Denny - Retrospect

62 kilobytes of pure perfection! 40 years ago, Ace of Aces was released. It's probably a bit too old for some of the people who follow my account but it was certainly way ahead of its time back in 1986. We used to turn up the volume for this one, especially for the intro and cutscene when the black and white picture slide show started, with the overlapping sound effects at the 0:30 mark (wait for it, it's worth it!) - it still fascinates me to this day. That cutscene uses a total of six colours and it still looks absolutely incredible. Superb graphics, excellent sound effects and a story/gameplay that felt highly immersive - those are the things that I remember when first playing this as a kid. Not an easy game by any means but it got you hooked fast. I am not enough of a history buff to know whether the missions were somewhat realistic but I would like to believe so. The mission briefings and the "interactive" map during the game added to that feeling of authenticity.