Red Baron Pack

I too must put my hand up in a wish to see this game work on Windows 7 64 bit. I did buy and download, the first game works fine, but RB3D crashed on start up which is most unfortunate. I was hoping a simple solution could be found on my end but it is proving as fruitless as getting my old CD copy to work. Work your guru magic GoG!

It was in 1991 that I first had the opportunity to play Red Baron on a then very expensive 286 machine (which unfortunately I didn't own). No joystick, no proper sound except some ugly noises coming from the PC speaker, lots of stuttering even on low graphics settings. And still I found myself drawn into this game for a good reason: An expectionally well done career mode with lots of opportunity to advance and develop your pilot. Where else in a flight simulation did you get to earn your very own fighter plane, which, by the way, you could paint in any colors you like? Where else did you feel the same kind of elation after being challenged to a one-on-one duel in the air by one of the true pilot heroes of WWI? And where else could you develop a sense of betrayal so real and gripping when one of the pilot aces, after having challenged you, decided to bring along some buddies (and you, of course, were flying alone)? For its time, RB was revolutionary, it felt realistic, it had very advanced graphics and it was grand fun, despite the fact that it didn't run very well on the old 286 I had available. Many years later, when RB3D (a heavily patched version of RB2 which was a bug-fest) came out, I found myself somewhat disappointed. It was a very good game, with delicate graphics, a very good semi-dynamic campaign mode and a great physics engine. But somehow the magic was gone - I still wonder why. Maybe because the feeling of being a computer gaming pioneer had somehow diminished over the years. And, if course, because in RB3D there were no challenges from pilot aces anymore. You just had to fly the missions that were thrown at you, and the sense of accomplishment and camaraderie (if you can call it that, speaking of virtual pilot fellows), wasn't there anymore. Still, for anyone who didn't have the opportunity to play any Red Baron game so far - give it a try, especially the old RB from 1990. Make no mistake: It's an old and limited game from today's point of view, but back then, it was truly revolutionary. A warning for people who tun Windows 7 on a Dell M1710 notebook: I haven't been able to run RB3D properly. There are numerous graphics glitches, no proper keyboard input, and it runs incredibly slow (like 10 fps) on a machine that was built almost ten years after the game came out. With the old Red Baron there shouldn't be any problems for anyone because it's run in dosbox. 1 star for RB3D because it doesn't run properly on my PC. 5 stars for the old RB, making it >>>> 3 stars <<<< as final verdict.

Remember when GoG was about making old games work on modern systems? LOL! Doesn't work on windows 10 well at all! It forces the game to run at 33% speed and if you dare try to change that it just crashes! Figures. Save your time and money.

RB3D's awesome random Campaign structure has never been matched. This is why the game is still popular today. Another reason for it's popularity is that you can paint your own plane (and others for that matter). This game has been extensively modded to near modern standards. The only thing we can't change is the texture limits. Originally written for Voodoo graphics cards, Glide "wrappers" now achieve the same result. Planes have been truly 3D'd and model corrected, over 100 plane types are now available. New Aces to fight. Mission editor. Stunning FX and terrains. Incredible utilities to manage every aspect of the game. A dedicated modding community is producing new improvements almost daily, realism and historical accuracy are the primary goals.

I poured countless hours of my youth into the original Red Baron, mentally escaping to the skies above the western front for mission after mission after mission! I remember being teased in elementary school for reading the manual (which is a piece of art!) during "free reading" time. If that sounds like a sad story, it isn't...because I DID NOT CARE!!! I was so caught up in the world of the WW1 flying ace, I really could have cared less! Revisiting the original game 25+ years (!!!) on, I find myself reflecting on what makes this game such a classic. I don't think it's the flight models - although each plane does have unique characteristics and handling properties, it's hardly a profound connection between pilot and plane. It's also not graphics - although I recall the game visually being up to par back in the day, it hasn't really held up (in my opinion) as "timelessly artful" or anything along those lines. No, for me, it really comes down to the experience of the pilot career and really LIVING the ebb and flow of the war and technology from early 1915 to the end of the war. You really experience swinging from being king of the skies, armed with superior technology and numbers, to woefully outnumbered and outclassed...and back again! I've played countless video games between then and now and I'm not sure any of them (save for perhaps Close Combat 3) have conveyed this kind of ebb and flow as effectively as Red Baron did. Red Baron II/3D is also wonderful - in my book, it's superior in every single way to the original except in timing. The original just came along at a point in time in my life where my imagination was really open to being captured. Money well spent for me - tremendous memories and I really cherish being able to fire these up and getting transported back in time (in multiple senses of the phrase!)