A-10 Cuba! by Activision Review

Download

A-10 Cuba can still be bought from Amazon for $10, thus it’s not abandonware. You can download the demo version from Download.com. I am so happy to announce that I have found a working version of the full A-10 Cuba game you can download for free. Download A-10 Cuba!. Enter:
Username: gamegoldies
Password: gamegoldies
in the login form on the right. Please send us feedback if this is not working for you. Enjoy!

Overview

This Activision spot from 1996 shows off the flight sim A-10 Cuba.

The good news is, if the aliens ever really attack like they did in Independence Day, there will be a whole bunch of old computer gamers with the requisite flying skills to pilot the mothership-destroying F-16s. The bad news is, they will have these skills only because they have been forced to acquire them to get any enjoyment out of the ever-more-realistic flight combat sims on the market today.

Now maybe you’re the type who really honest-to-God wants to know what it’s like to fly an A-10 Warthog and don’t want to bother with joining the Air Force, going through all the haircuts, funny hazing pranks, etc. If so, go to your nearest computer software retailer posthaste and pick up a copy of A-10 Cuba! you will not be disappointed.

If, on the other hand, you’re like me and you don’t want to repeatedly get killed because you forget to put your flaps up, or because you didn’t quite make a four-point landing, even though you managed to kill 4 enemy planes, then you’ll find A-10 Cuba! a lot on the technical side. Remember: it is billed as an "ultra-realistic flight simulation."

A-10 Cuba Screenshot 1Speaking of technical, the biggest hurdle to getting the hang of A-10 was just getting it installed. It seems that several thousand copies of this game went out with incorrect CD keys printed on the label (why use a CD key for a $29.99 game in the first place, Activision?) … if you are foolhardy enough to install the game with said incorrect CD key, you get to learn a lot more about the Windows 95 registry than you ever wanted to en route to getting your computer to accept a correct CD key. Fortunately, Activision has released a patch (196 KB) that fixes most of the installation headaches.

System Requirements

486 DX2-66 or better, Windows 95, 8 MB RAM, CD-ROM drive, 40 MB hard disk space, 256 color SVGA video card with 1 MB RAM, SoundBlaster or 100% compatible, mouse. Joystick or flight yoke highly recommended

Recommendation

A10 Cuba Screenshot 2At this point you’re probably thinking that I hated this game in fact, I didn’t hate it; it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I think that with a few hundred hours of flight practice, I might like it quite a bit. I’m not sure it’s an old game per se, or should be sold as such, but it’s a strong entry into the flight combat sim market and carries a very friendly price. The graphics are pretty sparse (compared to the likes of SU-27 Flanker or the Jane’s Combat line), but this is necessary to insure that a wide range of processors and video cards can keep flight smooth and battles engaging. There is a good range of missions available, and most are quite challenging.

On the usability side, I think there is much in this sim that should be set to toggle on or off at the user’s discretion (I refer to the no less than 83 keyboard commands one must remember in-flight to stay aloft and in one piece), but even without such features, it’s a good sim for the price. So my recommendation on this one runs like this: make sure you really want to learn how to fly if you’re going to buy this one. If you want to be an armchair Top Gun, this isn’t the package for you. If you’re in doubt and have some free time on your hands, grab the almost 8 MB demo and see for yourself.

This entry was posted in Flight

14 Comments

  1. seb
    Posted November 18, 2007 at 11:59 am | Permalink

    thx mate for the game :)

  2. Ste
    Posted December 20, 2007 at 7:12 pm | Permalink

    Link is down. Any ideas Guys???

    Cheers
    Steve

  3. Cabelo
    Posted January 4, 2008 at 2:00 am | Permalink

    The link isn’t working.
    I’m desperate looking for this game

  4. k.k.
    Posted April 30, 2008 at 9:57 pm | Permalink

    its asks for a serial code when i want to open it. WTH

  5. ben
    Posted July 23, 2008 at 3:44 am | Permalink

    Is there an upgrade tor A-10 Cuba to work in XP

  6. ben
    Posted July 23, 2008 at 3:54 am | Permalink

    Does any body know how to install this game on a Computer with Windows XP, without interupting the main registry of the PC.

  7. isaac
    Posted July 24, 2008 at 4:20 pm | Permalink

    thanks for the game its awesome

  8. wapu
    Posted September 7, 2008 at 3:13 am | Permalink
  9. Jockey
    Posted October 27, 2008 at 12:33 am | Permalink

    I have this game still in original case, you want it?, no cost.

  10. Jason
    Posted November 26, 2008 at 5:42 pm | Permalink

    This game is great. I cannot get it to work with my joystick though. I have a Sidewinder Precision 2 with the most up to date drivers etc. Any suggetions?

  11. Den
    Posted December 6, 2008 at 5:24 am | Permalink

    To make it work with XP go to the a-10 .exe file properties (right mouse button) -> compatibility -> run with windows 95 compatibility

    Sorry for bad english.

    Very good sim, i think the best physics even for this time. Played it in 1997 and now lost the original CD, want to find full version. If u know where 2 get it, pls help…. Thx….

  12. anonymous
    Posted January 14, 2009 at 3:42 pm | Permalink

    How to make work A-10 Cuba for XP:
    first run the compatibility for old programs to work with windows XP(Im mexican so I dont know how its called in english)
    then u select the installer and put compatibility for windows 98,and in 256 colors and run and install it.
    A-10 cuba already installed and right click and properties,then go to compatybility and activate make this program capable for : and change it to windows 98 and accept or whatever then close and then it will work
    I hope I helped XD

  13. Mr Bob
    Posted August 1, 2009 at 12:29 pm | Permalink

    dam!! I love my A10 CUBA game no matter ho old it is but it wont play on windows xp with sp2 any one know why or how to over come this?/ it just keeps shutting down and trys to send error report help

  14. tina
    Posted October 2, 2009 at 10:16 am | Permalink

    this game looks cool

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