Now here’s a blast from the past for people who have a PC for many years. There was a point in the 90s where MicroProse was one of the biggest software companies in the world.
Their games were eagerly awaited, and they had hit after hit with several hardcore flight-sims, the likes of which have never been attempted since.
Games such a Falcon 4.0 and F-15 Strike were legendary in their level of hardcore, often coming with flight manuals in excess of 300 pages, but alongside titles such as this MicroProse was also responsible for publishing classics such as XCOM and Civilization, which are still going strong under other banners today.
In fact, it was the departure of key staff to for Firaxis – Sid Meier and the like, that led to a period of uncertainty for the giant before it finally slipped away into the night.
It was with some excitement today that it was announced MicroProse is back and at the helm is cofounder from all the way back in 1982, former USAF pilot Major ‘Wild’ Bill Stealey, who along with Meier started things off all those years ago.
I was fortunate enough to interview Wild Bill many moons ago, and he will always remain one of the pioneering greats of the fledgling gaming industry.
Now, working with new partner David Lagettie they have acquired the remaining assets and announced three new games in development.
The games
The first of these is Sea Power – a naval combat sim where you can control NATO or Warsaw Pact forces.
Next up is hex-based wargame Second Front and finally, we have Task Force Admiral where you take control of a carrier command group.
It’s great to see MicroProse going all-in on the sims once more, and hopefully, they will once again be able to become home to some great titles of the future.
All three titles can be added to your Steam wishlist from today, and this, coupled with the announcement that MicroProse promise to remake some of their old classics, is good news indeed.
You can watch the launch trailers for the three games right here on this page.
