General information
- GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
- GOG.com Support Page
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
Source |
DRM |
Notes |
Keys |
OS |
Retail |
|
Original release is floppy only, Gold Edition is a CD-ROM release bundled with other games in the series and AOTK |
|
|
GOG.com |
|
Gold Edition. Also available in Falcon Collection bundled with other games in the series. Pre-packaged with DOSBox. Includes Falcon 4.0. |
|
|
Steam |
|
Gold Edition |
|
|
Green Man Gaming (unavailable) |
|
Gold Edition |
|
|
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 |
|
|
MiG-29: Deadly Adversary of Falcon 3.0 |
Playable as a standalone addon, though works best when integrated into Falcon 3.0 |
|
Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter |
Playable as a standalone addon, though works best when integrated into Falcon 3.0 |
|
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. |
|
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
-
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
Video
Force high detail friendly and enemy planes
Use LOADHIGH parameter[2]
|
Copy OBJECTS over SOBJECTS[2]
|
Input
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
- 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
- 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)
- change to your falcon 3 directory by typing cd falcon3 or cd falconcd (for gold users)
- 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]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>\data\AOTK .
- Open
PLAYER.CFG in a text editor.
- 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 | Windows | macOS (OS X) | Linux |
DOS |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
DOS 5.0 or Later |
DOS 5.0 or Later |
Processor (CPU) |
386
| 33Mhz 486 or better, requires math co-processor for High-Fidelity Model |
System memory (RAM) |
4MB of memory (602K of conventional memory, 2MB or more of EMS) |
6MB of memory (602k conventional, 4MB of EMS) |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
11MB of HDD Space |
11MB, 2x Variable CD-ROM Drive |
Video card (GPU) |
VGA Compatible Graphics Card
| 16-bit VGA Card |
Sound (audio device) |
PC Speaker, Adlib |
SoundBlaster 16 or Roland MT-32 |
Notes
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
References