Skyfox

Skyfox is a 1984 action computer game developed by Ray Tobey and published by Electronic Arts. Ariolasoft published the game in Europe. Originally developed for the Apple II, it was ported to the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and Macintosh in 1985 and to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1986. The game was produced by Stewart Bonn, and Richard Hilleman also supported Ray Tobey's work; both would later become high-ranking EA product development executives.

In this game, the player pilots the Skyfox, the most advanced attack fighter plane available to the fictional government, the Federation. The plane's armaments consist of radar guided missiles, deflection shields, laser cannons, heat-seeking missiles and a top speed of Mach 4. The gameplay consists of fighting tanks, enemy planes and the enemy motherships. The game has a total of 15 scenarios and 5 skill levels.

Featuring a view from the cockpit of the jet, this game is recognized as popularizing this view. The cockpit featured radar which showed incoming missiles and other threats. Flying above the clouds, the player fights hordes of enemy planes. Flying below them, the player is attacked by enemy tanks. Hailed upon its release, most criticisms of the game cited repetitive gameplay as the only drawback.

The game was followed by a sequel, Skyfox II: The Cygnus Conflict, set in space.

Tobey thought a player could get bored flying an advanced fighter plane, and might want to play a game. Consequently, he incorporated a Space Invaders game into Skyfox as a hidden Easter egg. Pressing Ctrl-G while flying activated the Space Invaders game.

Source: Wikipedia, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyfox," available under the CC-BY-SA License.