Ace of Aces
Ace of Aces — frequently asked questions
- What platforms is Ace of Aces on?
- Ace of Aces was released on Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, Commodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum, DOS, Amstrad CPC, Sega Master System/Mark III, MSX.
- When did Ace of Aces release?
- Ace of Aces was first released on December 31, 1986.
About Ace of Aces
Ace of Aces is a combat flight simulator developed by Artech Digital Entertainment in 1986. The game takes place during World War II and the player flies a RAF Mosquito long range fighter-bomber equipped with rockets, bombs and a cannon. Missions include destroying German fighter planes, bombers, V-1 flying bombs, U-boats, and trains.
Summary via IGDB.
Ace of Aces on Wikipedia
Ace of Aces is a combat flight simulation game developed by Artech Digital Entertainment and published in 1986 by Accolade in North America and U.S. Gold in Europe. It was released for the Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 7800, Commodore 64, MSX, MS-DOS, Master System, and ZX Spectrum. Set in World War II, the player flies an RAF Mosquito long range fighter-bomber equipped with rockets, bombs and a cannon. Missions include destroying German fighter planes, bombers, V-1 flying bombs, U-boats, and trains. In 1988, Atari Corporation released a version on cartridge for Atari 8-bit computers styled for the then-new Atari XEGS.
Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).
Game details
- Platforms
- Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, Commodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum, DOS, Amstrad CPC, Sega Master System/Mark III, MSX
- Developer
- Artech Studios
- Publisher
- Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
- Game modes
- Single player
- Themes
- Action, Warfare
Details via IGDB.
Reception
Every version compared
Prices, contemporary reception and the studio credited for each release
| Platform | Year | Loose | Complete | Sealed | Period reviews | Fake risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atari 7800Details ↓ | 1989 | $19 | $25 | $30 | — | Low (look-alike) |
| Sega Master SystemDetails ↓ | 1991 | $9 | $20 | — | 11 reviews | Low (look-alike) |
The cheapest way to own it loose is the Sega Master System version ($9).
Release timeline
- Commodore C64/128/MAX1986
- MSX1986
- Amstrad CPC1986
- DOS1987
- Atari 8-bit1987
- ZX Spectrum1987
- Atari 78001988
- Sega Master System/Mark III1991
First release on each platform, from IGDB’s records of this game’s ports and editions. Remakes are separate games with their own pages, so they are not listed here.
We haven’t priced or authenticated the versions without a section on this page yet.
Prices are per version and are not interchangeable, and neither are the reviews: conversions in this era were often built by a different studio than the original, so a score earned on one machine says nothing about how another plays.
Collector value & authenticity
Atari 7800 · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-19
How often it sells
- Loose: about once a week
- Complete: about once a month
- Sealed: about once a month
Sales frequency from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, as of 2026-10-19.
Price over time
- Loose
- Complete
A loose copy sold for about $2.99 in Jan 2010, $11.50 five years ago, and $19.45 as of Oct 2026.
Show as table
| Month | Loose | Complete |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2010 | $2.99 | — |
| Jan 2011 | $8.95 | — |
| Jan 2012 | $5.25 | — |
| Jan 2013 | $6.99 | — |
| Jan 2014 | $9.95 | $12.00 |
| Jan 2015 | $7.59 | $10.99 |
| Jan 2016 | $5.99 | $3.99 |
| Jan 2017 | $8.50 | $6.99 |
| Jan 2018 | $7.89 | $11.74 |
| Jan 2019 | $10.90 | $12.31 |
| Jan 2020 | $13.86 | $17.02 |
| Jan 2021 | $12.98 | $16.74 |
| Jan 2022 | $10.00 | $19.95 |
| Jan 2023 | $10.75 | $25 |
| Jan 2024 | $19.99 | $28 |
| Jan 2025 | $18.95 | $29 |
| Jan 2026 | $16.71 | $27 |
| Oct 2026 | $19.45 | $25 |
Monthly price estimates from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, sampled quarterly, through Oct 2026.
Documented sales
11,650 US copies invoiced by Atari in 1989
By year: 1989 11,864, less 214 returned in 1990. Ranked 27 of the 39 Atari 7800 cartridges in Atari's internal reports. These count cartridges shipped to US stores, less returns, not copies sold to players.
Source: Atari Corporation's internal 7800 software sales reports (1986–1990)
Release record
| Territory | Label | Catalog # | MSRP | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America Atari | Color | CX7846 | $29.99 | Common+ |
- North America: Price new: Atari's own catalogue (Atari Explorer, Jan–Feb 1991), list price.
Source: Catalog numbers, label types, rarity, controllers and player counts: AtariAge 7800 software database
- Region
- NA+EU
- Released
- 1989
- Controller
- Pro-Line Joystick, Right fire button also pauses
- Players
- 1
- Authenticity
- Low
The Atari 7800 version
A World War II flight game that suits the 7800 well enough to be called the best flight simulator on the system, which says more about the shelf than the game.
Ace of Aces began as a 1986 computer game from Accolade, and Atari Corporation put it on the 7800 in 1989 with Nova Game Design credited as developer. The 7800 cartridge uses the standard Pro-Line joystick and is a one-player game.
You fly an RAF Mosquito on bombing, rocket and cannon missions against fighters, bombers, flying bombs, U-boats and trains. A retrospective at Atari 7800 Forever gave the 7800 version a middling score but still ranked it the best flight simulator in the library, a fair summary of a platform that had very few of them.
Worth knowing
- From the 7800 manual. Original license from Artech Digital Productions; copyright Accolade (1986, 1987).
Before you buy
Low risk. It has the standard Atari Corporation color label and plays with the Pro-Line joystick, one player. Atari also sold an XE Game System cartridge of the same game, so check the label and the CX 7846 number to be sure you have the 7800 cartridge. The cartridge is common enough that condition matters more than hunting, and the box and manual carry much of a complete copy's value.
Collector value & authenticity
Sega Master System · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-28
How often it sells
- Loose: about 5 times a year
- Complete: about once a month
- Sealed: about once a year
Sales frequency from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, as of 2026-10-28.
Price over time
- Loose
- Complete
A loose copy sold for about $15.51 in Oct 2010, $13.95 five years ago, and $9.01 as of Oct 2026.
Show as table
| Month | Loose | Complete |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2011 | $9.99 | — |
| Jan 2012 | $10.95 | — |
| Jan 2013 | $10.95 | — |
| Jan 2014 | $10.95 | — |
| Jan 2015 | $20 | — |
| Jan 2016 | — | — |
| Jan 2017 | $17.99 | $40 |
| Jan 2018 | $10.19 | $15.16 |
| Jan 2019 | $10.11 | $13.84 |
| Jan 2020 | $9.09 | $11.99 |
| Jan 2021 | $8.36 | $15.52 |
| Jan 2022 | $9.88 | $17.60 |
| Jan 2023 | $12.61 | $16.06 |
| Jan 2024 | $9.18 | $20 |
| Jan 2025 | $10.37 | $14.17 |
| Jan 2026 | $9.02 | $17.39 |
| Oct 2026 | $9.01 | $19.56 |
Monthly price estimates from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, sampled quarterly, through Oct 2026.
Release record
| Territory | Date |
|---|---|
| Europe / PAL | 1991 |
- Region
- EU
- Released
- 1991
- Authenticity
- Low
The Sega Master System version
A flight game that the Master System press went out of its way to dislike, and a very cheap European cart.
On the Master System, Ace of Aces is a European release from 1991, developed by Tiertex and published by Sega. The game began on home computers in the 1980s, and the Master System port did not earn the praise that its computer predecessors had won for graphics and sound.
Mean Machines Sega was scathing. It called out poor, fuzzy graphics, weak sound and slow gameplay, and one of its reviewers described the result as a sad, shambling parody of a flight simulator. The magazine later listed it among the worst games it had reviewed.
How it was made
The Master System version is credited to Tiertex as developer, with Sega as publisher.
What the press said at the time
| Mean Machines Games Guide | May 1992 | OVERALL 29% |
| Mean Machines Sega Issue 3 | December 1992 | OVERALL 29% |
| Sega Pro Issue 20 | June 1993 | 55% |
| Sega Pro Issue 21 | July 1993 | 55% |
| Sega Pro Issue 22 | August 1993 | 55% |
| Sega Pro Issue 23 | September 1993 | 55% |
| Sega Pro Issue 24 | October 1993 | 55% |
| Sega Pro Issue 25 | November 1993 | 55% |
| Sega Pro Issue 26 | December 1993 | 55% |
| Sega Pro Issue 34 | July 1994 | 55% |
| Sega Pro Issue 37 | October 1994 | 55% |
“Take on the Red Baron in this WW1 - based flight sim/shoot em up. Actually, you'd better not, because shambling graphics, poor sound and virtually zero playability make Ace of Aces a full-blown loser.”
“Take on the Red Baron in this WW1-based flight sim/shoot 'em up. Actually, you'd better not, because shambling graphics, poor sound and virtu¬ ally zero playability make Ace of Aces a full-blown loser. Oh dear.”
“MS fiight sims háve never been compiex and this isn’t breaking any new ground. Average opening statics, but in-game graphics are pretty dreadful.”
“MS flight sims háve never been complex and this isn’t breaking any new ground. Average opening statics, but in-game graphics are pretty dreadful.”
Also on other platforms
Commodore 64 · Amstrad CPC · ZX Spectrum · MSX · Atari 8-bit · Atari 7800 · MS-DOS
- Commodore 64. A 1987 Compute! article named it Accolade's second best-selling Commodore 64 game.
- Atari 8-bit. In 1988 Atari Corporation released a cartridge version for Atari 8-bit computers, styled for the then-new Atari XEGS.
Before you buy
This is the European cartridge, so it is a game for European buyers. It is inexpensive, sitting below the middle of the European carts, and the look-alike risk is low, so there is no reason to pay a premium or fuss over the board. If you want a complete copy, confirm the manual is there, since it is the part most often missing.
Ace of Aces screenshots
Watch on YouTube
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