Falcon 4.0
Falcon 4.0 is a combat flight simulation video game developed by MicroProse and published by Hasbro Interactive in 1998. The game is based around a realistic simulation of the Block 50/52 F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter in a full-scale modern war set in the Korean Peninsula. Falcon 4.0's dynamic campaign engine runs autonomously.
| Falcon 4.0 | |
|---|---|
European box art | |
| Developer(s) | MicroProse Alameda |
| Publisher(s) | Hasbro Interactive |
| Designer(s) |
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| Series | Falcon |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS |
| Release | 11 December 1998 May 1999 (Mac OS) |
| Genre(s) | Air combat simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
The game is the ultimate development in the Falcon series from Spectrum HoloByte that began in 1984. HoloByte had acquired MicroProse in 1993, and started using that name for all of its titles in 1996. After MicroProse was purchased by Hasbro, official development ended. In 2000, a source code leak allowed continued development of the game by members of the gaming community, including bug fixes and new campaigns. Many of these additions were collected by Lead Pursuit, which arranged an official license of the original code base from the owner Atari; these were published as Falcon 4.0: Allied Force in 2005. Spanning well over a decade, the Falcon 4.0 series is one of the longest running game series using the same code base in PC history.
In the present day, the game is still supported by a community of players with the most supported branch of the game being the one by Benchmark Sims Community, called Falcon BMS.
On May 4th 2023, after a 24 year long absence, developer MicroProse announced the reacquisition of the copyright to the Falcon series, including Falcon 4.0.