haven't even started the video yet. just needed to say that i love reviews of old flight sims, there aren't enough modern videos that go into them at all. that and your voice and scripting is all pretty satisfying and fits the content well. really hope you keep at this in the future bro 👑
Flashback to 2003... my girlfriend comes over unannounced and walks into my room. I have all of my flight sims laid out on my floor (about 30 of them) and I'm staring longingly at them. All I hear over my shoulder is "I think you might be autistic".
This just makes me even more excited for IL2's new Korean game. since they also plan on expanding their career mode to a more regimental mode, letting you take control of what missions your flight will do, who will be in what squadron. i think even having to manage fuel and ammunition. need to strike a talk column? damn, shouldn't have wasted all your bombs on that bridge strike you set up.
@@andrewa837 I hear Pilot Career is sticking around, it's just the actual commanding a squadron bit that's picking up new features. I definitely approve, that's the one thing the Rise of Flight engine games never really nailed.
So much of this game reminds me of a ww1 flight sim "Flying Corps" and sure enough, its made by the same team. Had no idea they made more action flight sims, very cool and somewhat surreal to discover years later. Solid and comprehensive review btw nice job!
Most people don't know this but this Game actually had a Dynamic Campaign. Not like Falcon4 BMS etc but it had one... I see you cover this in the video. Glad you did
Just found this channel, I hope more of these are coming as you did it such justice. Eurofighter Typhoon and Janes USAF are two I'd love to see your take on
Fleet command, Dangerous Waters, Falcon 4, European at War etc. Early milsim games were really the peak imho. I still play those games. And they are far realistic than DCS or any modern equivalent i think. At least with the mods.
Mig Alley was pretty good for its time.. it build a lot on Flying Corps Gold, the previous title that was not bad, either. The table at 8:36 has to do with how to pick targets, your job (as was in the real war) is to stop supply transfer.. it shows you what logistic hubs are worth striking, "choke" is chokepoints like bridges.. if I remember correctly, it had to do with how many ground units where there and how fast they got replaced.
I felt as much. But what's weird is the spring offensive doesn't have any offensive ground units for either side unlike the mini campaigns before it. I need to play mine to the fullest, but last year I did and got save locked where it would crash after making or picking any mission. Quite unmotivating
@@andrewa837They are there and visible along the FLOT(Foward Line Of Troops). Those three orange boxes are points wear FACs or TACs are present. The orange line connecting them is the rear line. Your troops are forward of that line. If you zoon in on any one of those boxes you'll see the enemy ground troops that are harassing your UN troops. But, you must have the both the red and blue troop and tank icons highlighted on the toolbar at the top of the map. Cick on one of the orange boxes and it will allow you to approve it for a CAS mission. However, you must also use the directives box (pops up when you first start the Spring offensive campaign) to allocate some ground attack aircraft to CAS mission types. It may take a few sessions before your ground forces start to get harrased and begin requesting CAS air support. The communist ground troops were masters of camouflage. This is why you don't see ground troops all over the map until they make contact with your ground troops This is how it was in real life during the war and it is simulated in Mig Alley. In fact, prior to the Chinese Offensive , China had many battalions of troops inside Korea. MacArthur and the Far East Command missed it totally during recon missions.
Finally someone covers this title! I never had the chance to play it but it looks amazing when I found it a few years back. I only got to play Rowan's other flight sim, the Battle of Britain 2 and that was INSANE! But it had the same issues as MiG Alley, the dynamic campaign didn't have much in terms of instructions and it was a lot of set up if I remember right and same deal. No clear cut objectives or progress but hey, perhaps that's what the pilots felt at the time.
thank you for telling me about this, had absolutely no idea this existed, somehow, despite being a fan of korean war combat aviation and old combat sims. guess i wasn’t enough of a fan haha. love it, will be playing this. it’s like falcon bms, il2 1946 and strike fighters. the number of objects is really nice. please more games with a dynamic campaign.
It's great to have found this summary! I loved it. Since we're on this topic, I need to know if anyone else remembers the title SABRE ACE, very similar to the one shown in this video. It came with a magazine and a 1/144 scale model. I'm nostalgic for that title or for Mig Valley. They had a good balance and easy-to-understand missions, but then they required skill on your part to carry them out and for the dogfights. Nice but well-made games. Even the intro before the mission made you feel like you were in the pilot's room.
Ah, Rowansoft, I fell in love with BOB, buggy as it was, but no other sim has managed to get that many aircraft in the air at the same time and with decent radio chatter.
Wow I remember playing this as a kid in the early to mid 2000s. Was a huge influence on the F-86 becoming my favorite fighter. Always thought about this game but never head about it for the past 20 years. I’d say the Korean air conflict has only decreased in popularity recently. When my dad was young the Vietnam war was ramping down and the air war there was not so glamorous. There was an aura surrounding the sleek silver jets at the dawn of the jet age having success over Korea against a deadly foe as the last true gun flighters. It was a powerful image. I’d also argue that War thunder was at its absolute peak when the late and just post Korean War aircraft were the top tier (F-86F2, MiG-15bis, and CL-13). The matchmaking was better and there wasn’t such a huge BR range spreading the player base thin at every BR. There was nothing supersonic and the only way to get a kill was lining up a good shot with guns. It felt way less frantic and less of a cluster than it is now.
After "F-15 Strike Eagle II", Mig Alley Ace was my second ever flight sim on Atari, and I absolutely *LOVED* it. Seeing it brought to more modern standards brings a nostalgic tear to my eye.
It is not the most "forgettable"...but yes, it is frequently forgotten. This game was awesome. What I pay for a modern version. Keeping fingers crossed for IL-2 Korea.
Gosh I loved this game! The handling felt so on point. I have the F-86 on DCS but I have so much nostalgia for this! I wish they would release it on Gog, I’d get it in a heartbeat.
The F-86F in DCS is way better than this game. But what is it, like 25 years earlier? The scenery is way better in DCS. But DCS hasn’t come out with a Korea map, not to mention a 1951-ish one. It would be really, really cool if DCS could concentrate on a Korea Map or a Vietnam Map with a dynamic campaign to match or surpass most of the neat things in this game. But, I suspect it would have to run on a dedicated server for multiplayer or a second PC for single player or 1 to 4 player co-op use on a LAN. Yeah, there were a lot of neat things in this game, but frustrating and I remember bugs that would just stop it. If it could be essentially developed within DCS, it would be phenomenal!
maybe the manuals for rowans battle of britain is more complete? i'd imagine at least the turn based stuff works more or less the same. or the bob2 patches manual idk if thats changed too much by then tho
There's something very amusing about how Korea seems to be a common setting for all sorts of promising/damn good flight sims. Be it regarding the infamous conflict that's shaped it or a return of it in a modern era.
@@andrewa837 TAW? Sorry but you might have to explain that to me because the thing that comes to mind when you say that is Il-2's Tactical Air War server which I feel might not be what you were referring to?
Man I've only recently got into flight sims, only playing stuff like Microsoft's Combat Flight Sim and Janes a little bit when I was a kid, and I love flying the DCS F86. What I hate is the pants on head AI combined with cheating flight models, pulling 10g climbs at 400 knots and all that makes playing the campaigns that I want to, a completely horrid experience. It's completely crushed me because it's my 2nd favorite plane behind the Phantom at the moment. Apparently the AI flight models have been broken like 6 or more years for a lot of the MIGs too. It's super frustrating. Here's to hoping IL2 Korea is any good, I'm unfamiliar with the consensus of the rest of the series though.
@@muhammadsaleh7229right! I played Il-2 from the first clandestinely distributed beta "cuts" all the way up to 1946 and Pacific Fighters including severely community mods and add-ons. Its weak AI made it a multiplayer game...
More than 6 years... Over 10.. DCS uses a bunch of 3rd party freeware from github Frankensteined together. It's why things break every update, why it's such a pain to make anything for the game, and why they can't fix the AI.
basically the same experience I had with DCS.. AI is either brilliant or dumb as a rock. mostly the latter.. I remember Mig-15's chasing me until their fuel ran out. Fun for about five minutes until you notice there's no real challenge.
1:32 I was wondering how you had that type of head movement on this🤣!! I was like "I didn't have that😐" I had to use the Hats. Awesome to know about this patch in case I ever play again!!
Thanks for this review. This was / is an amazing game. I have always been interested in the Korean air war since watching The Bridges at Toko-Ri in the mid 1970s (the movie was made in the late 50s). There have been a handful of DEDICATED games (mods notwithstanding) that have included the planes from this war, and Mig Alley was probably the best. Even subtle things like ground attack missions against reinforced bunkers were best accomplished (as they were in real life) by a two wave strike - HE then napalm - to "crack and burn" targets.
@@andrewa837I actually prefer MiG Alley's approach, it really adds to the sort of "you are in a newsreel" feeling this game seems like it wants to establish--especially since your character actually has dialogue that's more than "I'm here and I'm issuing the orders", which a lot of sims suffer from. Your wingmen actually try to give you advice, it sounds like.
@@Digolgrin I like it too. It's what I mean by this game having a great tone. Falcon 4 does too, its more cog in the machine feel which is also perfect.
@@andrewa837 Oh, absolutely! I play a lot more arcade flight games, so my preference is more expressive and less cut and dry, so my preference is for MiG Alley, but I can appreciate AI chatter that gives at least the illusion of 'they're working together.'
I had the demo with 1 mission. I've played the living chit out of it back then. I've felt emotional when at the end credits there was a memorial for a developer, I think. I didn't know English that time, so it was just a guess.
Nice review. An almost forgotten sim just like the real life Korean conflict . I've had this one since new and really enjoyed playing it back in the day. Having a tough time getting it to run on Win 10 but hopefully someday I'll get it. Too bad about the lack of multiplayer choices. 😔
Great review. I had this game for years, tried to run it long time ago, though it was already several years after its release, but I had some problems at the time so I shelved it. Maybe it's time to take it for a spin. Could you link that fan-made patch you mentioned in the review?
The early 90s to the early 00s was the golden age of combat flight sims. Before the move to everything being multiplayer, contentless and lazy. I hate multiplayer/online gaming. I would love to see old flight sims from the 90s with modern graphics.
Ah, MiG Alley. The zenith of Korean War air combat sims. Even Sabre Ace - Conflict Over Korea doesn't come close. I've been replaying it lately, completing everything my child self couldn't. After over a decade of dreaming about playing it, considering it was the biggest influence on my love for retro games, combat flight sim and flying as a whole, it can be seen why. My only gripe is the death of older mod links online, and the low amount of FLYABLE aircraft compared to the modeled total. I'm not saying I want to be able to frag with the C-54 or B-29/B-50, but I am saying that the NKAF could use frag options for the modeled Il-2 and YaK-3. In a perfect world every single-engined aircraft would be user selectable, plus a few more options (Tempest, Firefly, Corsair) but all in all, I'm happy just being able to play it again after so long. I wish I knew where to get the big box, maybe some poor bastard is selling theirs on eBay? Digital downloads from IE are useful, but owning another physical of what is quite possibly my favorite game wouod bring me some happiness.
@@andrewa837 I've found a few I'll be looking more into over the week. Like I said, I've had vivid dreams of this game, and owning yet another physical copy will be absolutely fantastic. After that I think I'll take a page from your book and model each of the aircraft in scale. Happy flying, mate.
Great vid! Loved me a good FCS back in the day. You should check out TFX/EF2000 (FCS) next. You've def earned my sub, looking forward to more great content 👊😎
@@camberiu my gaming rig, nothing special. Amd GPU is preferred. I think people are having issues with Nvidia ones. Just use ddrawcompat and it should "just work"
I never got Mig Alley to run reliably unfortunately. Never heard about the non official patch, maybe that would have made it playable, but instead other sims pushed MA to the side.
there's a fan patch? where do you find it? and how do you get it working on modern windows? i tried a couple of years ago with dxwnd based on a guide i found to no avail. edit: the fan patch is called BDG 0.85F on the internet archive (uploaded by eriadu) included with the full game and other patches (install patch 1.23 then BDG 0.85F)
I gave this game and Flying Corps some good hundred hours. Didn't play Rowan's Battle of Britain just because of university. This campaign is not dynamic... it's just as on the original IL-2 series, where there is the historic events happening on the background and you interfering on small localized things... but it's a better campaign than on the Oleg's game (that I find pretty decent). MA only tries to let you generate coherent missions, what was more than most of other games were doing. It's not even close to the FALCON 4.0 level, but Mig Alley used to run pretty fine on my PC (I believe that I had an AMD K7 or 6 with a Voodoo 3 back then), and Falcon 4.0 I could only play on a PC that I bought in 2005 (and even then, with some struggling). That is why I value this game so much... it doesn't matter to me if a company deliver the best game if I can't play it minimally smoothly. Rowan and DID, at the late 90s understood it... Microprose didn't (with Falcon 4.0... their other sims were pretty decent on hardware demanding). Cheers!
@@andrewa837 I believe that Rowan were not so excited to expose the game limitations lol. I don't remember struggling to learn it, but considering what you put on the video, they really could at least tried to find a compromise on the game's manual. Cheers!
@@andrewa837 I agree. Even the EA/Janes USNF-Fighters Anthology franchise used to have amazing documentation, both printed and in game. I can understand them because the late 90s introduced a minimalist approach to printed documentation in every genre. In the early 90s even a console game could go over 70 pages on rare occasions (as Countdown to Doomsday for the Mega Drive). I remember that the original IL-2 series (2001) had awful documentation
The Spring Offensive Campaign is fully dynamic. I think you guys are confusing real-time with dynamic. The only difference between this and Falcon 4 is that Falcon is both real-time and dynamic, Meaning, the clock keeps running even during your planning phase.
I can remember sitting up most of a night downloading the 100MB demo over 56k dialup (had to leave the phone free during the day ;-) Then bought the full game from a local shop as soon as it became available - ahhh, remember physical media? Great fun, and the campaign mode was brilliant. Flying the F-51, F-80 and F-84 on ground strikes, and the F-86 on escort missions was great fun - I'm going to have to look for the W10 patch for this!
On a sidenote. Phanotek no longer supports MiG Alley for mobile. I could still find a match once a month, maybe! Though realistically, it feels like I was the only one playing it. Could've at least have left the single player missions 😢
@@goldmastersimulations VERY different. Just got reminded of it. Good memories.. A few years ago my computer gave up the spirit and I couldn't afford to fix it, so Phanotek was the only way I could scratch that combat flight sim itch. :) It wasn't much, but still the only one worth paying, and the community was nice.
in the beginning of the video you are like "in mig alley you take part in the most detailed dynamic campaign to date". Then at the dynamic campaign part of the video you say that you dont even know if it works?
@@bIackfeather yes you're right, I got it mixed up with the F-94 Starfire witch was based on the F-80/T-33 and of witch some examples where send to Korea.
Same reason no more flight sims being made. Too much work. I recommend listening to Enigmas interview of the falcon 4 dynamic campaign maker. Eye opening.
Unfortunately it won't work on Nvidia is what I'm hearing. But check archive.org for the 1.1 iso and patches. Install 1.23 then BDG. Then ddrawcompat dll.
@@SoulAir I did not choose the best footage for that. A year ago I filmed a shitton and never got around to combining it. There was one clip I grabbed of the guy turning on a dime, pulling like 20 Gs to do so. Lol. Wish I found it but I couldn't recreate it
haven't even started the video yet. just needed to say that i love reviews of old flight sims, there aren't enough modern videos that go into them at all. that and your voice and scripting is all pretty satisfying and fits the content well. really hope you keep at this in the future bro 👑
Thanks for watching!
@@andrewa837 where did you find the fan patch mentioned in the video btw? i had a hard time finding a download when i searched yesterday
Flashback to 2003... my girlfriend comes over unannounced and walks into my room. I have all of my flight sims laid out on my floor (about 30 of them) and I'm staring longingly at them. All I hear over my shoulder is "I think you might be autistic".
@@Netbug I hope you turned, waggled your eyebrows at her and said, "Yes. It's my super power." 🤣
@@Netbugpower level revealed
This just makes me even more excited for IL2's new Korean game. since they also plan on expanding their career mode to a more regimental mode, letting you take control of what missions your flight will do, who will be in what squadron. i think even having to manage fuel and ammunition. need to strike a talk column? damn, shouldn't have wasted all your bombs on that bridge strike you set up.
@@ambientlightofdarknesss4245 I hope it'll be good.
@@andrewa837 I hear Pilot Career is sticking around, it's just the actual commanding a squadron bit that's picking up new features. I definitely approve, that's the one thing the Rise of Flight engine games never really nailed.
""defiantly better then any dcs ai""
well thats a low bar lol
Good stuff, love the review xD
definite: certain or clear
defiant: rebellious, insolent or resisting
you got that right lol
Il-2 GB is lower LMAO. The AI tends to just fly in circles as their "BFM" LOL
So much of this game reminds me of a ww1 flight sim "Flying Corps" and sure enough, its made by the same team. Had no idea they made more action flight sims, very cool and somewhat surreal to discover years later.
Solid and comprehensive review btw nice job!
Most people don't know this but this Game actually had a Dynamic Campaign. Not like Falcon4 BMS etc but it had one... I see you cover this in the video. Glad you did
Just found this channel, I hope more of these are coming as you did it such justice. Eurofighter Typhoon and Janes USAF are two I'd love to see your take on
Really great video, they're so few good old flight sim reviews, especially military based on UA-cam.
Thank you for the time and effort.
Fleet command, Dangerous Waters, Falcon 4, European at War etc. Early milsim games were really the peak imho. I still play those games. And they are far realistic than DCS or any modern equivalent i think. At least with the mods.
@@losbexp enemy engaged
@@andrewa837 big ups
Mig Alley was pretty good for its time.. it build a lot on Flying Corps Gold, the previous title that was not bad, either. The table at 8:36 has to do with how to pick targets, your job (as was in the real war) is to stop supply transfer.. it shows you what logistic hubs are worth striking, "choke" is chokepoints like bridges.. if I remember correctly, it had to do with how many ground units where there and how fast they got replaced.
I felt as much. But what's weird is the spring offensive doesn't have any offensive ground units for either side unlike the mini campaigns before it. I need to play mine to the fullest, but last year I did and got save locked where it would crash after making or picking any mission. Quite unmotivating
@@andrewa837They are there and visible along the FLOT(Foward Line Of Troops). Those three orange boxes are points wear FACs or TACs are present. The orange line connecting them is the rear line. Your troops are forward of that line. If you zoon in on any one of those boxes you'll see the enemy ground troops that are harassing your UN troops. But, you must have the both the red and blue troop and tank icons highlighted on the toolbar at the top of the map. Cick on one of the orange boxes and it will allow you to approve it for a CAS mission. However, you must also use the directives box (pops up when you first start the Spring offensive campaign) to allocate some ground attack aircraft to CAS mission types. It may take a few sessions before your ground forces start to get harrased and begin requesting CAS air support. The communist ground troops were masters of camouflage. This is why you don't see ground troops all over the map until they make contact with your ground troops This is how it was in real life during the war and it is simulated in Mig Alley. In fact, prior to the Chinese Offensive , China had many battalions of troops inside Korea. MacArthur and the Far East Command missed it totally during recon missions.
I'm loving your reviews of old flight simulators. My favorites were 1942 The Pacific Air War and Aces Over Europe.
@@marciomaiajr Pacific air was is cool I just need some time in it. Thanks for watching
Now i'm feeling old. Just before Aces over Europe you had Secret weapons of the luftwaffe.. Must be around 1990 or so.
Finally someone covers this title! I never had the chance to play it but it looks amazing when I found it a few years back.
I only got to play Rowan's other flight sim, the Battle of Britain 2 and that was INSANE! But it had the same issues as MiG Alley, the dynamic campaign didn't have much in terms of instructions and it was a lot of set up if I remember right and same deal. No clear cut objectives or progress but hey, perhaps that's what the pilots felt at the time.
I had this! Loved flying around in the Sabre. Think I may still have the box in a cupboard somewhere.
@@johnt7155 my box and models are in the title. Love them big box
I don't know squat about combat flight sims and I've never played one but I appreciate vids on old niche games like this one, good work
My favourite FlightSim back in the days ..still have the Box, the disc and the manual....printed manuals were so cool... ....
thank you for telling me about this, had absolutely no idea this existed, somehow, despite being a fan of korean war combat aviation and old combat sims. guess i wasn’t enough of a fan haha.
love it, will be playing this. it’s like falcon bms, il2 1946 and strike fighters. the number of objects is really nice. please more games with a dynamic campaign.
It's great to have found this summary! I loved it. Since we're on this topic, I need to know if anyone else remembers the title SABRE ACE, very similar to the one shown in this video. It came with a magazine and a 1/144 scale model. I'm nostalgic for that title or for Mig Valley. They had a good balance and easy-to-understand missions, but then they required skill on your part to carry them out and for the dogfights. Nice but well-made games. Even the intro before the mission made you feel like you were in the pilot's room.
Ah, Rowansoft, I fell in love with BOB, buggy as it was, but no other sim has managed to get that many aircraft in the air at the same time and with decent radio chatter.
Wow I remember playing this as a kid in the early to mid 2000s. Was a huge influence on the F-86 becoming my favorite fighter. Always thought about this game but never head about it for the past 20 years.
I’d say the Korean air conflict has only decreased in popularity recently. When my dad was young the Vietnam war was ramping down and the air war there was not so glamorous. There was an aura surrounding the sleek silver jets at the dawn of the jet age having success over Korea against a deadly foe as the last true gun flighters. It was a powerful image.
I’d also argue that War thunder was at its absolute peak when the late and just post Korean War aircraft were the top tier (F-86F2, MiG-15bis, and CL-13). The matchmaking was better and there wasn’t such a huge BR range spreading the player base thin at every BR. There was nothing supersonic and the only way to get a kill was lining up a good shot with guns. It felt way less frantic and less of a cluster than it is now.
@@calebemerson9317 thanks for watching. I agree. Cold war is a great era but there's nothing with a good single player and campaign out there
After "F-15 Strike Eagle II", Mig Alley Ace was my second ever flight sim on Atari, and I absolutely *LOVED* it.
Seeing it brought to more modern standards brings a nostalgic tear to my eye.
@@_Meriwether this is a different company tho lol. But thanks for watching!
@@andrewa837 Oh, I know. 'Ace was Microprose, but still you can see the heritage. 😁
It is not the most "forgettable"...but yes, it is frequently forgotten. This game was awesome. What I pay for a modern version. Keeping fingers crossed for IL-2 Korea.
Thanks for making a video about this game! It's a title worth remembering!
Great review! I played this one when released and have fonds memories of it.
@@RealDarko thanks for watching! Any comments on the accuracy of any statements?
@@andrewa837 No, is pretty spot on. It was a hidden gem, that did a lot of things right and few wrong, but was a bit misunderstood. Great review!
Loved it since it came out but I never figured out how to get it working again.
Gosh I loved this game! The handling felt so on point. I have the F-86 on DCS but I have so much nostalgia for this! I wish they would release it on Gog, I’d get it in a heartbeat.
@@314159265mangler it's actually completely free on archive.org.
@@andrewa837 cool, thank you!
The F-86F in DCS is way better than this game. But what is it, like 25 years earlier? The scenery is way better in DCS. But DCS hasn’t come out with a Korea map, not to mention a 1951-ish one.
It would be really, really cool if DCS could concentrate on a Korea Map or a Vietnam Map with a dynamic campaign to match or surpass most of the neat things in this game. But, I suspect it would have to run on a dedicated server for multiplayer or a second PC for single player or 1 to 4 player co-op use on a LAN.
Yeah, there were a lot of neat things in this game, but frustrating and I remember bugs that would just stop it.
If it could be essentially developed within DCS, it would be phenomenal!
The reason why it feels like nothing you do really matters is because you're in the Korean war, it's part of the realism.
maybe the manuals for rowans battle of britain is more complete? i'd imagine at least the turn based stuff works more or less the same. or the bob2 patches manual idk if thats changed too much by then tho
There's something very amusing about how Korea seems to be a common setting for all sorts of promising/damn good flight sims. Be it regarding the infamous conflict that's shaped it or a return of it in a modern era.
@@karbohydrates1842 i also thought that same thing. It's like the perfect theater though. Just the right side. TAW is too big.
@@andrewa837 TAW? Sorry but you might have to explain that to me because the thing that comes to mind when you say that is Il-2's Tactical Air War server which I feel might not be what you were referring to?
@@karbohydrates1842 total air war. It's a game
Man I've only recently got into flight sims, only playing stuff like Microsoft's Combat Flight Sim and Janes a little bit when I was a kid, and I love flying the DCS F86. What I hate is the pants on head AI combined with cheating flight models, pulling 10g climbs at 400 knots and all that makes playing the campaigns that I want to, a completely horrid experience. It's completely crushed me because it's my 2nd favorite plane behind the Phantom at the moment. Apparently the AI flight models have been broken like 6 or more years for a lot of the MIGs too. It's super frustrating. Here's to hoping IL2 Korea is any good, I'm unfamiliar with the consensus of the rest of the series though.
If you want a true campaign and an era experience , Il2 has you covered
@@muhammadsaleh7229right! I played Il-2 from the first clandestinely distributed beta "cuts" all the way up to 1946 and Pacific Fighters including severely community mods and add-ons.
Its weak AI made it a multiplayer game...
More than 6 years... Over 10..
DCS uses a bunch of 3rd party freeware from github Frankensteined together. It's why things break every update, why it's such a pain to make anything for the game, and why they can't fix the AI.
basically the same experience I had with DCS.. AI is either brilliant or dumb as a rock. mostly the latter.. I remember Mig-15's chasing me until their fuel ran out. Fun for about five minutes until you notice there's no real challenge.
@@RedTail1-1 sup buddy
Hello. Could you make a guide showing us how to install and run the game on a modern PC?
Thanks
was just looking at this game online and now I have a great video to watch
1:32 I was wondering how you had that type of head movement on this🤣!! I was like "I didn't have that😐" I had to use the Hats. Awesome to know about this patch in case I ever play again!!
@@CVLabfam haha. Open source FTW.
Thanks for this review. This was / is an amazing game. I have always been interested in the Korean air war since watching The Bridges at Toko-Ri in the mid 1970s (the movie was made in the late 50s). There have been a handful of DEDICATED games (mods notwithstanding) that have included the planes from this war, and Mig Alley was probably the best. Even subtle things like ground attack missions against reinforced bunkers were best accomplished (as they were in real life) by a two wave strike - HE then napalm - to "crack and burn" targets.
@@JackNastyface65 thanks for watching!
Played this when released. One of my favorites ever. Truly. underrated gem!
@@lancervi1762 most underrated imo
Never played it full, but i did have a demo, from a CD from a PC games magazine. That ATC/ AI comms is miles ahead of what DCS has.
@@drupiROM this and falcon 4 are goats of comms
@@andrewa837I actually prefer MiG Alley's approach, it really adds to the sort of "you are in a newsreel" feeling this game seems like it wants to establish--especially since your character actually has dialogue that's more than "I'm here and I'm issuing the orders", which a lot of sims suffer from. Your wingmen actually try to give you advice, it sounds like.
@@Digolgrin I like it too. It's what I mean by this game having a great tone. Falcon 4 does too, its more cog in the machine feel which is also perfect.
@@andrewa837 Oh, absolutely! I play a lot more arcade flight games, so my preference is more expressive and less cut and dry, so my preference is for MiG Alley, but I can appreciate AI chatter that gives at least the illusion of 'they're working together.'
I had the demo with 1 mission. I've played the living chit out of it back then. I've felt emotional when at the end credits there was a memorial for a developer, I think. I didn't know English that time, so it was just a guess.
Yoooooo Mig Alley was my s***!!! Thank you for this fam!!!!
@@CVLabfam thanks for watching!
Great video, thank you!
@@Spacegamejunkie thanks for watching! I know it's in your favorites.
Nice review. An almost forgotten sim just like the real life Korean conflict . I've had this one since new and really enjoyed playing it back in the day. Having a tough time getting it to run on Win 10 but hopefully someday I'll get it. Too bad about the lack of multiplayer choices. 😔
Great review. I had this game for years, tried to run it long time ago, though it was already several years after its release, but I had some problems at the time so I shelved it. Maybe it's time to take it for a spin. Could you link that fan-made patch you mentioned in the review?
@@damsonn thanks! Check out the description. Hope it helps.
@@andrewa837 That's the first place I looked - there's only timestamps with chapters ;)
@@damsonnWeird, I did update it. Maybe it needs time to reflect. Either way, you know my discord 😊
@@andrewa837Got a link to your Discord? I also need help getting this work
The early 90s to the early 00s was the golden age of combat flight sims. Before the move to everything being multiplayer, contentless and lazy. I hate multiplayer/online gaming. I would love to see old flight sims from the 90s with modern graphics.
Wow. Bet this was amazing in '99. A step up from the FS98 I was attempting to play as a child haha
I remember getting this game when I bought a Flight-Stick at Costco back in the 90's!
Nice vid, thanks for making me aware of this hidden gem!
the way the sun glinted off the canopies of the enemy a/c was just brilliant and should be copied by DCS
@@davido1953 LOD guy deserves so much
I love how the AI is way better than an actual person in warthunder
Ah, MiG Alley. The zenith of Korean War air combat sims. Even Sabre Ace - Conflict Over Korea doesn't come close. I've been replaying it lately, completing everything my child self couldn't. After over a decade of dreaming about playing it, considering it was the biggest influence on my love for retro games, combat flight sim and flying as a whole, it can be seen why.
My only gripe is the death of older mod links online, and the low amount of FLYABLE aircraft compared to the modeled total. I'm not saying I want to be able to frag with the C-54 or B-29/B-50, but I am saying that the NKAF could use frag options for the modeled Il-2 and YaK-3. In a perfect world every single-engined aircraft would be user selectable, plus a few more options (Tempest, Firefly, Corsair) but all in all, I'm happy just being able to play it again after so long.
I wish I knew where to get the big box, maybe some poor bastard is selling theirs on eBay? Digital downloads from IE are useful, but owning another physical of what is quite possibly my favorite game wouod bring me some happiness.
@@synthwavecat96 thanks for watching! Yes, eBay usually has them for reasonable prices compared to other 90s big boxes.
@@andrewa837
I've found a few I'll be looking more into over the week. Like I said, I've had vivid dreams of this game, and owning yet another physical copy will be absolutely fantastic. After that I think I'll take a page from your book and model each of the aircraft in scale.
Happy flying, mate.
I played this a fair amount when it came out, and can definitely confirm the flight model was very unforgiving.
i really hope it would have remaster
Great vid! Loved me a good FCS back in the day. You should check out TFX/EF2000 (FCS) next. You've def earned my sub, looking forward to more great content 👊😎
@@ConanTroutmann ef2000 is in my tierlist video. And TFX wins the "best soundtrack" award
So happy that the Korean war is getting some attention, interesting to learn about it :D
Great review. How did you run this game? What kind of hardware did you use?
@@camberiu my gaming rig, nothing special. Amd GPU is preferred. I think people are having issues with Nvidia ones. Just use ddrawcompat and it should "just work"
I never got Mig Alley to run reliably unfortunately. Never heard about the non official patch, maybe that would have made it playable, but instead other sims pushed MA to the side.
Works nearly flawless for me. Try that archive.org link in the description
@@andrewa837where is the link :)?
I had fun with this game back in the day. All time favorite back then was Chuck Yeager's Air Combat.
there's a fan patch? where do you find it? and how do you get it working on modern windows? i tried a couple of years ago with dxwnd based on a guide i found to no avail.
edit: the fan patch is called BDG 0.85F on the internet archive (uploaded by eriadu) included with the full game and other patches (install patch 1.23 then BDG 0.85F)
I like how when mentioning the mig 15 vs the f86 you showed an f80
@@TheWhoamaters LOL. Well the sabres are hard to get a elephant walk, they don't show up until late game
wow I remember this game! Not sure why YT said I should watch this but I totally forgotten about this one!
I just barely got to play this on the crap computer that I had as a kid and am glad that someone is covering it.
I gave this game and Flying Corps some good hundred hours. Didn't play Rowan's Battle of Britain just because of university.
This campaign is not dynamic... it's just as on the original IL-2 series, where there is the historic events happening on the background and you interfering on small localized things... but it's a better campaign than on the Oleg's game (that I find pretty decent). MA only tries to let you generate coherent missions, what was more than most of other games were doing.
It's not even close to the FALCON 4.0 level, but Mig Alley used to run pretty fine on my PC (I believe that I had an AMD K7 or 6 with a Voodoo 3 back then), and Falcon 4.0 I could only play on a PC that I bought in 2005 (and even then, with some struggling). That is why I value this game so much... it doesn't matter to me if a company deliver the best game if I can't play it minimally smoothly. Rowan and DID, at the late 90s understood it... Microprose didn't (with Falcon 4.0... their other sims were pretty decent on hardware demanding).
Cheers!
@@RTPJu yeah, it's semi dynamic. It's just a shame nothing is explained.
@@andrewa837 I believe that Rowan were not so excited to expose the game limitations lol. I don't remember struggling to learn it, but considering what you put on the video, they really could at least tried to find a compromise on the game's manual. Cheers!
@@RTPJu yep. Anything. Lol not even an exaggeration, of the dozens of sims in my collection mig Alley takes the cake for worst manual
@@andrewa837 I agree. Even the EA/Janes USNF-Fighters Anthology franchise used to have amazing documentation, both printed and in game. I can understand them because the late 90s introduced a minimalist approach to printed documentation in every genre. In the early 90s even a console game could go over 70 pages on rare occasions (as Countdown to Doomsday for the Mega Drive). I remember that the original IL-2 series (2001) had awful documentation
The Spring Offensive Campaign is fully dynamic. I think you guys are confusing real-time with dynamic. The only difference between this and Falcon 4 is that Falcon is both real-time and dynamic, Meaning, the clock keeps running even during your planning phase.
Wait, how are you running it? Looks so smooth. Mine never ran this well near the ground.
@@depapier ddrawcompat!
How did you even get this running. It barely ran on my Win98SE machine in-period!
Great video, thanks. Just feeling a bit old right now as a consequence though ^^ 😅
I can remember sitting up most of a night downloading the 100MB demo over 56k dialup (had to leave the phone free during the day ;-) Then bought the full game from a local shop as soon as it became available - ahhh, remember physical media? Great fun, and the campaign mode was brilliant. Flying the F-51, F-80 and F-84 on ground strikes, and the F-86 on escort missions was great fun - I'm going to have to look for the W10 patch for this!
Had to leave the phone free during the day…
I feel that pain, even today! Rural 3mbps DSL and no cell coverage… so we use a VOIP phone.
:D I'm like one of the 10 people who bought and played this
Could you check out Strike fighters 2
Nah
On a sidenote. Phanotek no longer supports MiG Alley for mobile. I could still find a match once a month, maybe!
Though realistically, it feels like I was the only one playing it. Could've at least have left the single player missions 😢
That's a very different game from this.
@@goldmastersimulations VERY different. Just got reminded of it. Good memories..
A few years ago my computer gave up the spirit and I couldn't afford to fix it, so Phanotek was the only way I could scratch that combat flight sim itch. :)
It wasn't much, but still the only one worth paying, and the community was nice.
But how , just how . Plz give us instructions . Maybe damsonn can do a gameplay . This will be life changing
@@muhammadsaleh7229 check the description and let me know
in the beginning of the video you are like "in mig alley you take part in the most detailed dynamic campaign to date". Then at the dynamic campaign part of the video you say that you dont even know if it works?
It's still very detailed. The map resolution and all the possible strike targets are insane compared to the other sims of the era like ef2000 and TAW.
Il2 has started making a game based on this war theatre
you sound extremely similar to Mental Outlaw
you might as well be the Mental Outlaw of based airsim gaming! :DDDDDDDD
Lol
1:10 looks like a f-89. That plane with the yellow is the f-86
Thats an f-80 the plane the F-89 was bevelped from
@@tobiasfreitag2182The F-89 was a completely separate development, but yes that is a F-80 for sure. F-89s didn't even serve in Korea.
@@bIackfeather yes you're right, I got it mixed up with the F-94 Starfire witch was based on the F-80/T-33 and of witch some examples where send to Korea.
How do you make it work on Windows 10/11?
@@thejetfighter ddrawcompat works wonders
@@andrewa837 I'll look it up, thanks 😀
Strike fighters 2 has a Korean Air mod & it’s awesome
So cool
@@Leon_Portier thanks for watching!
I was quite the fanatic player with this.
I shoplifted this from K-mart when I was a kid.
I wish I lived in the time where you can get big box in stores.
They managed a good dynamic campaign back then. So why does a dynamic campaign remain so elusive today?
Same reason no more flight sims being made. Too much work. I recommend listening to Enigmas interview of the falcon 4 dynamic campaign maker. Eye opening.
@@ShaggNasty-yk1ie takes actual game development. Most companies want to throw pretty 3d models and terrain. They don't bother with game depth.
Man i tried installing this game after watching your video, but i can't get the setup to actually install it, how did you do it?
Unfortunately it won't work on Nvidia is what I'm hearing. But check archive.org for the 1.1 iso and patches. Install 1.23 then BDG. Then ddrawcompat dll.
@@andrewa837 oh I have a Nvidia card! Oh dangit, gonna try your advice, thx!
For some reason my pc never wanted to run it..
Never forget 👍
I can see myself earning a medal of honor but never actually reciving it since my engagement against soviet pilots"never happend"
Hope someone make it runs on win10/11
@@fortyninerz4able it does! That's how I'm running it.
Is there a link how to run it?
That wasn’t the f86
@@TrueFilter my b
So many hours in this game❤
cool beanz
Loved the game. I remember stinking up the skies with my horrible piloting skills
Every time someone refers to the 20th century as the 1900s I grow yet another gray hair
Did you mention the new IL-2 Korea game that has been announced?
That was a good game in that time. You could play it without any training in the Air Force. I wouldn't dare play the ones today.
@@PropperNaughtyGeezer I still love BMS. If the game is good enought I'll learn anything
before AI term people used to say computer is very smart to dodge, i mean AI is not smart then old programed computer program or software.
My PCs never liked this one. It was fun when it worked.
@@tsufordman ddrawcompat is your savior
Yeah it's a good game - but one small point (a biggy actually!) China's involvement wasn't a what if, they entered the war on North Korea's side.
Oh, and thanks for reminding me of this classic!
@nyeg2501 yes of course - I just mean the possible scenarios of that outcome. It's cool to fantasize
LOL --- I have this game -- box and all.
They just dont make these types of games anymore
Similar to f22 TAW you can shoot 800 planes in the campaign theres little to no impact😂
@@Jptoutant yeah but I don't mind that. Irl NK/China had full air superiority in mig alley
Great ai. Makes dcs and IL2 look crap.
the AI is not cheating, hes just using his rudder
@@SoulAir I did not choose the best footage for that. A year ago I filmed a shitton and never got around to combining it. There was one clip I grabbed of the guy turning on a dime, pulling like 20 Gs to do so. Lol. Wish I found it but I couldn't recreate it
I remember this game. Great video. But PLEASE check the definition of the word unique.
It's unique I'd say. Only Korean war flight sim with modern gfx