T.O.R.E Fighters: I'm rebuilding Jane's Fighters Anthology in Rust so I can fly it with my sons someday. Free, BYO disc, multiplayer coming soon
Jane's Combat Simulations (specifically USNF '97 and ATF, which were both bundled into Fighters Anthology) were the sims that got me into all of this. With a son turning 2 and another on the way, I wanted something I could play with them when they're a bit older.
T.O.R.E Fighters (Tasteful, Opinionated, Reverse Engineered) is a ground-up rebuild of Jane's Fighters Anthology in Rust. It's not a decompile and it's not a 100% faithful recreation. The goal is that it feels like FA, then I make opinionated calls where modern hardware and modern expectations earn it. Every addition is labeled so you know what's original and what's mine.
The inspiration came from the Red Alert 2 open source rebuilds, the GoldenEye and Perfect Dark ports to modern hardware, and Omarchy's "tasteful and opinionated" attitude. Old games deserve to keep running, and to get a little better while they're at it.
What's in it today:
- Extended Quick Mission creator: up to 6 wings and 29 AI aircraft over all 16 original theaters
- 13 flyable aircraft: F/A-18D, F-14D, A-4E, X-31, Rafale C, MiG-29, Su-27, MiG-21, Su-25, MiG-23, Su-35, F-22A, and F-22N
- A much smarter AI: each jet flies its own flight model through pilot inputs, with its own sensors, fuel, and weapons. They notch, defend, follow wing orders, land in turn, and fly home damaged
- Full HOTAS, gamepad, and opentrack/TrackIR head tracking, with a remap screen
- A flight recorder: every sortie records itself, plays back from any aircraft, and exports to Tacview
- Weight-based stall speeds, overspeed failure, chaff and flares, original explosions, craters, radio chatter, and the original music rules
- 120 Hz fixed sim, MSAA, render scale
- Native builds for Windows, macOS, and Linux
It also looks and feels better than the original, without losing the original's character:
- Realistic aircraft scale
- Terrain shadows, extended LOD, and smoother LOD transitions
- Contrails, and smoke that drifts with the wind
- Flares and afterburners cast light on the aircraft, terrain, water, and clouds, and flares keep burning after they hit the ground
Coming next is multiplayer. It builds on the Quick Mission creator already in the game: the host sets up the mission, humans take open wing slots, and AI fills the rest. You'll be able to connect by direct IP, or find games through a lobby browser backed by a master server.
Bring your own copy. No retail game data ships with it. Point it at your installed game or disc 1, it imports once, and you're at the original Choose Activity menu. If your disc is in your mom's attic two states away, or in the back of that storage unit, it's worth the trip. T.O.R.E itself is free and GPL-3.0.
It's early and it's a pre-release, so expect rough edges. If you flew the original, I'd love to hear whether it feels right.
Repo and downloads: https://github.com/john-overton/T.O.R.E-Fighters
Site: https://john-overton.github.io/T.O.R.E-Fighters/
Check six.