Errol Flynn sailing the Caribbean with a band of buccaneers. Facing Basil Rathbone in a fencing duel to free Olivia de Havilland from the clutches of this rival pirate. Battling two warships at once. Then, employed by the English, overthrowing the French garrison of Port Royal. The inspiration for a certain ultra-famous game going by the name of Pirates! Which makes it into the grand adventure of a heroic individual. Nobody, on the other hand, made a movie about the "adventures" of Lionel Atwill as the colony's original governor in the movie. A week in the life of the head of local administration? Though that is exactly what some German game developers tried here.
With the advent of new technologies comes a time of innovation, a time when pioneers set out to explore the potential of the latest inventions. Red Baron is remarkable in this concern because it is not only about the early days of a new kind of warfare, but because it was in itself one of the first dedicated combat flight simulators for home computers set in this era. And so it helped to lay down the basics of the genre just like the historical biplanes in it did for the aerial combat. A very fitting combination so to speak which gives the game a timeless appeal: Entering this world of rough 3D graphics and simplistic flight models seems to have a lot in common with taking off in one of those fragile flying machines of WWI. But let us take a look at how exactly this works to the game’s (dis)advantage and what else makes it a classic.