Check out Prothero's Guide to Spellweavery!: bit.ly/ProtherosGuide Subscribe to the Questing Beast newsletter for a chance to win Ace of Aces: questingbeast.substack.com Ace of Aces on Amazon: amzn.to/3gZVpiJ Ace of Aces on eBay: ebay.us/E8B5ad A breakdown of how the hidden substructure of the game works: www.getrevue.co/profile/gengelstein/issues/gametek-4-all-about-that-ace-680928
Just backed a New Kickstarter for this game! I played back in the 70s/80s --- can't remember exactly when... a friend owned it.... I remember it being Amazing! Thanks for the Explaination!
I really love Ace of Aces. I have several versions. One of my brown books has been lost, so I want another copy. I forced my sister to play with me. I believe it first appeared in 1980.
I had two of these - the rotary one you showed, but also the DVII version. Gosh they were super fun. The best "analog" flight combat games made. Now I have various pc simulators, but these books were magic. IIRC there was a cowboy gunfighter set as well, which wasn't quite as successful as the plane one, but still fun. Thank you for the refresh of my memories!!!
I love Ace of Aces! A friend and I have played for hours while on the train. I've only got this first book in the series (Ace of Aces: Handy Rotary Series), but there are at least three more (of which I would very much like to try Ace of Aces: Powerhouse Series and Ace of Aces: Flying Machines), which you can mix and match when playing. They also did a Star Wars version (X-Wing vs Tie Fighter) and a version with dragons, but these were sadly dumbed down quite a bit from the original rules. I've never touched the advanced rules, but the game really opens up when you play it as a campaign consisting of several battles (trying to escape a battle becomes a strategically viable option when you're close to getting shot down, since your opponent is only awarded 1/2 a VP). I'm still amazed at how these books work so elegantly (by the power of painstakingly crafted paper algorithms), especially considering the fact that you can mix and match planes from different series with different moves and capabilities (see also the Lost World series of game books by the same designer). Pure magic!
@@QuestingBeast Search for "Lost world's fantasy game" to find them. Similar concept but implemented slightly differently for fantasy sword (mace/axe/whatever) fighting. Much greater range of types than Ace of Aces and they aren't all the same strength. If you decide to try them best to start with two basic types for a good match, such as; Man in Chainmail with sword Dwarf in Chainmail with Two-handed ax Woman in Scale with Sword and Shield Giant Goblin with Mace and Shield Barbarian with Two-handed Sword
Ace of Aces is like first person shooter and the newer Wings of Glory (2012) is like a third person shooter. In Wings of Glory maneuver arrow options at the bottom of Ace of Aces page is transferred to small deck of cards. The advantage of Wings of Glory is that you get the similar feel of Ace of Aces but you get to control a squadron and not just one plane. Furthermore playing with miniature airplane is cool.
I bought this when it first came out and loved it. I would take them to work and we would play during breaks. It was quick and easy. So we could play several games in a short time period.
My copy is almost 40 years old by now. I do have the same Handy Rotary books you showcased here, but Ace of Aces had other pairs of books, featuring different airplanes with their own maneuver suite. It's an awesome game for fans of aviation with some knowledge of ACM (Air Combat Maneuvers).
@@QuestingBeast But yeah, the planes are compatible. The major difference between them is that rotaries like the Camel and Dr.I could do turns towards their engine rotation (the rotary cylinders, unlike more modern radials, actually rotated with the main shaft) faster than they could to the opposite side. This is reflected in the rules. Meanwhile, the inline engined planes, like the Albatross scouts and the allied Spads and SE.5a generally featured more raw power, without much of a turn preference (although torque generated by the propeller was still very much a thing), making them better zoom climbers and generally faster planes.
@@QuestingBeast the maneuvers at the bottom were slightly different. If you mapped them out on the hexes you had some different options. The base set was rotary engine planes, which meant the turned right faster, so the maneuvers were different to reflect that. The powerhouse series was the later war faster planes. They also had a set for the early war planes and a balloon buster set. All of them had different art. They also reissued the rotary set in a deluxe version that was actual photographs from the cockpit of a camel and Fokker dr1.
I remember picking up a copy of this game at an early 80s Gen Con East, but sadly it was lost during a move out from an ex-wife or girlfriend. I don’t recall which. I sure do miss that game. Interestingly to me at least, it was at that Gen Con that I met Gary Gygax
Ugh. The new version had a terrible misprint. The page numbers are supposed to be in the outer corner of the page, not the inner corner. It was very disappointing. Get one of the old versions of you can find one. The different old series play a bit differently but are compatible...from different phases of WW1. Next up, the Dragonriders of Pern game... Just stick with the basic game, you'll get wicked fast.. Perfect for lunch.
I just read a thing that said people now view the iron cross as bad which is pretty weird... definitely has nothing to do with WW2 if someone isn't a total moron. Independent Trucks (skateboard co) had people complain they were using it lol. I love WWI era dogfighting so this is cool to me
I read a comment somewhere that the tails of the planes are swapped. The German tail on the British plane and vice versa. I looked up pictures of the planes and, yeah, I think they're right!
@@QuestingBeast Well, I’ve played a lot of tabletop fighting games, and more than any other, Lost Worlds creates memorable duels where the rules disappear into the blow by blow of the fight. There’s a large selection of fighters, from armored knights and elves to giants, dragons, pixies, unicorns, etc, and they all feel and play very differently. It’s also by the same designer as Ace of Aces, with a similar system applied to melee combat, so If you enjoyed Ace of Aces I think you would also appreciate Lost Worlds
When I was a student at West Virginia University in the early 90’s, there was a Gaming Club. We played board games, RPG’s, and quirky games like this. I enjoyed them so much, in particular Ace of Aces.
@@QuestingBeast The 90's was a looooong time ago! Let's see, we played Diplomacy, Civilization (the analog, big paper map version), Risk, and a lot of early 90's RPG's like Vampire, DnD (2nd Ed, including Council of Wyrms and Birthright which were great settings), Kult (very weird and morally dark RPG), Over the Edge (slick system in a rules heavy era)(On the Edge was a CCG based on the RPG game, and it was fun), Nightlife (a quirky horror rpg that influenced later rpgs), Feng Shui (1st Ed), Pendragon (1st Ed), Amber (diceless rpg), and others that escape me right now. Thanks for keeping your channel lively. I look forward to seeing more videos and if I think of anything else I'll put it here.
This is simply amazing. Old-school game design had a certain way of getting into the weeds that feels mind-boggling and cozy at the same time. BTW the link to the breakdown seems to be broken.
Check out Prothero's Guide to Spellweavery!: bit.ly/ProtherosGuide
Subscribe to the Questing Beast newsletter for a chance to win Ace of Aces: questingbeast.substack.com
Ace of Aces on Amazon: amzn.to/3gZVpiJ
Ace of Aces on eBay: ebay.us/E8B5ad
A breakdown of how the hidden substructure of the game works: www.getrevue.co/profile/gengelstein/issues/gametek-4-all-about-that-ace-680928
Just backed a New Kickstarter for this game! I played back in the 70s/80s --- can't remember exactly when... a friend owned it.... I remember it being Amazing! Thanks for the Explaination!
I really love Ace of Aces. I have several versions. One of my brown books has been lost, so I want another copy. I forced my sister to play with me. I believe it first appeared in 1980.
I'm giving a copy away to a random newsletter subscriber!
I had two of these - the rotary one you showed, but also the DVII version. Gosh they were super fun. The best "analog" flight combat games made. Now I have various pc simulators, but these books were magic. IIRC there was a cowboy gunfighter set as well, which wasn't quite as successful as the plane one, but still fun. Thank you for the refresh of my memories!!!
You're welcome!
I love Ace of Aces! A friend and I have played for hours while on the train. I've only got this first book in the series (Ace of Aces: Handy Rotary Series), but there are at least three more (of which I would very much like to try Ace of Aces: Powerhouse Series and Ace of Aces: Flying Machines), which you can mix and match when playing. They also did a Star Wars version (X-Wing vs Tie Fighter) and a version with dragons, but these were sadly dumbed down quite a bit from the original rules.
I've never touched the advanced rules, but the game really opens up when you play it as a campaign consisting of several battles (trying to escape a battle becomes a strategically viable option when you're close to getting shot down, since your opponent is only awarded 1/2 a VP). I'm still amazed at how these books work so elegantly (by the power of painstakingly crafted paper algorithms), especially considering the fact that you can mix and match planes from different series with different moves and capabilities (see also the Lost World series of game books by the same designer). Pure magic!
I really want to find the Star Wars books, but sadly they're even rarer than these.
So this is basically like a Choose Your Own Adventure for dogfighting. That's pretty cool.
Basically, yeah
I have the pleasure of knowing the designer of this game who lives near me in Windham CT. This game is truly an amazing accomplishment!
Wow! I haven't seen those in years! One of the cooler '80s ideas.
Ingenious
OMG! My Dad has that! He got it while he was at military college. I grew up playing that with him!
Will we soon be seeing Skeleton With Scimitar and Shield versus Man in Chainmail with Sword and Shield?
What's that?
@@QuestingBeast en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Worlds_(gamebook)
These are the more famous and common forms of the "exchange books and fight" examples you showed us over the past few weeks.
@@QuestingBeast Search for "Lost world's fantasy game" to find them. Similar concept but implemented slightly differently for fantasy sword (mace/axe/whatever) fighting.
Much greater range of types than Ace of Aces and they aren't all the same strength. If you decide to try them best to start with two basic types for a good match, such as;
Man in Chainmail with sword
Dwarf in Chainmail with Two-handed ax
Woman in Scale with Sword and Shield
Giant Goblin with Mace and Shield
Barbarian with Two-handed Sword
I haven't seen this game in ~35 years. I totally forgot about it and never did get to play back in the day.
Too bad it died off.
Ace of Aces is like first person shooter and the newer Wings of Glory (2012) is like a third person shooter. In Wings of Glory maneuver arrow options at the bottom of Ace of Aces page is transferred to small deck of cards. The advantage of Wings of Glory is that you get the similar feel of Ace of Aces but you get to control a squadron and not just one plane. Furthermore playing with miniature airplane is cool.
Whoa that's interesting.
I bought this when it first came out and loved it. I would take them to work and we would play during breaks. It was quick and easy. So we could play several games in a short time period.
Yeah sometimes I play just until one person gets a hit.
The link for the ace of aces substructure doesn't seem to work for me.
Did it move to a different site?
My copy is almost 40 years old by now. I do have the same Handy Rotary books you showcased here, but Ace of Aces had other pairs of books, featuring different airplanes with their own maneuver suite.
It's an awesome game for fans of aviation with some knowledge of ACM (Air Combat Maneuvers).
Are all of the planes compatible?
@@QuestingBeast I posted a long comment answering, but it seems to have disappeared?
@@rafaelalandrade I haven't seen it!
@@QuestingBeast Oh god...RUclips seems to have swallowed up my comment...
Drat.
@@QuestingBeast But yeah, the planes are compatible.
The major difference between them is that rotaries like the Camel and Dr.I could do turns towards their engine rotation (the rotary cylinders, unlike more modern radials, actually rotated with the main shaft) faster than they could to the opposite side. This is reflected in the rules.
Meanwhile, the inline engined planes, like the Albatross scouts and the allied Spads and SE.5a generally featured more raw power, without much of a turn preference (although torque generated by the propeller was still very much a thing), making them better zoom climbers and generally faster planes.
Originally 1980 I believe, played it at school many, many, maaaaaaaany years ago.
You are like a loot crate -- always showing us hidden gems. Please keep delving and showing us more treasures.
Will do!
I never heard of these but i used to play the Star Wars version ALL the time
I had these when the first came out. And the next series they brought out too. My friends and I loved it.
How many series are there?
I love the powerhouse books. They were awesome for road trips.
How are they different from these?
@@QuestingBeast the maneuvers at the bottom were slightly different. If you mapped them out on the hexes you had some different options. The base set was rotary engine planes, which meant the turned right faster, so the maneuvers were different to reflect that. The powerhouse series was the later war faster planes. They also had a set for the early war planes and a balloon buster set. All of them had different art. They also reissued the rotary set in a deluxe version that was actual photographs from the cockpit of a camel and Fokker dr1.
I remember picking up a copy of this game at an early 80s Gen Con East, but sadly it was lost during a move out from an ex-wife or girlfriend. I don’t recall which. I sure do miss that game. Interestingly to me at least, it was at that Gen Con that I met Gary Gygax
Ugh. The new version had a terrible misprint. The page numbers are supposed to be in the outer corner of the page, not the inner corner. It was very disappointing.
Get one of the old versions of you can find one. The different old series play a bit differently but are compatible...from different phases of WW1.
Next up, the Dragonriders of Pern game...
Just stick with the basic game, you'll get wicked fast.. Perfect for lunch.
Yeah that misprint is weird.
Such a rad idea and looks so neat in paper.
Yeah, it's like stone age FPS.
I played this game many years ago and thought it was great, thanks for reminding me.
I had no idea that you examined games like this on your channel. Nice!
I just read a thing that said people now view the iron cross as bad which is pretty weird... definitely has nothing to do with WW2 if someone isn't a total moron. Independent Trucks (skateboard co) had people complain they were using it lol. I love WWI era dogfighting so this is cool to me
I love the Choose Your Own Adventure feel to this game.
For sure
I read a comment somewhere that the tails of the planes are swapped. The German tail on the British plane and vice versa.
I looked up pictures of the planes and, yeah, I think they're right!
Huh, never noticed that.
As another commenter suggested, you should showcase Lost Worlds Fantasy combat
What makes that special?
@@QuestingBeast Well, I’ve played a lot of tabletop fighting games, and more than any other, Lost Worlds creates memorable duels where the rules disappear into the blow by blow of the fight. There’s a large selection of fighters, from armored knights and elves to giants, dragons, pixies, unicorns, etc, and they all feel and play very differently. It’s also by the same designer as Ace of Aces, with a similar system applied to melee combat, so If you enjoyed Ace of Aces I think you would also appreciate Lost Worlds
There's two Star Wars game similar to this game...One for Lightsabers and one for X-Wing vs Tie Fighter.
I had never heard of this but wow, really cool lol. Great review.
Appreciate it!
That was a great game! You could play it quickly and it was lots of fun.
So good
When I was a student at West Virginia University in the early 90’s, there was a Gaming Club. We played board games, RPG’s, and quirky games like this. I enjoyed them so much, in particular Ace of Aces.
Any other weird games that people don't know about any more?
@@QuestingBeast The 90's was a looooong time ago! Let's see, we played Diplomacy, Civilization (the analog, big paper map version), Risk, and a lot of early 90's RPG's like Vampire, DnD (2nd Ed, including Council of Wyrms and Birthright which were great settings), Kult (very weird and morally dark RPG), Over the Edge (slick system in a rules heavy era)(On the Edge was a CCG based on the RPG game, and it was fun), Nightlife (a quirky horror rpg that influenced later rpgs), Feng Shui (1st Ed), Pendragon (1st Ed), Amber (diceless rpg), and others that escape me right now.
Thanks for keeping your channel lively. I look forward to seeing more videos and if I think of anything else I'll put it here.
Oh man, I played the heck out of this back in the day
My kids want to play it all the time now
An all time favourite for me that still comes out today.
it's so easy to pick up
hello can you tell me the difference between the brown books and the black power house editions ?
I have the whole collection, even Balloon Buster. Great game.
I remember this fondly
My kids are really into it now
This is simply amazing. Old-school game design had a certain way of getting into the weeds that feels mind-boggling and cozy at the same time.
BTW the link to the breakdown seems to be broken.
A True Classic by Nova Games. There are multiple variants, not least the Drachen (blimp) version.
I think I've seen that one!
😱< "Dad eyes on the road!"
😎< "Sorry kids I'm in a dogfight..."
😂
these books are soo cool
I'm trying to track down other books in the same genre
This is a very strange Ace Combat prequel. I like it.
I still have two sets back from the 80s
Wow!
I have one of the first printings!
I didn’t realize anyone even knew about this!
If you have the original, has it gains in value?
I think they go for around $100 on eBay
@@QuestingBeast if i remember, I paid around $15-18.
Wow, this is amazing wish I could snag a copy. 😅
Subscribed to Newsletter!
@@lukeerikdavis Thanks!
I have the Star Wars version of this game. One of my most prized posessions. :D
I had that way back in the day.
Theres a new Kickstarter with ace of aces right now
Darn, I was hoping for another viral blast-off. Great video regardless, Ben.
The ways of the algorithm are inscrutable
Many a lunch hour in jr. high was spent with these books.
Great old Game !
Nice
It's really fun
The way this crosses over with comics tho
Yeah I can see that
This is freakin cool
It's amazing that someone figured it out
An awesome game.
Someone should adapt this for drafon to dragon combat
It was already done! There's a version of this that was based on The Dragon Riders of Pern.
Yeah the Pern one looks cool but really hard to find.
Oh god no - during a car trip? You’ll get so motion sick 🤢