Wings of Glory

Wings of Glory trades the high-tech fighter jets of 1990s flight simulators for the primitive, canvas-winged biplanes of World War I, forcing you to rely on sight alone without a stitch of radar to save you.

Origin swapped jet engines for canvassed biplanes in Wings of Glory

When this title arrived from ORIGIN Systems, Inc. in early 1995, flight sim fans were used to modern cockpits packed with digital displays, radar sweeps, and heat-seeking missiles. Wings of Glory takes all those safety nets away. You play an American rookie assigned to the British Royal Flying Corps in 1917, operating out of a quiet aerodrome in Thetford, England, before moving to the front lines over Western Europe.

Instead of locking onto targets from twenty miles away, you sit in an open-air cockpit peering through a basic ring sight. Success depends entirely on keeping your eyes on the horizon and spotting faint silhouettes against the clouds. Published by Electronic Arts, Inc., it sets itself apart from most 1990s simulation games by focusing entirely on early military aviation.

Between flights, you spend time walking around the aerodrome talking with your fellow squadmates and checking the squadron killboard. The narrative covers 40 total campaign missions, starting with 25 sorties for the RFC before transferring your pilot to the US Army Air Force for the final 15 missions after America enters the war.

Dogfights, balloon busting, and cantankerous flight models

The aircraft in Wings of Glory feel deliberately twitchy and torque-heavy. Built on the 32-bit protected mode version of Origin's 3D RealSpace engine - the same tech line originally developed for Strike Commander - the game models the unstable physics of early airframes with surprising aggression. Turn too sharply or enter a steep dive to chase an enemy, and the stress can literally rip the wings clean off your fuselage.

You get to fly five distinct planes across the campaign, each handling with its own set of quirks:

• Sopwith Pup: Light and nimble, ideal for learning how to survive basic dogfights without stalling.
• S.E.5a: Stable at speed, making it a reliable workhorse for strafing runs.
• Sopwith Camel: Notoriously twitchy with heavy engine torque, capable of turning on a dime if you can control it.
• SPAD XIII: Fast and tough, built for high-speed diving attacks against heavily guarded targets.
• Captured Fokker Dr.I: The famous German triplane, giving you a chance to sample enemy engineering directly.

Mission design goes far beyond simple aerial patrols. You will intercept bombers, strafe German supply trains and airfield revetments, attack well-defended submarine pens, and face off against notorious flying aces in tight duels. Balloon-busting missions prove particularly nerve-wracking, forcing you to dive through heavy anti-aircraft fire to explode massive German observation balloons before diving away from the shockwave.

High hardware demands and a rigid narrative

For all its strengths, the game posed immediate challenges for players when it landed on store shelves in 1995. The RealSpace engine demanded a heavy-duty PC, practically requiring an early Pentium processor to run smoothly at full detail. Computer Gaming World awarded it 90% while PC Gamer went as high as 92%, though both pointed out that performance was rough until early patches resolved initial launch hiccups.

The visual landscape of early combat can also leave your head spinning. In the initial campaign stages, friendlies and enemies wear nearly identical shades of green, blue, and yellow across their wings. Without an electronic target lock or HUD markers, telling a friendly RFC machine from a German fighter during a swirling melee requires getting uncomfortably close.

The campaign structure is surprisingly rigid compared to other Origin titles of the time. While producer Warren Spector and writer Lisa Smith built a dialogue-rich story around the aerodrome staff, your squadmates cannot die outside of fixed narrative beats. Even if a friendly pilot gets shot down right in front of your propellor during a mission, they will show up back at base unharmed if the plot requires them for the next cutscene.

Beyond the main story, the game offers plenty of sandbox flight options. A dedicated "Gauntlet" survival mode throws endless waves of enemy fighters at you to test how long your ammunition and fuel hold out, while the built-in scenario builder lets you construct custom encounters. It also featured an integrated flight recorder that saves up to 20 minutes of your dogfights so you can rewatch your best maneuvers from outside the cockpit.

Fly the historic skies in your browser today

If you want to experience a classic 1990s flight sim without scouring auction sites for old sound cards or configuring joystick drivers, you can play Wings of Glory online right now. The dogfights remain brutal, and surviving your first balloon-busting run without tearing your wings off in the escape dive is just as satisfying as it was thirty years ago.

You can launch this complete Wings of Glory MS-DOS game directly in your web browser. There is nothing to install and no complex setup required, letting you take off from the Thetford aerodrome and dive straight into combat within seconds.