Jane's Attack Pack

PS, mag102 says its my fault because it said in the sellers comments that it was the ATF game. Strange though how his ad had a big picture of Janes Attack Pack with a great big heading over the picture "Janes Attack Pack"

Whatever. Guess he needed my few bucks worse than I did.


Janes Attack Pack   December 19, 1999
Bill H (Gainesville FL)
30 out of 32 found this review helpful

USNF 97 would be a cool game- just like the original with more missions, better grapphics and cool sounds, but it doesn't work with Win 95 like it is supposed to. I've confirmed this with a friend on his machine and it shuts off right in the middle of a dogfight!

ATF is a cool game but you have to play it through dos because the controller won't work with the dos window-patch. It has some really awesome, fast planes with some modern missles and cool campaigns, but the missions are very difficult.

Longbow- theoretically, looks like a cool game, but, once again, cannot get the controller working in windows.

Don't know what EA is doing about these problems, but I emailed them a while back and have not yet recieved a reply... so much for customer service.

All in all, if they were to work on your machine, I would have given this a 4/5.


Get one of the other Ultimate Flight Packs instead   April 18, 2001
Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

This bundled pack comes with Janes' Advanced Tactical Fighter, US Navy Fighters '97, and Gunship. It's a mixed bag. Actually, I already bought Ultimate Flight (pack III I think) which had ATF and Gunship but with the first version of EF2000 instead of USNF. (I have since bought USNF '97 second hand). Getting EF2000 was a better idea because ATF and USNF '97 are basically the same game: they rely on roughly the same game engine, offer many of the same features, require the same sort of gameplay and share the same faults. Even the computer voice (a cowboy sounding guy) is the same. By getting a bundle with EF2000 - which is about as different a sim from any of the Jane's fighters games as you can get for that level of computer - you're getting more variety and a better value. In either of USNF or ATF, you fly your choice of any number of cutting edge aircraft against hordes of other enemies who also fly cutting edge planes. The enemy always seems to have the overwhelming advantage in numbers. Though each game features different planes (next technology jets like the F-22 and Rafale in ATF vs. the Super Hornet or navalized MiG-29 or Su-27 in USNF), both sims have generous mission builders or single play missions that allow you to fly almost any fighter aircraft built since the late 1950's. (There are some exceptions which seem more notable now - you can fly the MiG-19 or the F-6, a reverse engineered copy built in China. The F-8 "Finback", a radical hybrid of MiG-19 and MiG-21 or the H-7, a more indigenous Chinese design, are more distinct airplanes, but don't get attention). USNF '97 actually adds Vietnam War-era fighters like the F-8 Crusader, the F-4B Phantom, jets underrepresented in aviation. If variety in aircraft is what you want, you won't be dissappointed in either of these games. Unfortunately, grouping these planes together tends to generalize them, even though just sitting in the cockpit of one of them is a singular experience. There is no real cockpit panel - just some pop-up windows which seem the same for each jet (radar, radar-warning, IR, ammo, systems, fuel/oil, check-six cam, target, etc). Each plane comes with what's supposed to be a panel - but you can switch it off with no affect on gameplay or your situational awareness. The planes themselves don't fly that different unless you fly jets on radical edges of performance (i.e., you know you won't get the same performance from flying an Intruder that you get from the F-18 Hornet; the Hornet, though underpowered in comparison to the F-16, handles much the same as that plane). Once you've staged your favorite historical dogfights (IAF Mirage III against Egyptian MiG-21F; Iraqui Mirage F.1A vs. Iranian F-14; Unnamed MiG-28 (actually the Northrop F-5E) against Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer) you'll quickly bore of either game. The flying itslef won't inspire you with dreams of soaring the wild blue, and even supersonic and low-level flight seems about as high-powered as a bike ride. (Getting Ultimate Flight III will substitute USNF for EF2000 which has more intense and realistic flying, a more singular flight model and better graphics).

The bundle also comes with Janes Longbow. This version has since been succeeded by Longbow2, with better graphics and more support for hardware acceleration. However, for those whose computers don't measure up, Longbow is still a monumental experience. Simulating the Army's AH-64 gunship, you fly as either gunner or pilot of this killer copter. Longbow, which concentrates on a single aircraft, goes more in depth into its systems. It's probably the most intimidating sim around, doubly so since its attention is spotlighted on the comparitively unknown world of helicopter sims.

I flew these sims on my P166MMX with no hardware acceleration and only 16mb of RAM and enjoyed smooth performance from them.


An OK game with laughable grapchics!   January 29, 2008
jetdoc (Planet Earth)
The only game I'm familiar with here out of the entire pack is US Navy Fighters 97.
I bought that game brand new back in 1997 and I must admit, compared to other combat air sims of the time, this one had poor almost comical graphics!
Dont waste your money on this crap!