Why San Francisco, why 1994 — the world behind the sim
Hornet Bay is a tribute to the 1988 Amiga classic F/A-18 Interceptor, flown over San Francisco Bay with a 1994 Pacific air wing on the deck. Here is why that place and that year.
Two choices shape everything in Hornet Bay: the place and the year. Neither is an accident.
The place: the Bay
The 1988 Amiga game F/A-18 Interceptor (Intellisoft, published by Electronic Arts) put you over the San Francisco Bay Area — the Golden Gate, the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, with SFO, Oakland and Moffett Field to land at and a carrier anchored offshore. That compact, instantly readable map is the heart of the original, and the reason this site exists. It is a tribute rebuild, not a remake with a new setting: if the Bay is the stage, you always know where you are.
The year: 1994
Why 1994? Because it lets the deck be real. That summer the Pacific air wing was out on WestPac — Carrier Air Wing Fifteen, aboard USS Kitty Hawk, deployed in the Western Pacific from June to December. Its A-6E Intruders of VA-52 and S-3B Vikings of VS-37 are exactly the squadrons you will find working the Big E’s deck in the sim. They are parked on the wrong carrier entirely, as tradition allows. Hornet Bay is an alternate-history tribute: it is not affiliated with the Navy, any manufacturer, or the original game’s makers.
In the sim
- The map. Golden Gate strait, the SF peninsula, Alcatraz, the East Bay, plus SFO, Oakland, Moffett Field and NAS Alameda.
- The deck. USS Enterprise (CVN-65) runs an around-the-clock 1994 air wing: KNIGHT 501, SAWBUCK 700 and PROVIDER 30.
- The jets. Five flyable types, 8 flight-school sorties, a 19-mission campaign and free flight — the full roster is in the order of battle.
- The rule. A mission only counts as complete when you return to the point it started from. Landing elsewhere to rearm is fine; going home is what scores.
Built for computers, not phones: keyboard or mouse, a big screen, and the Big E waiting. Want the models on your shelf? Visit the print bay.
Try this: pick Free Flight from the menu, take off from Moffett or SFO, and fly the Golden Gate at dusk — then find the carrier by radar and trap aboard.
— HB