ATC Simulator
By Adam Stanger (1 May 2001)
Sound tempting? It did to me, and that's why I asked Nels to try to
track down a review copy. I had been reading forums and message
boards, and I can't say that I heard good things. People were upset
by a few features...and a lack of a few features, but I didn't think
they were giving it a fair chance. I was thoroughly impressed with
the program! Sure it has bugs, but considering the complexity of ATC,
I think those are to be expected. And as sure as there are bugs,
there are features of amazing realism!
When you start it up, a computerized voice welcomes you to the
program, and you get to choose your TRACON to control and the time of
day. The computer supplies you with the amount of arriving and
departing aircraft (kind of like a "level" setting), so you can
choose how heavy your shift is. After you've selected all your
features and started up the game, you'll be staring at a dead screen.
Don't forget to turn on the power switch (left screen), or you won't
be controlling anything! Immediately there are aircraft waiting to be
handed off to you from either Center or Tower (depending on whether
you work Approach, Departure, or both). Double click and start giving
out orders. Whatever you do, don't let them get close together (you
won't be able to read the call signs, so all you can do is wait.)
Once the aircraft are at the edge of your airspace, or about 6 nm out
from the airport, you can hand them off to Center or Tower,
respectively, and your job is done. That may sound easy, but trust
me, it isn't! Though I have yet to lose a plane, I've had them get a
little too close many times (although a few I blame on Center, *wink,
wink*).
All communications with the aircraft can either be done via keyboard, using a set of preprogrammed buttons, or with voice using Microsoft's Speech API. I personally did not have much success using the voice application, so I decided to write the review using text. The Speech program is still in its infancy, and will improve with time.
There are many TRACONs to choose from, and each screen extends for 60 nm from the airport in the middle. But be advised, the main airport is not the only destination or departure you will deal with. There are many GA aircraft going to secondary airports, which does get somewhat annoying, especially during a heavy shift.
As I mentioned earlier, the amount of traffic is synonymous with
difficulty, but that isn't the only setting you can choose from. You
can control in calm winds, or a hurricane. You can adjust the
brightness of the display and text all around the screen. You can
also choose to use the sweep mode, which I find somewhat annoying.
In the initial version of the game, you could only do VFR approaches. A patch has now fixed this oversight. PCAviator has also released patches for many other less obvious problems.
Likes:
