Fleet Command Bombs Baghdad

Until video is released by the US government, at least one major news organization has gone to a computer game maker for "footage" of recent air strikes against Iraq - with positive results for all concerned.

Beginning Wednesday, NBC-TV has been using the capabilities of Jane's Fleet Command, an upcoming title from Electronic Arts' Jane's Combat Simulations division, to illustrate bombing campaigns waged from US battleships and aircraft on Iraq ground locations. A production team from Jane's utilized in-game graphics from both F-15 and the unreleased Fleet Command games to visualize the current situation in Iraq with 3D models of ships and aircraft - as well as detailed looks at the terrain from a bird's-eye perspective. The result has been beneficial to both the general public, who lacks any official footage of such attacks, and Jane's, who in the words of Jane's senior publicist Kristen McEntire, has now benefited from "huge exposure" for a game that isn't scheduled to ship until spring of next year.

As it turns out, McEntire came up with the idea of utilizing gameplay to illustrate likely battles several months ago. About six weeks ago, when there was much talk of air strikes on Iraq, McEntire and the game's Connecticut-based developers went into action and began generating tape to be used by NBC. Those strikes were called off, but for Jane's, it meant further preparations could take place. Just last weekend, a tape with four to six hours of Iraq-specific footage was delivered to the NBC affiliate in Hartford, Conn., where it was uploaded to the NBC satellite and transferred to NBC production facilities in New York. When the bombing raid was announced by President Clinton on Wednesday, all the pieces were in place. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Jane's-generated film clips have appeared numerous times on various NBC national feeds and will continue for as long as NBC producers deem them useful.