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!)
