| Hellcats over the Pacific | |
|---|---|
 Original 1991 box cover | |
| Developer(s) | Parsoft Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Graphic Simulations |
| Designer(s) | Eric Parker |
| Platform(s) | Macintosh |
| Release | 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Flight simulator |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Hellcats over the Pacific is a combat flight simulation game for the Macintosh computer. It was written by Parsoft Interactive and released by Graphic Simulations in 1991. Hellcats was a major release for the Mac platform, one of the first 3D games to be able to drive a 640 x 480 x 8-bit display at reasonable frame rates in an era when the PC clone's VGA at 320 x 240 x 4-bit was the standard. The graphics engine was combined with a simple Mac interface, a set of randomized missions, and a number of technical features that greatly enhanced the game's playability and made it a lasting favorite into the mid-1990s. The original game was followed with a missions disk in 1992, Hellcats: Missions at Leyte Gulf, which greatly increased the visual detail and added many more objects to the game.
After the release of Leyte Gulf, ParSoft began work on another flight simulator for Graphics Simulations, based around the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The two companies parted ways during the initial development. ParSoft began work on a new networked flight simulator that would emerge years later as A-10 Attack! and followed by its own missions expansion, A-10 Cuba. Graphics Simulations continued work on the nascent F-18 simulator and released it as F-18 Hornet. They also licensed the basic flight engine to another group of programmers, who used it as the basis for early versions of the online game, WarBirds.
During its original run, Hellcats sold approximately 50,000 copies, making it a "megahit".[1]