F-22 (series)

F-22 is a series of combat flight simulation computer games from NovaLogic, produced only for the PC. It is based on the F-22 Raptor produced by Lockheed Martin. The third game of the series was released on May 25, 1999 and was successor of earlier game F-22 Lightning II (released in 1996), for the time, both games displayed very realistic graphics and some physics of flying a plane. The makers gained legitimacy by Lockheed Martin sanctioning their product, the actual makers of the real-life F-22 fighter.

Predecessor F-22 Lightning II was released on September 30, 1996.Its minimum requirements were 486/100 MHz or equivalent CPU, 8 MB RAM and 35 MB hard drive space. It was released for DOS and was much more detailed in comparison to contemporary combat flight simulators like Jane's US Navy Fighters.

In Lightning 2 and Lightning 3, the aircraft is named Lightning II instead of the correct name Raptor. By 1999, the games release date, the USAF had officially called the F22 the Raptor. F-22 Lightning 3 also failed to come close to the physics modeling shown in DiD's F-22 ADF released 2 years earlier.This has later been explained by NovaLogic since they never intended a 'hard core' military flight simulator, but an easily approachable multiplayer software.

The third game itself is not so much an all-out simulation but a combat flying game for more casual players and has gameplay that is easier to access than some of its rivals such as the Falcon series or games from Digital......
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