Falcon 4.0 - Development and Modding

Development and Modding

The game was originally designed and produced by Steve Blankenship and Gilman Louie and published under the MicroProse label. The game was rushed to the market in order to make the 1998 Christmas selling season. Unfortunately, Falcon 4.0's first release contained numerous bugs. The final official patch (version 1.08) fixed most of them. After completion of 1.08 patch, the original development team was laid off by Hasbro Interactive. Nevertheless, Falcon fans still sought further improvements of the game. Early modifications altered the game's multimedia and the executable by directly patching the compiled code. After the game's source code leak, a Falcon 4.0 player optimized the game further by re-programming part of the game.

The game's design was deliberately engineered so that further aircraft and terrain data could be installed retroactively. Presumably, this was to allow the release of an add-on pack, much as with Falcon 3.0. The modding community that grew up after unfortunate events befell the original commercial development have gone on to use this to add a great deal of extra content in the form of post installation patches.

Through its lifetime, Falcon 4.0 has received ongoing fixes and enhancements from various groups of volunteers, which have enhanced the detail and complexity of the simulation over the years to its current state, as well as mended the numerous errors in the original release and its patches. Much of this comes as a result of the source code being available to the developers of modifications. Benchmarksim (BMS) being the premier team to take on the task of user modifications. However, game publisher Atari later issued a cease and desist order against all executable modifications, and thus many modifications were not hosted by websites. Private modification development did continue, even so, as can be seen by the FreeFalcon/RedViper and Open Falcon leaks. It is rumored (confirmed by RV developer) that the FreeFalcon and RedViper teams have recently separated.

There have been several groups who have modified different parts of Falcon 4.0. Some groups and many individuals created new "skins" or paint schemes for aircraft, while other modified the data and code to be more realistic. Still others have worked to create new theaters (e.g. a Desert Storm Theater) for Falcon 4.0. Numerous modders continue to improve Falcon 4.0. The Falcon 4.0 series is one of the longest running game series using the same code base in PC history spanning well over a decade.

A company called Lead Pursuit which has been formed around many known names of the Falcon modding community has gained a license from Atari to continue Falcon 4.0 development. Falcon 4.0: Allied Force was released on June 28, 2005, and is largely a compilation and unification of existing modifications over the original Falcon 4.0 and the official patches, but at the same time shows several major new features never before seen and is a leap forward in stability, especially regarding online multiplayer gaming. This is the first known example of a user community taking over a game, modding it, maintaining code configuration, and having it re-release as a commercial product several years after the original publication. With Falcon 4.0: Allied Force and FreeFalcon 5, Falcon 4.0 is one of the oldest active code bases in computer gaming history, even more so with the unexpected release of the BMS4 mod in September 2011.

Lead Pursuit, Inc. has been updating the game with new patches, considerably enhancing the functionality of the simulation as they have released them particularly in the multiplayer aspect which now allows smooth close-up formation flying for players across the world. One of the most popular online Allied Force servers is Multivipers which runs real-time campaigns lasting days. Players jump into missions—whatever missions and their success or otherwise determines the course of the campaign.

As of 2012, the latest versions of falcon are "BMS 4.32.3" (information available from benchmarksims.org), and FreeFalcon 6 (information available from www.freefalcon.com).

Current license owner is Atari. Graphsim have an exclusive license to publish.