Fighter Duel Update Info

Thanks to Jim Belcher of Philips Media for keeping me up to date on the state of the Fighter Duel update. This page is essentially his letter of 2/5/96.

The letter

The Fighter Duel Update that will be available by Philips Media Games (probably in the next two weeks) will add features to Fighter Duel and fix some known problems.

Some features that the update will add:

• A bonus plane- the A6M2 Zero, probably the most maneuverable plane in the game.
• Aircraft roll rates are now more accurately modeled, especially in relation to airspeed.
• Buffeting effects have been added at high airspeeds. Aircraft should have more control at high speeds.
• More joysticks supported. Complete line of Thrustmaster, CH Products, and Suncom sticks are now supported. Gravis Gamepad is also supported, along with new keyboard flight controls.
• User-definable joysticks buttons available on many sticks by editing a config file.
• Separate gun banks (machine guns and cannons) controlled by different buttons on many sticks.
• Completely new joystick calibration routine works better with "out of spec" sticks.
• More views sets available via switchable hat views.
• View keys are now "non-sticky" i.e. active only as long as they are held down.
• More realistic plane vulnerability levels. Aircraft can sustain more damage before being killed. Makes dogfighting more exciting and realistic.
• New intermediate position for the instrument panel. There is now a "half down" position for the instrument panel showing only the most important top instruments while allowing better outside visibility.
• Fighter Duel menus now run in six languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch
• More efficient memory usage. Fighter Duel now needs approximately 400k of conventional memory instead of the previous 500k, which should make it more "system friendly."
• Enemy AI has been improved further, making the computer enemy even harder to beat.
• The Flight Log screen is now displayed after every flight.
• Aircraft are now rendered at farther distances, making it easier to determine enemy speed and direction.
• The gunsight "hit counters" can now be switched off at the player's discretion.

Some bugs fixed:

• A bug existed that sometimes caused warping in two player mode between machines of greatly differing speed (i.e. P90 vs 486/33 with no cache). This has now been corrected.
• A bug existed that caused the aircraft trim keys not to work properly. This has been corrected. In addition, aircraft trim is now available via the second hat switch on certain joysticks. Trim settings are now saved for each aircraft.
• A workaround for the bug in the Matrox Millenium card has been implemented.

And a few more that you'll see when you download the update. :-)

The patch will be made available shortly via our website at Philips Media.

Bail back to the Unofficial Fighter Duel FAQ.
Fly to the home page.
Shoot Ken some e-mail.

Copyright © 1995 Ken Marsh All rights reserved.