Advertised as the most realistic flight simulator at the time of its release back in 1991, Falcon 3.0 was developed by Sphere Inc and published by Spectrum Holobyte for PC.

Though it's questionable, it bragged that it's high fidelity flight model option which required math coprocessor (older CPUs didn't came with integrated FPUs) was based on real F-16 flight simulator. It fealt bit weird and sitiff compared with IMHO superior Domark's Harrier Assault (from 1992) flight modelling, but was regarded highly at the time. The game was released with thick manual, maps and many other goodies and eventhough its FM could be better it exceled in many different aspects.

In 1992 it was followed with Operation: Fighting Tiger expansion, which featured additional theaters in the Far East along with more friendly and enemy units (like Japanese FS-X) and in the next year 2 additional expansions were released - Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter and MiG-29: Deadly Adversary of Falcon 3.0 which added even more campaigns and two new flyable aircrafts - F/A-18 Hornet (naval ops!) and MIG-29 Fulcrum. There was one more expansion planned that focused on A-10 Warthog, but it was scrapped. All the expansion could co-exist (you could even play some multiplayer coop and pvp) and were later re-relased on single CD as Falcon 3 Gold (1994) which featured "Art of the Kill" documentary on VHS tape in which real F-16 pilot (Pete Bonnani) talks about many aspects of air combat.

The game featured dynamic campaign in which you managed your selected squadron with limited stock of airplanes and munitions which got replenished every few days. Every pilot in your squadron had his own stats for fatigue, experience and ability to deal with air or ground targets. You could boost those by going with your squadron to Red Flag in Nevada and fly some training missions. You can even analyze your flights with the help of built in ACMI feature.

During sorties you could have meet other friendly and enemy flights with their own tasks not related to your own mission. The feeling of being a small cog in a bigger war machine was certainly there.

Check out my other vids from this series:
Falcon 3 Easter Eggs    • Falcon 3.0 Easter Eggs  
Falcon 3 Gold / Korea    • Falcon 3.0 Gold • Korea Airbase Strik...  
Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter / Bosnia    • Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter • Spectr...  
MIG-29 Deadly Adversary of Falcon 3.0 / Japan    • MIG-29 Deadly Adversary of Falcon 3.0...  

0:00 Intro
0:40 Title screen and credits
2:40 Main menu / config
4:30 Squadron room
6:05 Briefing
7:03 Report / allied aircraft
8:58 Edit flights / set waypoints / assign pilots
11:28 Load armament
12:22 Launch sequence
12:46 Mission start
29:22 Mission outcome - MIA
29:38 Debriefing
#RetroFlightSims #Falcon