SkyFighters Wiki



Welcome to the SkyFighters Wiki
SkyFighters is a series of air combat games for the Macintosh. While the game's publisher is long-gone, there's still a community of players trying to keep it viable through OS upgrades and other challenges. This wiki is mostly focused on "OSX Skyfighters 1945 w/MB" but also contains content on other games by the same publisher.

The SkyFighters (and related) games
SkyFighters is the name of several flight combat simulation games for the Macintosh, published by Don's Games and Home Software LLC. The games straddle the ground between pure flight sim and arcade game -- the flight mechanics are generally realistic, but the planes are not so difficult to handle that a novice will be put off by them (for example, it's possible to stall the aircraft but recovering from the stalls is much easier than it would be in real life). Games with the SkyFighters title are: All of these were created by Don Hill, Jr. Don also created several other flight-themed games that didn't use the "SkyFighters" name", published under a number of different company names:
 * OSX SkyFighters 1945 with Mission Builder (WWII game for Mac OSX)
 * SkyFighters 1918 with Mission Builder (WWI game for Mac OSX)
 * WWII SkyFighters (WWII game for Mac OS 7)
 * SkyFighters 1945 (WWII game for Mac OS 9)
 * Sop vs. Tri (WWI game for iOS)
 * P-51 Mustang (WWII game Mac OS 6-7)
 * Bullseye Software's Flying Circus (WWI game Mac OS 8-9)
 * Dogfight City (WWII game for Mac OS 7)
 * Fokker Triplane (WWII game for Mac OS 6-7)

Status of the Games
The games are effectively abandonware at this point. The OSX game files were made freely available but required a license key, otherwise would only run for five minutes before exiting. You may still be able to find .dmg files containing the games out there on the 'net. However, there has been no new development or maintenance since 2009, and no new license keys have been sold since then. None of the games will run on current Mac OS versions as-is, although OSX SkyFighters 1945 can be made to do so with a bit of work (see Links section for a link on how to get the graphics files necessary for the workaround).

Why are people still interested?
Why is there still effort going into keeping these games going, 5+ years after development and support ended?
 * The Mission Builder allows players to continue creating new challenges
 * The ability to use custom aircraft paint jobs, ground textures, and the like allow the look of the game to be updated
 * Online play does not require a subscription, and it's easy to set up games with the people you want
 * There's still a core of dedicated online pilots who enjoy playing with/against each other
 * No suitable replacement flight combat simulator has appeared for the Macintosh.  For example, "Sky Gamblers" has more modern graphics but is too much of an arcade game, while "War Thunder" frustrates a lot of players.  If a new game appeared that combined SkyFighters' good points with modern graphics, presumably we'd all move on.

Online Play and Community
OSX SkyFighters 1945 and SkyFighters 1918 feature online play for up to eight players. Unlike many games where online play is through a central server and requires a subscription, any user of these games can host games for free. The old donsgames.com web site provided a way to advertise public games so other players could find them, but since that went away players need to coordinate through some other means to arrange a time and share the IP address of the host.

The SkyFighters online community has managed to hold together despite the demise of donsgames.com, still creating new missions and flying online.

For more information, see Online Play and Community.

The Developer
All of the games listed here were developed by Don Hill, Jr., most of them single-handedly (or with only relatively minor contributions from others). They were published under a variety of company names, including Bullseye Software and Don's Games and Home Software. Don passed away in early 2009, and his family was not interested or not able to keep his games going by finding another company or developer to take them over. More information in SkyFighters developer and why you can't buy the games any more.

Links

 * Macintosh Garden page for Bullseye software, including screen shots for each game: http://macintoshgarden.org/author/bullseye-software
 * Inside Mac Games review of OSX SkyFighters 1945 from 2005: http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/view.php?ID=655
 * Web site containing info on SkyFighters having been broken by Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and how to work around the issue: http://www.michael.milvich.com/skyfighters.html
 * Web site containing many user created missions, custom paint jobs, etc.: http://sf.gr8.se/uppladdat/index.php
 * Article on what happens to your software after you die, using Don Hill, Jr's SkyFighters game as an example: http://www.mergeconflict.net/2011/01/story-of-don.html

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