Archiving F/A-18 Hornet version installers

[LaPorta]

Hey everyone,

I am currently in the process of gathering and archiving all of the different versions of F/A-18 Hornet installers and disks. Currently, I am looking for the real obscure stuff. For instance, I remember there being an update to classic Hornet 1.1.2 to version 1.1.3b that I downloaded from AOL as a kid. Regrettably, most of these sorts of things seem to have gone missing and are long since forgotten. I had a Hornet Korea updater to a beta OpenGL and 3dfx version for 3D textures that I had saved. None of this sort of stuff is on the Garden, and it is difficult to locate elsewhere. So, if anyone has any of this sort of thing floating around in your hoard of digital archives, I would much appreciate knowing about it and acquiring it. Thanks.

 

[maceffects]

That is a classic game that I really enjoyed playing when I was younger!  Sadly, I'm not much help in finding obscure software but I wish you the best in your searches as I think its a noble effort!

 

[LaPorta]

By the way, if anyone has the Hornet 1.x Demo, that would be helpful as well. There was a hack back in the day that you would use ResEdit to start the training mission with all sorts of weapons. I recall doing something crazy, like putting in every weapon combination possible in double, and somehow making it impossible to crash the plane when flown right into the ground! You'd bounce like a basketball with no damage.

 

[mossy_11]

The Hornet 1.1.1 demo is included on the Inside Mac Games Volume 1 CD, available here: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/inside-mac-games-1994

I remember there being other demo versions and updates for the series included on some subsequent IMG CDs, but I haven't checked which versions or which CDs. I suspect that most if not all Hornet installers will be scattered across various magazine coverdiscs and other CD-ROM software collections, though actually finding them will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

[LaPorta]

Thank you, that is a huge help! I will be downloading and archiving that separately.

By the way, someone pointed me to the 1.1.3b update on the Garden, also helpful.

 

[Phipli]

I have Korea + OpenGL/Glide and Hornet 3 on a disk... had it since I was a kid. Is that really not on the garden?!

 

[joshc]

@LaPorta Did you complete this in the end?

@Phipli Is there anything you have that isn't online anywhere or that LaPorta doesn't have?

 

[Phipli]

@LaPorta Did you complete this in the end?

@Phipli Is there anything you have that isn't online anywhere or that LaPorta doesn't have?

My promotional copy has a pdf manual. Not sure if that is useful.

Sadly I'm missing loads of stuff still.

 

[dougg3]

Ahh, I don't know how I missed this thread until now! I think I have newer boxed versions of F/A-18 Hornet and Korea that I want to say I got around 1999 or so. I remember buying them in a store. I'm also pretty sure I have a beta GL updater for Korea somewhere in my backups.

I can definitely take a look and figure out exactly what it is that I have...

 

[LaPorta]

My boxed, original Hornet is 1.1.2. I don’t know if this was the original release version, or if there were others. Trey Smith (the original developer) is very receptive to email correspondence. He had a few updaters, but he does not have a lot, unfortunately. He told me that he has some hard drives in a storage shed that he may get to someday. I didn’t want to push him too much…I’ll eventually ask again.

 

[dougg3]

OK, so I found the original boxes, but for some reason they're empty! In fact, based on the markings on the Korea box, it looks like maybe the Hornet box originally came inside of the Korea box? I can't remember!

I'm confident I have the original CDs somewhere too, but I'm surprised I didn't leave everything inside the box. No idea if there were manuals included or not.



I also found files with these names in my backups:

• F/A-18 Hornet 3.0.1b2.sea 3
• Korea GL Update.sea
  • This seems to contain F/A-18 Korea GL 1.1b1 Update and additional textures and text.
• KoreaGL_b2_app.sit
• KoreaGL_b2_text_delta.sit 2
• KoreaMac110-111.sit

No idea what's the newest out of this stuff. I'll keep searching for the original CDs and can image them when I find them. If you're interested in any of these files I'm more than happy to send them your way.

 

[dougg3]

...and I just found the original CDs. Looks like a lot of this stuff might already be available on the Garden? There are so many different versions that it's hard to say one way or the other. Again, happy to share if you want images of these.

 

[Phipli]

OK, so I found the original boxes, but for some reason they're empty! In fact, based on the markings on the Korea box, it looks like maybe the Hornet box originally came inside of the Korea box? I can't remember!

I'm confident I have the original CDs somewhere too, but I'm surprised I didn't leave everything inside the box. No idea if there were manuals included or not.

View attachment 60848

I also found files with these names in my backups:

• F/A-18 Hornet 3.0.1b2.sea 3
• Korea GL Update.sea
  • This seems to contain F/A-18 Korea GL 1.1b1 Update and additional textures and text.
• KoreaGL_b2_app.sit
• KoreaGL_b2_text_delta.sit 2
• KoreaMac110-111.sit

No idea what's the newest out of this stuff. I'll keep searching for the original CDs and can image them when I find them. If you're interested in any of these files I'm more than happy to send them your way.

Could you share a photo of the bottom of the red box?

 

[dougg3]

Sure! Here's the bottom of both of them. Weird...it seems to be a white sticker covering up that spot on the original box. I'm too afraid to try peeling it off to determine what's underneath. Pretty sure that wouldn't go very well, lol

 

[Phipli]

Sure! Here's the bottom of both of them. Weird...it seems to be a white sticker covering up that spot on the original box. I'm too afraid to try peeling it off to determine what's underneath. Pretty sure that wouldn't go very well, lol

View attachment 60850

I was curious. The sticker on my  RED Promotional box actually has Hornet 3.0 and Korea requirements, same as your green box. My other copy just has Hornet 3.0.

Sadly the Korea disk is missing from the promotional box.

You seem to have a promotional copy too, looking at your CDs.

 

[dougg3]

Ahh, interesting! I guess it makes sense that they didn't bother putting requirements on my red box if it came inside of the green box. I'm more and more confident that it originally came inside of the green box. That would make sense for at least the red version to be a promotional copy.

Looking at eBay auctions of F/A-18 Korea, I'm also pretty sure I have the green "F/A-18 Pilot's Operating Handbook" somewhere. It looks very very familiar. Kicking my younger self for not keeping everything together in one place.

 

[Phipli]

Looking at eBay auctions of F/A-18 Korea, I'm also pretty sure I have the green "F/A-18 Pilot's Operating Handbook" somewhere. It looks very very familiar. Kicking my younger self for not keeping everything together in one place.

The green book is the Korea one I think, 2 and 3 came with a blue one, 1 came with a 3/4" thick beast of a book that includes loads of tech data on the plane.

Version 3 manual contents (like version 2) :




Version 1 contents :

 

[Forrest]

Falcon MC utilized a word from the manual as copy protection. I think later versions of Falcon did this also. That’s the likely reason the boxes were stored seperately from the game disc/ manual.

 

[Phipli]

Falcon MC utilized a word from the manual as copy protection. I think later versions of Falcon did this also. That’s the likely reason the boxes were stored seperately from the game disc/ manual.

The first version of F/A-18 uses a word from the manual, unless you register the game. I can't remember for certain, but I don't believe version 2 still did this, and version 3 onwards absolutely didn't.

A long manual is harder to copy

 

[LaPorta]

I don’t think version 2 did, but I can’t recall entirely. Also, that Korea is the Hornet 3.0 Korea. To confuse it more, Hornet 2.0: Korean Crisis is a totally different game!