Air Warrior

Electronic Arts purchased Air Warrior in 1999, and became provider of the game, but it was discontinued in 2001. Sequels Air Warrior II and Air Warrior III were both released in 1997 and published by Interactive Magic. One of the first massive online games, hosting hundreds of users during busy periods. It inspired WarBirds, which in turn inspired Aces High, while other members of the Warbirds team went on to produce World War II Online. Today there are a number of similar games, like WarThunder, most of them based on a freemium model.

• Title — Air Warrior • Developer — Kesmai • Publisher — Konami (Air Warrior SVGA) • Released — 1987 • Genre — Air combat simulation • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Platforms — Windows, 3DO, Amiga, Atari ST, CDTV, FM Towns, Mac OS

Introduced in 1988 by Kesmai, Air Warrior was played over modems and hosted on the GEnie online service provider. Players could choose one of a number of World War II aircraft to fly, along with ground vehicles, and play in a multiplayer "arena" with hundreds of other players. The game focused mostly on dogfighting, with a secondary strategic role of capturing forward airbases near the center of the map. Several updated versions were released, and additional service providers were added over time. The original version of Air Warrior ran on Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, and Atari ST computers, had simple black and white wireframe graphics, and cost over $10 per hour to play. Over time, Kesmai produced improved versions of the game, starting with SVGA Air Warrior in 1993, and continuing with Air Warrior for Windows in 1996, Air Warrior II in early 1997, Air Warrior III later in 1997, and finally Air Warrior III Millennium Version in 2000. Development of Air Warrior II was directly overseen by Bill Stealey, founder of the game's publisher, Interactive Magic. Kesmai also did business deals to provide access to Air Warrior through additional on-line services, including Delphi, CRIS, CompuServe, America Online, Earthlink, Gamestorm and CompuLink. A version of Air Warrior for Windows was ported back to the Macintosh in 1997 in an Internet open beta, and then later moved to America Online. In 1999, Electronic Arts purchased Air Warrior, and became provider of the latest version of the game, only to discontinue it in 2001.