I just remembered that when I was a kid (about 16 years ago it must have been) I had an opportunity to play what struck me at the time as a really neat game.
It consisted in two books. You hold one book, your opponent holds the other. You do not look inside each others’ books. Each book consists in page after page of views from the inside of a biplane cockpit. Under each picture of such a view, there is a series of symbols standing for different manouvers, and next to each symbol is a number. You choose a manouver, and report the number next to it. Your opponent does the same. Somehow, you use the two numbers to come up with a page number corresponding to the picture you should turn to next. The picture you turn to represents the view you have after both planes have executed the chosen manouvers. Also, there are indications as to whether someone has been hit, and a score is kept according to how many times each plane has been hit.
Ringing a bell with anyone? I’d like to find out more about this thing. What was its name? Was it popular, at least with maybe wargamers? Were there other similar games on themes other than airplanes dogfighting? And so on…
And a similar game called “Lost Worlds”, using fantasy characters. I’ve still got most of mine although my “Great Cold Drake” and “Giant Goblin” both went missing years ago.
That was a great game. I loved the illustrated views out of the cockpit.
I remember that there were a variety of book pairs for different aircraft – the classic biplanes, WWII fighters, jet fighters, etc. The best part was that you could fight any of the planes against the other at even par, because the moves and choices were all essentially the same. It was great beating the F-14 with the Sopwith Camel.
As mentioned there were several versions of Ace of Aces. I still have one set somewhere in my house. I suspect next to my Space Opera and Traveler books.