Battlehawks 1942

Battlehawks 1942 was the first of a World War II trilogy that Lucasfilm Games released, the other two being "Their Finest Hour" (1989) and "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe" (1991).

The manual for Battlehawks 1942 included a 100 page illustrated overview of the Pacific war.

Introducing a flight simulation game without joystick support for the homecomputers (in the 80s dominating the market) was a somewhat strange, disputed decision made by Lucasfilm in 1988. Air combat manoeuvers such as the Split-S or the Immelmann turn, explained in detail within the Battlehawks 1942 manual, could not be correct performed on homecomputers without a joystick, using only keys or mouse (on the other hand the mouse was a more accurate device for the reargunner's place in the bombers).