Airport 2000
By Martin Parker (9 November 1998)
ust
put the CD in. It will auto-run and answer the usual questions.
Later, it recommends installing the Converter and MS patch. (I would
install it, as the game does not recognize earlier installed versions
of the Converter or patch).
If I were Merlin and said, "You give me $40-50 and I will supply
those things that you asked for" I'm sure that you would. Well my
name's Martin not Merlin, but I can give you the answer--it's called
Airport 2000 by Wilco Publishing (the people who
brought us the
Tahiti add on). Airport 2000 does for FS98 what
Richard Branson does to British Airways - It kicks ass.
It gives us seven new aircraft and panels. The aircraft are the
A320, A340, ATR 42, Boeing 737, 777, DC-10 and MD83. The panels are by
far the best panels that I have ever seen, either freeware or
purchased. All of the buttons work (although, if you run it in
anything less than 800 x 600 you may not see what the buttons are as
there are that many of them). Even my new wife said that they look
pretty darned good. From a hand glider pilot's point of view, that's
a pretty good compliment.
There are seven new airports and several adventures between them as well
as the new aircraft. The airports are nothing like you ever seen. The
only thing that wasn't there was a bar and a men's room. The
detailing is simply superb, even down to runway holding markers.
The adventures are something else. You are given a copilot who will assist you throughout the flight by telling you when you haven't done something or something is wrong. You have a fully interactive ATC and internal announcements. (Microsoft, take note).
The documentation that comes with the game HAS TO BE READ. It
contains all airport and approach charts that you need. I am unable
to comment as to whether the ILS frequencies are accurate as the copy
of the manual that I have is photocopied.
I had a couple of small quirks during the game, (primarily because I
didn't read the manual properly), but Wilco responded quickly to my
email and they've been sorted out. There are no patches as so far
there are no faults. However the most annoying thing that I could
find is that whenever you create a flight you will only see sky out
of the window. By pressing 'shift + enter' it lowers your view to the
correct angle. (Hopefully Wilco will correct this or maybe it's
supposed to be like this).
I would like to have seen a wider variety of aircraft so that the add-on will appeal to new pilots as well as old. If you can't land a Cessna then you can't land a 777. Why not include a Piper Seneca, Beechcraft 1900 or something smaller and less daunting?
If you're on a limited budget make sure you don't waste your money on anything else. The best thing about this product is that this is volume 1. Which, of course, leaves the door open for more aircraft, airports and adventures. Only next time lets hope that they alter the sound and give a wider variety of aircraft.
Martin Parker
Mart1969@aol.com
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