Comment by bigmattystyles
7 hours ago
If it's the game I'm thinking of, floppy copies were going around my middle school in France at the time but this was a game that without the manual, good luck even getting the plane off the ground. I seem to recall a mode where you started out in the air. Fun times.
That reminds me of when a friend convinced me to try to get into Falcon BMS. The community has created thousands of pages of documentation on flying the Falcon, operating the various weapon systems, as well as things like energy management, formation flying techniques etc. etc.
https://wiki.falcon-bms.com/en/manuals
It's really impressive, but I did not have the time to put into learning it.
You definitely needed the manual. But an 8-year old version of me mastered the game so it couldn't have been that hard.
FWIW, the manual is a masterpiece. I really miss all the ancillaries that came with early computer games.
That happened to me, at least, with F-29 Retaliator. Your best bet was starting a mission already in the air, as the game (IIRC) didn't include any tutorials.