How to play Sky Patrol online
- Burner higher / lower (climb or sink): up and down arrow keys
- Switch between the gauges and your score: left and right arrow keys
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Unlimited fuel: F4 toggles the Player 1 (left) difficulty switch; position B gives you unlimited fuel
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Your balloon starts on a launch pad in a field. Turning up the burner fills it with hot air and lifts it off; letting the air out brings it down. The red bar at the bottom of the screen shows the flame height and the green bar shows your fuel, which runs down as you burn. With no fuel left, the balloon can only hover just above the ground at the mercy of the wind. A blue bar is also shown but does not seem to do anything yet.
You cannot steer directly. Instead, the wind blows in a different direction and at a different speed at each of the nine cloud levels, so you change height to catch the current you want. Watch which way the clouds drift, and remember that the balloon reacts to the burner with a delay. As you drift, you score points for spotting tanks, anti-aircraft guns, factories, hangars and trees. At the end of the course a downed pilot waves next to his crashed biplane, which may have been meant as the final goal. In this prototype the enemies cannot shoot you yet.
The story behind Sky Patrol
The game was also known as Aerial Ace. Brad Stewart first designed it as a balloon race from one point to another in the shortest time. The idea later became more action-based: you pilot a First World War observation balloon and try not to be shot down by the German army. The label art showed biplanes attacking a dirigible. Enemy planes, dirigibles, rockets and possibly trains were planned, but work stopped before they were added, although parts of the dirigible graphics are in the code.
