A-10 Cuba

by ACTIVISION

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002SAHD
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,681 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Famous for its rugged design, unique looks, and 30-millimeter cannon, the A-10 is one serious piece of aerial machinery. A-10 Cuba lets players slip into the titanium cockpit of this close air-support plane and dish out some serious hurt in a fictional campaign against Cuba.

It is unfortunate that A-10 Cuba's graphics are so dated, because the physics and flight models are some of the most convincing we've ever tested. Few other flight simulations do such a great job of conveying the feeling of commanding an aircraft, whether it is the landing gear struts compressing when we braking on the runway or the plane's crazy behavior when damaged. The attention to detail in the cockpit also deserves praise, as nearly every button, knob, display, and handle is rendered as an interactive object. It takes a lot of practice to get familiar with its complexities, but the reward is in knowing you are handling one of the most realistic re-creations of a military aircraft ever crafted.

Ultimately, the worst thing about A-10 Cuba is the lack of missions. The designers gave us this great aircraft to fly and then didn't give us enough to do with it. The "campaign" is just a series of linked missions without much of an overarching story line to hold them together. The skies are alive with other aircraft, but they never talk to one another. Much like the aircraft it simulates, A-10 Cuba is all business, and players who want a flight simulator with personality should look elsewhere. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Superb flight model
• The game world is packed with activity both related and unrelated to your missions
• Fully functioning cockpit is fun to toy with

Cons:

• Graphics don't have a lot of detail and are showing their age
• No real story elements to the campaign, and no chatter from other aircraft or the control tower

GameSpot

It's one thing to create an ultra-realistic flight simulation, but it's quite another to design it so that novice to intermediate pilots won't feel intimidated. And while it's great for a sim to be as realistic as possible - it would be slammed by every serious flight sim fanatic in the world if it weren't - that doesn't mean there's no place for options that allow newbies to fine-tune the degree of realism, or for a well-organized manual to help them understand the myriad weapons, gauges, and controls on a modern attack jet. And for it to qualify as a first-rate product, it also needs features such as a mission editor, wingmen you can communicate with, and a campaign mode, to name a few.

A-10 Cuba!, which bills itself as both an "ultra-realistic flight simulation" and "the most realistic flight combat simulator ever," is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Without question, A-10 Cuba! employs a very realistic flight model, and the air-combat action - which ranges from tank-killing sorties and escort missions to a bridge-busting assignment and a strike on an enemy commander's home - is fast, furious, and very satisfying.

The cockpit display is one of the most impressively detailed I've ever seen, and what's more, it is actually interactive: You can toggle switches and turn knobs via the mouse. And while gamers accustomed to texture-mapped extravaganzas might sneer at the polygon-based graphics here, they do make for a stunningly impressive frame rate - even running at 1024x768 - and the planes look pretty good, especially from an external view.

But in several crucial areas, A-10 Cuba! falls short of the competition. Its most glaring deficiency is the lack of a printed manual; the only documents you get with this game are the registration card, a layout of the keyboard commands, an order form for ThrustMaster flight sticks, and an almost worthless jewel-case insert that's woefully thin on useful information. The latter contains a screenshot with captions describing various cockpit flight instruments, but the picture and text are both so small you'd need a magnifying glass to get any real use out of it.

To be fair, A-10 Cuba! does come with online Help, but there's just too much information here to be covered adequately in this format - and if you stay in the Help file too long while the game is running, you'll be kicked out by a demo that you can't disable. This simply doesn't cut it for a flight sim, especially one that boasts how "ultra-realistic" it is. Novice and even intermediate flight-sim fans need a manual they can keep at their side for quick reference, and novices especially would benefit from a "basics of flight" type tutorial - the kind that's found in the manual of many PC air-combat sims.

Other common features are missing, too. There's no specific support for popular four-button flight sticks such as the CH FlightStick Pro or the Microsoft SideWinder 3D Pro - or if there is I couldn't find it in the Help file. (Then again, the numerous keyboard commands almost dictate using some type of programmable stick or throttle.) While the 12 combat missions are varied and exciting, and the game's AI routines for enemy forces guarantee that no single mission will pan out the same way twice, that doesn't change the fact that there are only 12 missions - a pretty sparse amount for a flight sim. The situation is made even worse by the lack of a mission editor.

There's no way to communicate with wingmen; no way to change your waypoints; no campaign mode (except to play the 12 combat missions in order); no way to access a mission briefing during a sortie; no "auto-navigate" feature to guide you to a waypoint; no toggle for stalls; no variable difficulty modes; and no option to skip take-off and start in the air (though many targets are so close by you might want to take off just to make the experience last longer).

It's true that A-10 Cuba! carries a very low sticker price - and if you trade in a copy of A-10 Tank Killer, Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer II, ATF, AH64 LongBow, F-22 Lightning, SU-27, or EF2000, Activision will send you a check for $15, which means you could get this game for as little as $14 or $15. Considering the fun to be had dogfighting over a LAN or modem, that really boosts the value rating.

Longtime flight-sim fans will take to the realism of A-10 Cuba! like ducks to water, and forgive it its shortcomings - easy to do with a sim offering such an authentic flight model and intense combat missions. But if you're relatively new to the genre, you might want to try a sim that allows graduated levels of realism and more features, and includes a printed manual.--Stephen Poole
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A10 Cuba: Great Flying, July 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A-10 Cuba (CD-ROM)

What keeps me coming back and enjoying the hell out of this game is the excellent detail on the A10 itself and the way it flies. The training sessions are fun, get you going (with the card) and are pretty forgiving while you learn to fly. I've just started using it and have only flown some training and attack missions, but love this game now and will keep coming back.
While the A10 graphics are good, the terrain and graphics are blocky and flat, but can be lived with. Due to the age ('96?) and price of this product, the graphics quality outside the A10 was understandable and no big deal. The only problem is barely being able to tell how close to the ground you get, which would probably be a problem I'd have in the real aircraft. There are operational hints at the start of the game and a card for cockpit and keyboard controls, but there is still some basic weapons operation information that isn't readily available.
I'm sure no pilot and the only thing I've ever actually "flown" was a submarine with a top speed of around 20 Knots, but this seems like what it might be to fly a jet-powered flying tank like the A10. Even with the limited experience, it was not too difficult to take off, fly and attack targets. The flight controls were just as squirrely as you'd expect on a subsonic combat aircraft and just add to the fun. Even if it is NOTHING at all like the real thing, flying A10 Cuba is a blast.
The lower flying speeds (200 to 500 kts) give you much more time to react to situations but still zips you past targets if you weren't lined up. Terrain-following autopilot and the Pause button can also help in that respect. The only things missing are the feel of the G forces and getting seriously killed when messing up.

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheep Fun, December 17, 2009

By 

M. Inscore - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A-10 Cuba (CD-ROM)

Who the heck wouldn't want to fly an A10? - Ok so its not the newest flight sim with the best graphics but the flight controls are darn good. I bought this to replace a copy I loaned to a friend. Its fun for the money. Plays good on XP.

3.0 out of 5 stars A10 Cuba - Good old FS., August 14, 2008

By 

BigJoe (Norway) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: A-10 Cuba (CD-ROM)

Still a pleasure to fly. Never mind the outdated physics engine compared to this days standards, the flight model is exelent, and this game was pioneering Virtual cockpit and on-dashboard mouse controll. Runs well on an old NT4 box. Wonder if it runs under Virtual PC ?