Air Traffic Control

Air Traffic Control is a shareware, single player, simulation based on Chicago's Midway Airport.

Planes must be guided through the Chicago airspace, guided into a safe landing and successful take-offs. Aircraft are of two types, those which follow Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and those which follow Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and each type needs to be treated differently.

The centre of the screen represents the airport radar, around this are six coloured dialogue boxes, yellow for example contains the last incoming messages from each plane, the blue box has details if planes in a holding pattern and so-on. All on screen information is coded so

"57e:PTO co 330 rway 22R",

in the yellow box means

Flight 57E requests permission to take off, Course 330 degrees, Runway 22R".

When the game starts the player sets game parameters that govern the number of aircraft that can be expected and the frequency at which they will appear. Even though the game is played in 'compressed time' the manual reckons that a plane will take up to twenty minutes to process through to completion.

Points are scored for successful take-offs and landings and are lost for delays, near misses and more. The player's score is displayed as they exit, there is no high score table