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Until this game was released, the only flight sims available involved light aircraft and painfully slow, simple graphics. The thrill of flying was certain not something that the Spectrum appeared to excel at. Then Digital Integration, a company who create military flight simulators, decided to turn their hand to the new home computer market. Their first effort was Fighter Pilot, based on the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. The landscape is virtually featureless and there are no fancy missiles to fire off, but the dogfighting is fast and furious and there is some tricky taking-off and landing to get the hang of. Although it looks somewhat basic compared to later games, it was a first on the Spectrum and one of the most technically realistic flying experiences available for years.z

Written by Digital’s co-owner Dave Marshall, himself a fighter pilot, this sophisticated program was the main attention grabber at the ZX Microfair where it has first launched in February [1983]. Much was due to the fact that before Fighter Pilot flight simulations always seemed a bit slow, this was the first to offer arcade games something to get their teeth into.