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Falcon 3.0

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Falcon 3.0
Falcon 3.0 cover
Developers
Sphere, Inc.
Publishers
Retail (North America) Spectrum HoloByte
Retail (Europe), digital (2023-present) MicroProse
Digital (2015-2023) Retroism
Release dates
DOS 1991
Windows (DOSBox) October 23, 2015[1]
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) October 23, 2015[1]
Linux (DOSBox) October 23, 2015[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person, Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Simulation, Vehicle combat
Vehicles Flight
Themes Contemporary
Series Falcon
Falcon 3.0 on HowLongToBeat
Falcon 3.0 on MobyGames
Falcon
Falcon 1987
Falcon A.T. 1988
Falcon 3.0 1991
Falcon 4.0 1998
Falcon 4.0: Allied Force 2005

Falcon 3.0 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person simulation and vehicle combat game in the Falcon series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
DRM-free
Original release is floppy only, Gold Edition is a CD-ROM release bundled with other games in the series and AOTK
DOS
GOG.com
DRM-free
Gold Edition. Also available in Falcon Collection bundled with other games in the series. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.
Includes Falcon 4.0.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Gold Edition
Windows
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Gold Edition
Windows

Version differences

The Gold version includes all the addons and is fully updated (except for unofficials). Also includes special Art of the Kill training videos.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Operation: Fighting Tiger
DOS
MiG-29: Deadly Adversary of Falcon 3.0 Playable as a standalone addon, though works best when integrated into Falcon 3.0
DOS
Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter Playable as a standalone addon, though works best when integrated into Falcon 3.0
DOS
Strategic Falcon Unofficial commercial expansion for Falcon 3.0 that adds a greater degree of customization and planning to the game. Even capable of importing custom planes made with Falcon Test Pilot model editor. Formerly available here, not available digitally.
DOS

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 3.05 for the base game and Operation: Fighting Tiger, updating it to be on par with the Gold version, is available here. Separate versions for MiG-29 (1.04) and Hornet (1.02) are available here and here respectably. An unofficial one for networking issues of version 3.05 some user experience is available here (might be irrelevant to DOSBox users). All Gold versions (including digital) are fully updated except for the unofficial patch.

Addon Launcher

Falcon 3.0 has MiG-29 and Hornet as their own executables, making it annoying to configure if you have the retail version. Luckily you can save the following as a .bat file and run it in DOSBox to get around this annoyance.
If used with Gold, you may have to replace the falcon3 command in the script with falconcd.
Addon Launcher
@echo off
:start
@echo off
CLS
echo                            ══════════
echo                            Falcon 3.0
echo                            ══════════
echo.
echo      ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
echo      │ [1] Falcon + Operation: Fighting Tiger                        │
echo      │ [2] MIG-29: Deadly Adversary of Falcon                        │
echo      │ [3] Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter                              │
echo.     ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
echo      │ [4] Reset Falcon Squadrons                                    │
echo      │ [5] Reset MIG-29 Squadrons                                    │
echo      │ [6] Reset Hornet Squadrons                                    │
echo      │ [7] Reset Falcon High Scores                                  │
echo      │ [8] Reset MIG-29 High Scores                                  │
echo      │ [9] Reset Hornet High Scores                                  │
echo.     ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
echo      │ [S] Reset Settings                                            │
echo      │ [D] Load Stick Driver                                         │
echo      │ [C] Save Allied Campaign                                      │
echo      │ [V] Version Info                                              │
echo      │ [Q] Quit!                                                     │
echo      ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
echo.
:choice
choice/c:123456789sdcvq/n Choose Number:
if errorlevel 14 goto exit
if errorlevel 13 goto version
if errorlevel 12 goto save
if errorlevel 11 goto drive
if errorlevel 10 goto set
if errorlevel 9 goto rehighh
if errorlevel 8 goto rehighm
if errorlevel 7 goto rehighf
if errorlevel 6 goto rehor
if errorlevel 5 goto remig
if errorlevel 4 goto refal
if errorlevel 3 goto hor
if errorlevel 2 goto mig
if errorlevel 1 goto fal
if errorlevel 0 goto exit

:fal
CLS
falcon3
goto start
:mig 
CLS
mig29
goto start
:hor
CLS
hornet
goto start
:refal
CLS
f30reset
pause
goto start
:remig
CLS
migreset
pause
goto start
:rehor
CLS
f18reset
pause
goto start
:rehighf
CLS
echo Resetting Falcon and Fighting Tiger High Scores...
del topten
pause
goto start
:rehighm
CLS
echo Resetting MiG-29 High Scores...
del topmig
pause
goto start
:rehighh
CLS
echo Resetting Hornet High Scores...
del topten.dan
pause
goto start
:save
CLS
call savecamp
pause
goto start
:set
CLS
echo Resetting Settings...
del falcon3.def
del mig29.def
del hornet.def
pause
goto start
:drive
CLS
TM-STICK
pause
goto start
:version
CLS
CHECKVER
pause
goto start
:exit
CLS

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\falcon3.def
<path-to-game>\mig29.def
<path-to-game>\hornet.def
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/429520/pfx/[Note 2]
falcon3.def is for the base game and Fighting Tiger expansion, mig29.def is for the MIG-29 expansion and hornet.def is for the Hornet expansion.
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\squad*.*
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/429520/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Force high detail friendly and enemy planes

Use LOADHIGH parameter[2]
Copy OBJECTS over SOBJECTS[2]

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
LAN play
6 Co-op, Versus
Online play
2 Co-op, Versus
Modem only. Can be extended to 6 players if using DOSBox tunneling or other forms of IPX tunneling.
Co-op is referred to as Allied and versus is referred to as duel in game.

Issues unresolved

Intro and mission reports play at wrong speed

The game's intro video plays too slowly and the mission texts scroll too quickly when played in DOSBox.[3] The hi-fidelity flight model also may have issues as well as SAMs.[4][5] Reducing DOSBox's cycles will solve these issues but unfortunately the game will become too choppy to play when on missions. One simple solution is to switch to the "Complex" flight model which allows for correct joystick input. Changing timed=false in DOXBOX will also alleviate joystick calibration issues.

Incompatibility with Windows 9x and 3x

Falcon 3.0 Will not run on Windows 3.1 or 3.0. On Windows 9x systems, it is not recommended to run it within windowed MS-DOS mode but it can be ran through pure dos (Restart in MS-DOS Mode) assuming the user frees enough conventional memory. A Boot Disk was available for download from a Customer Support BBS at one point.

Issues fixed

Insufficient Conventional Memory to Run the Game

Edit your config.sys and autoexec.bat files to ensure you have enough base memory[6]

Falcon 3.0 at the time required a substantially large amount of conventional memory to run (602-604K), making it an extremely demanding game. To alleviate this, a guide is provided within the manual on page 20, Section III. There is additionally another guide within the 'Communications Manual' booklet which explains concisely how to do this. Note: This is a DOS-specific error and does not affect those running the game under Dosbox

  1. Within your config.sys files, ensure the following is included within:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE 1024 RAM
BUFFERS=30,0
FILES=30
DOS=HIGH,UMB
STACKS=0,0
  1. Additionally put 'DEVICEHIGH' instead of 'DEVICE=" for any other driver lines, or don't load them at all (This includes sound card or CD-ROM TSRs)

If all else fails, utilize a memory manager like QEMM or the built in MS-DOS memory manager known as memmaker, and follow the onscreen instructions.

Creating a Boot Disk

Creating a Boot Disk

The Falcon3 directory additionally contains utilities for creating bootdisks. This is explained within the manual on Page 21 (Section III: Installation and Loading)

  1. change to your falcon 3 directory by typing cd falcon3 or cd falconcd (for gold users)
  2. type one of the following for your particular configuration and follow the onscreen instructions
bootemm - for computers with 1MB of EMS, no mouse drivers
bootmice - for 1MB of EMS and a mouse driver
bootdspc - for computers running DoubleSpace (not to be confused with DriveSpace)
bootnet - for a bootdisk loaded with IPX and NET5 Networking Drivers

Falcon Gold also has these utilities under the setup program.

No sound in Art of the Kill (Gold)

edit the AOTK PLAYER.CFG file[7]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\data\AOTK.
  2. Open PLAYER.CFG in a text editor.
  3. Make the following changes:
AUDTYPE = 2 ;SOUNDBLASTER 
AUDDMA = 1 ;DMA 
AUDIRQ = 7 ;IRQ 
AUDBSIO = 220 ;BASEIO 
VIDTYPE = 0 ;AUTO DETECT 
VIDMODE = 110 ;640x480x32K COLORS 
DBITDEPTH = 15 ;BIT DEPTH 
CDROMDR = D

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes VGA
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
unknown

Mods

Mods and utilities for Falcon 3.0 can be found here. Warning some files are version specific and/or don't work on the latest version of the game. Additional mods could also be found by digging in cd.textfiles.com though this archive is far less organized.

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) DOS 5.0 or Later
Processor (CPU) 386
System memory (RAM) 4MB of memory (602K of conventional memory, 2MB or more of EMS)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 11MB of HDD Space
Video card (GPU) VGA Compatible Graphics Card
Sound (audio device) PC Speaker, Adlib


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/429520/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (429520) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Release: Falcon Collection - GOG.com
  2. 2.0 2.1 https://www.gamers.org/pub/archives/cactus/falcon3/faq
  3. gog.com - last accessed on 26 May 2023
  4. simhq.com - last accessed on 26 May 2023
  5. gog.com - last accessed on 26 May 2023
  6. vogons.org - last accessed on 26 May 2020
  7. gog.com - last accessed on 26 May 2023