New Game: USAF Pilot Training: Road to the ThunderBirds

rampage · Post by **rampage** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:15 am

USAF Pilot Training: Road to the ThunderBirds
New Retail Simulation Game!
Official United States Air Force Logos Being Licensed
E3Expo 2006

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 2006--iEntertainment Network, (PINK SHEETS:IENT), the award-winning developer of the World Famous WarBirds TotalSims series, announced today that USAF Pilot Training: Road to the ThunderBirds! will be released in Retail stores in November 2006. iEntertainment Network is also working with the United States Air Force and will be given the license to use official United States Air Force Logos for the product. The Air Force has also offered to provide additional technical data, facts, and support to make the USAF Pilot Training: Road to the ThunderBirds a very accurate simulation and presentation of real United States Air Force Pilot Training. IENT has not yet selected a retail-publishing partner but is discussing that option with publishers at this time.

The new simulation, USAF Pilot Training: Road to the ThunderBirds, will follow a new student from their commissioning as a new 2nd Lieutenant, to the awarding of their pilot wings in a simulation with great role-playing, scoring, medals, and ranking systems. This simulation will use real Air Force training methods and allow the player to learn to fly the T-6 Texan II, the T-1A Jayhawk, the T-38 Talon, and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

The simulation will introduce the new player to all the features and functions of the real cockpits of these aircraft, teach the real maneuvers that student pilots practice, and provide realistic "Check Rides" like the real student pilots take in actual USAF Pilot Training. The ultimate simulation reward will be for the student pilot to earn the opportunity to fly with the United States Air Force ThunderBirds in their real routine as the number 4 formation pilot!

"As a former USAF Instructor Pilot, doing this simulation game is a rerun of my young, exciting and fun Lieutenant days," says JW "Wild Bill Stealey", CEO of IENT. "I know that my student would have benefited greatly and become better pilots, sooner, if they had this kind of simulation when they were in Pilot Training. Many of my Air Force friends, several former Air Force Instructor Pilots, and numerous retired aviators have agreed to assist IENT in making this a great training simulation. It is very exciting to be back working with all of them again!"

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/sit ... ewsLang=en

Jonnyb · Post by **Jonnyb** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:01 pm

Just the game i have been looking for. Only if they did it for the red arrows. It sounds amazing.

Rotorblade · Post by **Rotorblade** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:41 pm

Wow, looks exciting, so can the Virtual Thunderbirds play the game and just skip all the training since they are the real virutal deal?

...kidding!

Sounds like a neat game, the multiplayer would be kick a$$ withthe trainers if the game supports multiplayer. Wonder if they would consider making it "the game" to use for formation flying and add in some of the other famous planes that other groups use.

Rotorblade

Burner · Post by **Burner** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:53 pm

We've been talking about this game since E3, it looks to be a big wild card. There's been no indication of multiplayer online play, though their previous series have been almost massively multiplayer. Their graphics engine is going to need an upgrade from the latest Warbirds game as well if they're looking to trump LOMAC.

Guess we'll have to wait and see on this one, just like all flight sims to be.

FALCON56 · Post by **FALCON56** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:31 am

Sound like this game could be fun.. I just wonder how the graphics are going to look??? Thats prolly the biggest question other than game play...Cant wait to see some screen shots...

Rotorblade · Post by **Rotorblade** » Tue May 23, 2006 3:26 pm

Jim,

Thanks for the email.

As a formation pilot myself I know what fun that can be.

Attached is a 9 ship formation I was leading at Oshkosh a few years ago.

My aircraft is the Blue leader with the RR on the tail.

I don't have time to fully answer this email but I will try to take the time in the next few days.

I would ask you to come fly WarBirds with me to see how we do formation there.

www.TotalSims.com

Here is some good formation for you from WarBirds.

http://216.69.168.76/Downloads/WarBirds ... itment.wmv

Real guys flying these virtual craft!

We intend to have online formation support for the game simulation and to continue to improve it.

*****

We continue to work on the product and will be doing our website for it soon.

Cheers,
Wild Bill Stealey
CEO IENT
Lt. Colonel, USAF Retired.
Aviator

When I saw this post in the VTB forum I got excited and tried to find a website with more information and had no luck so I emailed 3 different departments within that company. I am pretty suprised to have gotten a response from the guy himself. I think I will take him up on his offer to do some formation flying with him someday.

Rotorblade

streakeagle · Post by **streakeagle** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:30 am

...will follow a new student from their commissioning as a new 2nd Lieutenant, to the awarding of their pilot wings in a simulation with great role-playing, scoring, medals, and ranking systems. This simulation will use real Air Force training methods and allow the player to learn to fly the T-6 Texan II, the T-1A Jayhawk, the T-38 Talon, and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Sounds a lot like the features for the sim being developed here:
http://www.fighterops.com/

In fact, check out this development screenshot from last year:

Apparently, some marketing study identified a need for a Thunderbirds sim since I find it no small coincidence that there is another one scheduled for release this year: Thunder Over Vegas
http://siliconguardian.com/_wsn/page2.html

Airshow fan · Post by **Airshow fan** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:29 pm

I MUST HAVE IT!!!!!!

Post by **Lawndart** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:52 pm

streakeagle wrote:Apparently, some marketing study identified a need for a Thunderbirds sim since I find it no small coincidence that there is another one scheduled for release this year: Thunder Over Vegas
http://siliconguardian.com/_wsn/page2.html

That marketing study sounds spot on!

Too bad the marketing study doesn't seem to take into account what people really want to see in a sim of choice before throwing together a retail product. All serious flight sim enthusiasts know the only sim that will do it justice and work is one that takes years if not decades in development. Out of the new ones on the horizon the only one that has these aspirations and potential appear to be FighterOPS. All in my personal opinion of course.

Lock-On is built on many years of development and the Flanker series and we all know how long it takes for even the next patch to be released. I just sincerely wish the "beta testers" of these sims understand that not all flight sims are alike and right now (could change in the future) no other sim beats the netcode, flight dynamics and visuals of Lock-On. FighterOPS is looking very promising and it has the kahunas required to make a run for the money as the king of all flightsims for the next decade once released. That statement is still hypothetical, since only after it's release can we know if they surpassed the level by former sims on the market.

I personally think these sims mentioned in this thread are just a flash in the pan, arcade games that may depict some realism in the input they've had during development, but my gut feeling is that these sims will not do Thunderbird flying justice. People want a robust flightsim platform, a tested combat sim and then have a demo team entity of it. Not just a toned down, simplified flight model and quite frankly something that does not do the hard work and commitment of real world demo teams justice. Mainstream audiences may like that, cause of their attention span of an hour of either "getting it" or "forgetting it". The hardcore and real flightsim enthusiasts look for the true to life simulation of combat, flight and stability in the product first, then add-on the Thunderbird flying. This makes it almost as hard as the real deal. It's not targeted for the masses, but any Falcon 4 simmer would understand what I'm talking about... Why we didn't buy "F-16 Aggressor" to replace F4!

If I'm wrong and these new Thunderbird sims rock, I stand corrected and apologize, but I just cannot phantom how a sim this quick in development and marketing could have the substance to do what we do and what the real demo team do justice. It will certainly be a lot of fun, but I'd venture to say it's more mainstream fun for the average Joe and when it comes to the people like us (in these forums), we want the no holds barred best flight sim on the market with the Thunderbirds or demo team of choice in it and be able to fly it exactly like the real team WITH the real difficulty level to the extent possible in a sim. My personal two cents: I thrive on knowing I have to put in thousands of hours before "getting it" right in a sim that simulates flying just like real life over having an arcade game. That's just the real pilot in me talking and also biased and based on more than 20 years of flight simming experience.

LD

Airshow fan · Post by **Airshow fan** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:06 pm

If they got it perfect, I would have to keep from blacking out

I did see that the formation in the pictures were far apart (The VTBs looks better)

That is cool how the Thunderbird pilots got to play it.

AF

streakeagle · Post by **streakeagle** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:01 pm

Thunder Over Vegas probably uses the Xtreme Air Racing engine based on the screenshots (same developer/programming team). If so, the graphics will be less than spectacular compared to LOMAC, but the flight model may be interesting. I intend to buy it and find out for myself

Airshow fan · Post by **Airshow fan** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:58 pm

Sorry to bring up such a old thread,

Is this out anywhere? If it came out I would like it for Xmas..
Anybody know where I can get it?

lqcorsa · Post by **lqcorsa** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 6:27 pm

AF,

After a breif Google search, I found the release date is still TBA.

Burner · Post by **Burner** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:43 am

Not sure if it was this game or "Thunder Over Vegas" but I know one of the two was recently torpedoed and will never be seeing a release. However both games were going to be just that- games and not simulators. You'll want to hold out for Fighter Ops or EDs next LOMAC installment if you want to fly an F-16 simulator.

FALCON56 · Post by **FALCON56** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:43 am

Burner,

I think it was the Thunder over Vegas...The game just looked like, well you can gather the rest... I got an eamil from the guys that are doing to other game about the Thunderbirds and they same some time in 2007...Mid to Late 07...

Falcon56