Kennedy Approach

Kennedy Approach is an air traffic controller computer game released in 1986 by MicroProse. The title derives from the name of Kennedy Airport.

The player assumes the role of an air traffic controller air traffic control and aircraft are instructions so that they can safely land and take off and take their proper flight corridors. The objective of the game is to complete all flights in the area of ​​own airport, without that they are late or drive the wrong place or land there. The aircraft appear on the screen and have predefined destinations or points of disembarkation or are located on the airport to start in corresponding directions. It is the player's task to decide which aircraft while flying and when one takes off or lands.

Aircraft may not come too close together, so the player must make sure that they happen at different altitudes or with sufficient distance ( three grid points north / south or east / west). When a plane crash is imminent or is in the wrong direction or on the wrong altitude, the air traffic controller will be informed. Aircraft never change their course or the height of the player without instruction. Incoming aircraft that do not receive permission to land, go into a holding pattern, waiting for the release to land.

At the beginning only a few flights must be handled at the same time, require higher levels many flights simultaneous management. In addition, storm fronts are emerging that can not pass the aircraft and some aircraft have only very little fuel, so they have to land quickly in order not to crash.

Game environments

There are five air spaces in the game:

• Atlanta
• Dallas / Fort Worth - This card contains the error that Love Field northeast of the Dallas -Fort Worth International Airport is located, but actually located to the southeast.
• Denver - including the Rocky Mountains in the west, can fly over the aircraft only with minimum height.
• Washington, D.C. - Including the no-fly zone over the U.S. Capitol.
• New York City

Three aircraft types appear in the game:

• Cessna - called "November" flights, with respect to the aircraft registration numbers, which all start in the U.S. with "N".
• Boeing 747 - moves twice as fast as a Cessna.
• Concorde - moves twice as fast as a 747

Four airlines are present in the game:

• American Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• United Airlines
• Air France - operates the Concorde

In the Atari and C64 versions conversation between air traffic controller and aircraft through speakers takes place. Although this takes place very ritualized and formal, the instructions are clear and the synthetic speech was an impressive novelty for home computers with less than 64 kilobytes of free memory.