Their Finest Hour

Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain is a World War II combat flight simulation game by Lawrence Holland, released in October 1989 for the Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS systems. It was the second game in the trilogy of World War II titles by Lucasfilm Games, the others being Battlehawks 1942 (1988) and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (1991). The game was released with a 192-page manual written by Victor Cross, that provided a detailed historical overview of the battle and pilots' perspectives. An expansion pack, Their Finest Missions: Volume One, was released in 1989. Gameplay Their Finest Hour is a simulation of the Royal Air Force and German Luftwaffe aircraft during the Battle of Britain from July to September 1940. It offers eight flyable aircraft, two RAF (Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane) and six Luftwaffe (Messerschmitt Bf 109 E, Messerschmitt Bf 110 C-4 "Zerstörer", Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, Dornier 17 z-2, Heinkel He 111 H-3, Junkers Ju 88 A-1). The game pioneered gameplay elements featured in later Lucasfilm releases, such as a mission builder and combat film recorder, the ability to man all the crew positions in a bomber, and a Campaign mode where the historical outcome is decided by the success or failure of the missions flown by the player. Reception Their Finest Hour received 5 out of 5 stars from Dragon. STart described it as "a great sequel" to Battlehawks 1942. Stating that "Flying 'Finest Hour' is pure pleasure", the magazine concluded that "for the aviation buff, it's a 'must have.'"