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Tornado is a combat flight simulator computer game by Digital Integration that models the Panavia Tornado. It was released in 1993 for MS-DOS and Amiga. Tornado is regarded by many as one of the best DOS flight simulators of the 1990s.
The complete simulator consists of a powerful Advanced Mission Planner, which was ahead of its time. The Mission Planner was more advanced than what the RAF had back in 1993. Many regard Tornado has having the best flight simulator mission planner for many years. The simulator also has a dynamic campaign system. Among its other strengths are fast flat-shaded graphics that give a real sense of speed at low-level, five autopilot modes, accurate avionics and flight mechanics, multiple weapons modeling, thousands of objects in the 3D environment and classic 332-paged paper manual.
Digital Integration was acquired by Titus Interactive SA, previously Titus France SA, in 1998. Titus filed for bankruptcy in 2005 and its game rights were transferred to Interplay Entertainment. Tornado was not in that asset list of games, with patch development ended long ago in October 1994. By that time, Digital Integration had already turned its attention to its next generation of simulations, starting with Apache Longbow (1994).
The source code in this repository is a heavily modded version of the 3D simulation engine Tornado Version 1.0's FLIGHT.EXE. The unmodded version of the Tornado Version 1.0 FLIGHT.EXE source code can be found within this repository. The source code was written in x86 assembly language for the PC in 1993. The 3D simulation engine was written completely by Kevin J. Bezant, lead programmer at Digital Integration. It compiles to FLIGHT.EXE. The source code is not the complete game as it lacks the front-end GUI menus, the Advanced Mission Planner (AMP) and the 1994 Desert Storm add-on.
In April 2016, the 16-bit assembly language source code to FLIGHT.EXE, the 3D simulation engine of Tornado was discovered in a CD-ROM belonging to one of the ex-developers. Frankie Kam sought, and was granted permission by Interplay to form a development team to enhance the original simulator. The source code to FLIGHT.EXE was then made available, by Digital Integration's ex-developer, for redevelopment in April 2016. The development team was to be sourced, formed and funded by Frankie Kam. However, as of July 2017, due to a lack of funds and a scarcity of 16-bit assembly language coders interested in a project on a 25-year old flight simulator, no coders were found.
In August 2017, Frankie Kam started to modify Tornado on his own, in lieu of a proper development team. In November 2017, clarification was again sought of Interplay as to the status of the project, with regards to Interplay's involvement. Interplay replied that there was not much it could do as the rights holder was unclear. So as of 2018, it is unclear who owns the rights to Tornado. To date, the full source code, including the Advanced Mission Planner, front-end GUI, 1994 Desert Storm add-on, patch codes and image file decrypter, has never been found. Thus rendering an enhancement of the full simulation impossible. Tornado is neither being sold on GOG.com nor on Steam.
As of August 2018, over 95 enhancements have been made to FLIGHT.EXE. A full list of changes can be found here. An illustrated summary of the major mods created can be found here.
The FLIGHT.EXE program generated by this source code can be run from the DOSBox command prompt. For best and full experience, you need to have, buy or own the complete Digital Integration Tornado simulator package for MS-DOS. The package includes the Advanced Mission Planner and full set of missions and campaigns.
Interested in the project? Feel free to join us via Discord!
For forum discussions, join us at Dogs Of War Virtual Unit forums!
A review of the game along with a download link can be found here: Flying the low-poly skies.
To compile Tornado under DOS simply enter:
SET PATH=\MASM611\BIN
BUILD
Backslash \ shows the Digital Integration credits (names) screen
Key d toggles damage shake mode on and off
Key 8 toggles Soundblaster Tornado theme music on and off
Hit F1 first to show the tracking view.
] cycles forwards to the split-screen, then to other views.
[ cycles backwards through the various views.
3 clears the mini-windows, leaving just the Tracking View view
Shift+TAB toggles the green night colors on and off.
- Press and hold F1 to adjust the Tornado to a higher perspective
- Press and hold Alt+F1 to adjust the Tornado to a lower perspective
- Press 1 to shift the horizon down so that more sky is seen
- Press 0 to shift the horizon up so that more ground is seen
- Press 2 to shift the view point right-wards, perspective of vehicle
shifts leftwards
- Press 9 to shift the view point right-wards, perspective of vehicle
shifts leftwards
- Press 1 to shift the horizon up so that more ground is seen; drone
perspective will shift up
- Press 0 to shift the horizon down so that more sky is seen; drone
perspective will shift down
- Press 2 to shift the view point right-wards, perspective of drone shifts
leftwards
- Press 9 to shift the view point right-wards, perspective of drone shifts
leftwards
- 3 shows the EScope Terrain Following Radar profile at the bottom right
- of the screen. This happens whenever the bottom status bar is shown
- F2 shows the rear, "Check Six!" view
- F2 pressed a second time will show a lower "Check Six!" view
- F3 gives a flyby view
- Alt+P toggles between a freely pitching horizon and a fixed horizontal
horizon
- Shift+D in Pilot cockpit view (Home), will toggle between full-screen
pilot HUD and the Pilot's cockpit
- Shift+PgUp when in full-screen TV-Tab view (FLIR or TIALD) will bring
the gamer back into the Navigator's Cockpit
- Shift+D will activate the full-screen FLIR and TIALD views when in the
Navigator cockpit view (PgUp)
- Press F11 to show the ZRK-Romb-to-Tornado tracking view. Non-rotatable
- Press F12 to show the ZSU-23-4-to-Tornado tracking view. Non-rotatable
- Combo press Shift+Ctrl or Ctrl+Alt to activate the rotatable
individual vehicle view, which must be followed up with Alt+Shift to
display a ZRK-Romb or ZSU-23-4 that has probably already locked onto
your Tornado
- Press and hold Shift+Ctrl see the vehicle from a higher angle
(e.g. imagine being higher than the vehicle, looking downwards)
- Press and hold Ctrl+Alt see the vehicle from a lower angle
(e.g. imagine lying on the grass and you are looking up towards)
- Press 1 to shift the horizon down so that more sky is seen
- Press 0 to shift the horizon up so that more ground is seen
- Press 2 to shift the view point right-wards, perspective of vehicle
shifts leftwards
- Press 9 to shift the view point right-wards, perspective of vehicle
shifts leftwards
- Alt+Shift to toggle between a ZRK-Romb (Gecko) and ZSU-23-4 (Shilka)
view
For example, if you use the below command line parameters of /pm and
/e1, this means your Tornado will start with Pilot MFD failure and one
engine is K.O.'ed. FLIGHT /pm /e1
/ab airbrakes
/ad ADC (autopilot)
/e1 engine 1
/e2 engine 2
/ec ECM
/fl flaps
/gr gear
/hd HUD
/n1 night 1 (dusk)
/n2 night 2
/n3 night 3
/n4 night 4 (midnight)
/nc no collisions
/nm navigator MFD
/o overcast
/p object preview mode
/pa auto-run object preview mode
/pm pilot MFD
/qs quick start ("/qs" is same as "/a /if /ig /iw /nc /w")
/rd ground/air radar
/rt radar test TAB display enabled (debugging)
/rw RWR
/sa AdLib sound effects
/sb SoundBlaster sound effects
/sn no sound effects
/sp SPILS
/sr Roland LAPC1 sound effects
/ss internal speaker sound effects
/sw wing sweep
/t1 two player mode (com1:), 9600 Baud
/t2 two player mode (com2:), 9600 Baud
/tm ThrustMaster joystick
/to navigator TAB1
/tr thrust reversers
/tt navigator TAB2
/va ADV variant
/ve ECR variant
/vi IDS variant
/w set fixed weight (range = /w33000 .. /w60000 lbs)
/xw cross winds enabled (range = /xw5 .. /xw75 kts)