

 

Hard to play with an analog joystick, though, as it's programmed for a digital joystick (like a game pad).

 

The Gameboy Advance version is expanded to also let you fly German, not just Allies as in the original Amiga version.

 

Thanks for bringing this up and posting the diaries, Creaghorn.

[Hasse Wind 46]

 

Hard to play with an analog joystick, though, as it's programmed for a digital joystick (like a game pad).

 

 

Fortunately digital joysticks are still being made and don't cost too much. If somebody's really into playing old games with C64 and Amiga emulators, they can't do without a real retro joystick.

[Cinemaware 0]

One ad per customer

Edited July 26, 2012 by shredward

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Thanks for bumping this, "Cinemaware". The journal Creaghorn posted alone is worth reading for those who don't want to bother with emulators to actually play Wings.

 

I suppose it's no big secret that OFFbase is at heart my go at making a spiritual sequel to Wings. The addition of a journal should help:

If your squadron's cook and chaplain end up boxing after squabbling over the food, I shall have achieved some small victory in life.