Hellcats Over the Pacific

Mac

Parsoft Interactive · Published by Graphic Simulations

Released December 31, 1991

Hellcats Over the Pacific is a flight simulator focusing on the Pacific Theater of World War 2. The player assumes the role of a Grumman F6F Hellcat pilot in both land and carrier-based missions using guns and bombs. Hellcats used a special algorithm that Eric Parker initially programmed on a Sun SPARCstation to speed up the display of graphics on the screen. Hellcats offered amazing 256 colors at a time when 16 colors were the norm and (for the time) insanely smooth and fluid animations. The game was a huge hit on the small Macintosh gaming market, selling more than 50,000 copies. It ranked for years in the "most popular games" sections of magazines like Inside Mac Games and won Macworld magazine's yearly award for the "Best Simulation Game".