On March 30th of 1998 I began speculating on the next sim to come out of the Skunkworks. Here is what I wrote at that time:

Now, I know that Andy Hollis hasn't said a WORD about F15 II. And even if it was already in the works, we wouldn't likely hear about it until the summer. But can YOU really believe that co-op multiplayer hasn't been seriously considered for this sim? Think about it a moment...

We've already seen this happen with Longbow original. There was a great deal of work in that first release, yet somehow it begged for something more. Look at it this way: you spent two years building an incredible sportscar and dropped an eight cylinder single turbo engine into it. The engine itself was custom built and a lot of work, but nothing compared to the car itself.

Now along comes a buddy of yours, and he tells you that he will help you to install a 12 cylinder, dual turbo dual OH cam engine he was working on into the same machine, adding 50% more horsepower and more value to your car. Heck, he'll even throw in a new set of wheels. Wouldn't YOU do it?

F15 is a fantastic sim. The avionics are excellent. Systems detailed is great. Effects are almost perfect. The AI is pretty solid. (Comms set a new standard and even F4 hasn't really surpassed it!) What does it lack? High res, complete V2 support, pilot records, real time mission generation and dynamics, wind and turbulence, good clouds, mission planning and multiplayer. Are you seeing the picture?

This is essentially the same state Longbow was at on its first release. Would you be upset if F15 were issued as F15 II in July of 1999? Would you object to paying another $50 for the features above plus front seat/back seat multiplayer? Of course you would! But then you'd go out and buy it like the rest of us. $20 says we see it soon. You saw it here first.

At the time I wrote the above I checked in with Origin's PR department, and they denied any knowledge of anything like F15 II. So at the time my prognostications were purely personal speculation. Ok, very REASONABLE speculation, but speculation still.

That was then, and this is now... This is the now when I received an email from an unknown source reporting on some graphic engine development issues. Enclosed with that email was the screen capture you see at column right, center page:

EA has repainted every single square mile and rendered with horizontal deformation technology and splitting sunray impact, which allows them to override the limited color scheme others had to fight with.

Click to continue . . .

I know what you are thinking. We all know that high end sim design is almost dead. Andy Hollis is getting out of sim production. Who is behind this thing?

It won't take an Andy Hollis genius to put this one together. It's all there already.

Longbow II gave us a glimpse of the future. Now take the graphics engine of WW2 Fighters, and drop in the avionics and systems of post patch F15. F15, after all, is limited to Glide only 3d acceleration, with limited D3d abilities.

SO now imagine F15 in the WW2 Fighters graphics environment? Think of F15 II at 1024x768 and higher under Banshee, TNT and soon Voodoo 3. Consider the special effects, perhaps even BEYOND WW2 Fighters. Imagine volumetric clouds, and vastly improved terrain detail.

And what about real dynamic lighting? And the static feel of the fixed cockpit. Maybe something more like Hornet: Korea? Imagine... COOP MULTIPLAYER. I know you can!

And now Longbow II sits on the shelves, with an excellent fully dynamic campaign system. Hmm. Let's graft that puppy onto F15 too. After all, they are both primarily ground combat sims. Let's make some adjustments and improvements, because there IS, after all, air to air combat in F15.

Finally, to round out this picture, we need the FULL multiplayer features of Longbow II: in our dream world F15 II we'll have front/back seat multiplayer and coop campaign capability. After all, Janes has this great combatnet ready to go. What better way to boost attendance??

A Screen Capture from F15 II?

Yeh.. it's a natural. The only thing that would REALLY round out the picture is the ability to fly the F15C in the same sim. Then Janes could appeal to the mud movers AND the air combat fans in one fell swoop. That's another reason for taking the campaign dynamics of Longbow II and reworking them. I can just imagine myself in an eight ship strike force with F15Cs and Eagles. That combination would have me reloading F15 real quick!

How else can we bring F15 with us into the future? Let's add multi-monitor support under WIN95/98. Yeah! The price of 14" monitors is so low I hear you can trade them for copies of IAF these days. Who wouldn't love to run their F15 radar on one screen while placing their cockpit and instruments on the main display?

F15 didn't have the same level of involvement and immersion as Longbow II. No matter, you are I are rebuilding F15 and giving it longer legs. If Janes happens to be on the same track, so much the better! In this scenario F15 would be around another couple of years at least. In fact, if Janes does F15 II along the lines mentioned here it will be another instant classic.

If you have information leading to the conviction of these Janes developers, email me privately. We'll place you under the full protection of Combatsim Net.... ;-D