Sierra Games

Aces of the Pacific: WWII: 1946

Last updated: October 9, 2026

Overview

WWII: 1946 is an expansion disk for Aces of the Pacific, developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line for MS-DOS in late 1992.123 Sierra’s own magazine called it “the first expansion disk for Aces of the Pacific”.4 It asks what would have happened if the atomic bomb had never been used and the United States had been forced to invade Japan. To fly that war, it adds seven aircraft that were still prototypes or barely in service in 1945, including the first American and Japanese jet fighters.45 Aces of the Pacific is required to play it.56

Damon Slye is credited as designer and director.52 The add-on was sold as part of Dynamix’s “Great War Planes” line, which Sierra advertised alongside the Red Baron Mission Builder expansion.76

Computer Gaming World’s Doug Fick enjoyed flying the new machines but wished the disk had more in it. He judged it “a nice add-on for devoted Aces fans, but … not essential to enjoying a game that is already very good”.58

Story Summary

The manual opens by acknowledging that the atomic bombings “remain a source of unending controversy”. It then sets out two parallel histories. “WWII: 1945 — As It Happened” covers the real end of the war, and “WWII: 1946 — What If” is what the manual calls “a historian’s fictional interpretation” written by “the Dynamix historical research staff”.9

Bob Lindstrom’s article in Sierra’s InterAction magazine sums up the team’s premise in three changes to history.4

  1. The Soviet Union stays out of the Pacific war.
  2. The atomic bomb project stalls, and its scientists begin to have moral doubts about their work.
  3. Japanese militarists regain control of the government and resolve to fight to the end.

In the manual’s version, the army and its allies murder Prime Minister Suzuki and his peace faction at the Imperial Palace on August 20, 1945. Admiral Onishi, the creator of the kamikaze corps, is installed as premier. President Truman, without a working bomb, approves Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu.94 The invasion of Kyushu goes badly. Lindstrom’s summary has Marine units on the western beaches thrown back into the sea. After that, Operation Coronet lands on either side of Tokyo Bay on March 20, 1946, later than planned.49 The war ends in January 1947, when Japan’s leaders sign a surrender aboard the USS Iowa.9

The manual gives American losses of 295,125 killed in action. In its version, Truman loses the 1948 Democratic primaries and Thomas Dewey wins the presidency.9 Wikipedia says the game itself calls the extended campaign Operation Coronet.8 A retail listing in Computer Gaming World described the disk as including “a fictional scenario of Operation Olympic”.10

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

WWII: 1946 adds content to Aces of the Pacific and does not change its controls or cockpit interface. Fick’s review describes it as adding aircraft, aces, a campaign and scenarios to the existing game, which “is required to play 1946”.5 Like the base game, it runs on Dynamix’s 3-Space engine.3

Structure and Progression

According to Fick’s review, the expansion adds:5

  • A new campaign: it starts in late 1945 and runs “until the hypothetical land invasion is resolved”.
  • Veteran pilots: pilots who retired at the end of an Aces of the Pacific career can be recalled for the new war.
  • Career missions: the mission types are the same as in Aces of the Pacific, with new dates, aircraft and aces.
  • New historical scenarios: several, written for the 1946 setting.
  • Single missions: all the new aircraft and aces can be flown in single-mission mode.

Puzzles and Mechanics

The expansion’s main draw is its aircraft. Sierra and Computer Gaming World list the same seven:451

AircraftSideNotes
Grumman F7F TigercatUnited StatesTwin-engine carrier fighter4
Grumman F8F BearcatUnited StatesInterAction called it and the Tigercat “two of the finest prop-driven planes ever built”6
Goodyear F2G-2 CorsairUnited StatesA “souped-up, 3,000 hp engine version of the Corsair”6
Lockheed P-80 Shooting StarUnited StatesEarly jet fighter5
Kyushu J7W ShindenJapanCanard design that, in Fick’s words, “seems to be flying backward”5
Mitsubishi Ki-83JapanTwin-engine fighter. Fick: “truly a killer”5
Nakajima KikkaJapanJet fighter that Fick compared to the German Me-2625

Fick found that the jets changed the style of combat. With top speeds nearly 100 miles an hour faster than piston aircraft, they suit “a more high speed style of hit and run”. He found the Kikka so slow in roll response that the only way to fight in it was to keep the speed up and slash through the enemy. At low speed, he wrote, “propellor driven aircraft once again reign supreme”.5 Sierra’s own advertising made the same point: “You’ll have to adapt to a considerably faster combat environment, where mastery of hit-and-run tactics separates active pilots from late, great ones.”6

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

PublicationDateVerdict
Computer Gaming World #104 (Doug Fick)March 1993Positive, but “not essential”58

Fick’s review, “A Flight Into the Hypothetical”, opened with the decision to end the war “with a nuclear punctuation point” and called the disk “the ultimate ‘What if?’”.5 He enjoyed flying the new aircraft, but compared it unfavorably with Red Baron Mission Builder, which had added “a very powerful mission builder that brought new life to the program”. Without one, he concluded, “the Aces add-on should be considered more of an aircraft expansion disk, like those for the LucasArts SWOTL system, than any sort of program addition”.5

Modern Assessment

Little retrospective criticism of the add-on was found. It does appear in the PC Research “Hits List of Top-Selling Software” for December 1992, reprinted in Computer Gaming World. Under MS-DOS games it is listed as “WWII 1946: Aces Mission Disk (Sierra On-Line)”, alongside Aces of the Pacific itself.11 MobyGames lists no critic score for it.1

Development

Origins

Sierra’s InterAction magazine previewed WWII: 1946 in its Summer 1992 issue with the question: “Have you ever wondered what would have happened if President Truman had decided against dropping the bomb?”12 By the Fall 1992 issue, Sierra’s “Coming up from Sierra and Dynamix” update reported the disk “about three-quarters” finished. The research, aircraft shapes and artwork were all done, and release was scheduled for early November.6 The Winter 1992 issue still listed it as “Scheduled for release in November”.4

Production

Lindstrom’s article describes how the team built the scenario. Slye and his team looked at the aircraft still in prototype in August 1945 and chose seven. They then “brainstormed for several weeks” on how the war might have gone after August 1945.4 The team’s historians used the official Marine Corps and Army histories to learn where and when the invasions were to take place and which units would take part. They also read speculative fiction about the invasion, notably the novel The Burning Mountain.4 The manual’s bibliography adds published histories, including Toshikazu Kase’s Journey to the Missouri and E. Bartlett Kerr’s Flames Over Tokyo.9

MobyGames credits list:2

  • Director: Damon Slye
  • Assistant Director: Christopher Shen
  • Programming: Christopher Reese, Lincoln Hutton, Ryan Hinke
  • Art Director: Mark Peasley
  • Artist: Jarrett Jester; 3D Graphic Artist: Damon Mitchell
  • Historical Research: John Bruning Sr.
  • Manual Writing: Barbara Ray, Christopher Shen; Editing: Bob Lindstrom, Barbara Ray
  • Quality Assurance Manager: Forrest Walker; Sim Line Manager: Lloyd Madden; Lead Tester: Tucker Hatfield

Version History

VersionDatePlatformNotes
Expansion diskLate 1992MS-DOSPublished by Sierra On-Line in the US. MobyGames also lists a German release distributed by Sierra On-Line Ltd.11113
Aces of the Pacific with WWII: 19461993MS-DOSBundle listed by The Sierra Chest14

Legacy

The expansion was later sold bundled with the base game as Aces of the Pacific with WWII: 1946.14 Wikipedia and the Dynamix fan wiki both describe the 1946 campaign as an alternate-history continuation available once the expansion is installed.815

The Dynamix team itself was proud of the alternate history. Lindstrom concluded that “Dynamix however, found it can be a rewarding activity and can often add insight into the real implications of authentic historical situations”.4 The manual’s introduction strikes a more sober note. It says its speculative version “joins the opinions of many historians in concluding that alternative resolutions to WWII may have held even more dire consequences than the historical reality”.9

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

  • Not currently available. As of October 2026 neither Aces of the Pacific nor this expansion is sold on GOG or Steam.

Download / Preservation

Manuals & Extras

See Also

WWII: 1946 is the expansion disk for Aces of the Pacific, the Aces game that preceded Aces Over Europe in SierraVault’s series order.43

References

Footnotes

  1. MobyGames – Aces of the Pacific: Expansion Disk – WWII: 1946 – developer Dynamix, publisher Sierra On-Line, DOS 1992 (US and German releases), description, aircraft list. Retrieved via the MobyGames API, 2026-10-09 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. MobyGames – WWII: 1946 page with credits (Wayback Machine, 2008) – full credit list ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. The Sierra Chest – Aces of the Pacific: WWII: 1946 – first release 1992, developer Dynamix, publisher Sierra On-Line, engine 3-Space, Aces series ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. InterAction Magazine, Winter 1992 (Sierra On-Line), Bob Lindstrom, “WWII: 1946 – How Dynamix Rewrote the Second World War”, and “Coming Up” update – Internet Archive – “first expansion disk”, scenario premises, aircraft selection, research method, alternate-history narrative, November release ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  5. Computer Gaming World #104 (March 1993), Doug Fick, “A Flight Into the Hypothetical With Dynamix’ Aces of the Pacific Expansion Disk”, p. 116 – Internet Archive – review: designer, seven aircraft, campaign structure, jet combat, verdict ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16

  6. InterAction Magazine, Fall 1992 (Sierra On-Line) – Internet Archive – “Coming up from Sierra and Dynamix” progress report (three-quarters finished, early November) and “What if – WWII: 1946?” advertisement (designed by Damon Slye, aircraft, hit-and-run combat, Aces required) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  7. Computer Gaming World #100 (November 1992), Dynamix “Great War Planes Series” advertisement – Internet Archive – WWII 1946 described as “an expansion disk that explores the new planes and missions of an alternate future” ↩

  8. Wikipedia – Aces of the Pacific – 1946 expansion campaign (Operation Coronet), Fick’s March 1993 review summary ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. Dynamix WWII: 1946 Expansion Disk manual – Internet Archive – introduction, “As It Happened” / “What If” structure, alternate-history events, casualty figures, bibliography ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  10. Computer Gaming World #103 (February 1993), mail-order retailer listing – Internet Archive – “Dynamix: Aces of the Pacific WWII:1946 … participate in a fictional scenario of Operation Olympic … (Add-on disk, requires Aces of the Pacific)” ↩

  11. Computer Gaming World #105 (April 1993), PC Research “Hits List of Top-Selling Software”, December 1992 – Internet Archive – “WWII 1946: Aces Mission Disk (Sierra On-Line)” in the MS-DOS chart ↩ ↩2

  12. InterAction Magazine, Summer 1992 (Sierra On-Line) – Internet Archive – first announcement of WWII 1946 ↩

  13. Internet Archive – Aces of the Pacific: WWII: 1946 (IBM PC floppy image) – preserved release ↩

  14. The Sierra Chest – Aces of the Pacific with WWII: 1946 – bundle, first release 1993, Dynamix, 3-Space ↩ ↩2

  15. Dynamix Fandom – Aces of the Pacific – base game context; 1946 Expansion Pack alternate timeline ↩

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