Jane's Combat Simulations: AH-64D FX
Windows - 1997
Description of Jane's Combat Simulations: AH-64D FX
A very rare version of AH-64D contributed by Cary:
LongbowFX is a special version of Janes AH-64D Longbow released as bundled software with certain 3DFX video cards. (I believe this one came in the Diamond Monster Fusion, if that matters.) It came out well before "Longbow Gold" was released, and was the first 3D-accelerated version made available.
It is an abbreviated version of the full game, missing several of the full game's theaters. It is, however, where the 3DFX-acceleration (later incorporated via patch into Longbow Gold, and built-in by default for Longbow 2) first appeared.
The game is functionally identical to Longbow Gold (fully patched), except for the altered splash screen and the missing content (later theaters of action).
Note that AH-64D Longbow comes on two disks, Longbow Gold comes on three, and LongbowFX is a single disk.
The main purpose of releasing LongbowFX was to demonstrate the improvements of 3DFX's first-available hardware-accelerated 3D graphics over conventional (at the time) raster-rendered graphics. For those who really enjoyed it (like me), purchasing the full game was an inevitable result. EA later used the same 3D engine update to create the 3D upgrade to "Longbow Gold." However, the copy protection on this is less stringent, so some people can run this while not being able to run LBG. And if you're not looking to play through every campaign, and just want to fly around and shoot things, this is every bit as good as LBG.
These days, there's little reason for the hardcore flight simmer to choose this over the fully-upgraded, 3D-accelerated "Longbow Gold," but if you prefer just flying around without ever having to swap disks... this is a great choice.
The readme files states "Longbow FX was developed and tested exclusively for the Intergraph Intense 3D Voodoo video card. Other 3DFX cards may or may not run Longbow FX."
This game has no in game-capture, if you download it, you could maybe send us some screenshots ?
Comments and reviews
CLB66 2022-07-13 0 point
By the way, good catch on the Readme file... I couldn't recall which of my early 3DFX cards this came bundled with, but yeah, it was the Intergraph Intense 3D Voodoo. It did run on every later 3DFX card I had, as well... plus, on the wrappers I've used since then (my personal preferred wrapper, today, is dgVoodoo v2, but there are other options which will likely work as well).
It probably would NOT have worked on the original Voodoo (1) chipset, however, which was the main video card out prior to the Voodoo Rush (upon which the I3D Voodoo was based, alongside a separate 2D chip from Alliance on-board). The Rush was a "weird" chip, but it was the first one to permit 3DFX to provide acceleration on a single card, rather than requiring a separate 2D and 3D card.
Intergraph, back in the day, was mainly a hardcore professional workstation manufacturer. That they created a "consumer" card was pretty surprising, and it was definitely not for "casual users," even given its game-centric status.
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