What is the standout flight simulator of your lifetime?

[Skywatcher12]

Starting with FS 2004 I haven't experienced flight sims of the past. I just recently picked up FS2002 to have a play with.

What is the standout flight sim for you? The one that really got you most excited about flight simming for whatever reason? What sim was the best representation of the "glory days?"

[aputech]

SubLogic Flight simulator II (predecessor to the MSFS franchise), 1982, Commodore 64.

 

APUtech :o

[jgf]

Not counting combat oriented flight sims, I've only had FS98 and FS9. Can't say I considered either a "standout", but they were the only comprehensive sims in town. Around the time of FS98 there was another flight sim whose graphics made FS98 look a decade old; don't recall the name but it only had three or four aircraft and only a small area in which to fly (if memory serves me well that was around San Francisco), so I never tried it.

 

I once heard someone say of MSFS, "it's all about navigating, not flying". There is some truth in that.

[Elvensmith]

Lifetime platinum award goes to FS9.

 

Honourable mention has to go to Thalion's Airbus A320 on the Amiga which was one of the titles that first got me into PC gaming way back in 1992. It was basic as basic can be in terms of scenery but the immersion, for the time, was fantastic.

 

MilSim wise, very hard as there were so many in the day. Longbow 2 certainly the best helicopter sim with graphics optimized for 3DFX (it looked awful on the early Geforce cards that started coming out a year or two after release). Strike Commander was a good laugh, Tornado took longer to plan the missions than fly them then there were the varios Microprose and Janes titles. Surprisingly I never really gelled with Falcon 4.

 

Around the time of FS98 there was another flight sim whose graphics made FS98 look a decade old; don't recall the name but it only had three or four aircraft and only a small area in which to fly (if memory serves me well that was around San Francisco), so I never tried it.

 

Flight Unlimited 2?

[DominicS]

For me it was F19 Stealth Fighter by MicroProse!

 

I remember (as a young boy) staying up late at night, reliving my very own Cold War in my bedroom!

 

Happy days from a far simpler time:D

[Elvensmith]

For me it was F19 Stealth Fighter by MicroProse!

 

I remember (as a young boy) staying up late at night, reliving my very own Cold War in my bedroom!

 

Happy days from a far simpler time:D

 

That morphed into F117 which was also great fun, trying to stay hidden, still getting tagged by AAA and limping back NoE to your airbase. No ILS either (as I recall) so ended up punching out more times than I actually landed...

[KCD]

I've had most, from Sub-Logic through FSX. For me, FS9 is the stand out.

[ricardo_NY1]

I'd have to say FS2004.........ran well on most computers, very complete, lots of add ons and the clouds were a huge leap forward from FS2002. It was a very exciting time.

[jandjfrench]

Hi Sky,

Difficult to mention any one standout simulator. I was pretty much hooked since I got FS1 for my TRS-80 Model 3. As it turned out the Radio Shack version of FS1 was designed for the Model 1. The tape was copy protected but I discovered that a pre-loader not only loaded the main program but changed a byte in the pre-loader itself that limited a flight in the copied program to 100 feet or so of altitude. I discovered the changed byte due to the fact that there was a difference in the start location between the Model 1 & 3 so the overwritten byte was in the wrong location. I had to hack the program just to get it to run. Got the old TRS-80 out a couple of years ago and discovered FS could still run.

 

 

I spent a fair bit of time with Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Red Baron, and Wings of Glory prior to getting back to a Windows version of Flight Sim. I don't recall any particular version as being a particularly noteworthy improvement but found each to be a decided advancement in simulating flight.

When MS Flight was released I saw it as a nail in the coffin for all previous versions. When it was discontinued it took me a year or so before I could tolerate any version of Flight Simulator. I keep checking back to see any advancements and have added a fair amount of ORBX scenery but still don't enjoy flying very much. I was hoping that Flight Sim World would be built on Flight but obviously it's not so I've little interest in it. When I found this out I did a little flying in Flight and here's a couple of pictures:

 

 

If FS World came anywhere near close to what a see in these pictures I'd be interested but except for the top image on their homepage everything else I've seen leaves me cold.

Jim F.

[RatRace]

Around the time of FS98 there was another flight sim whose graphics made FS98 look a decade old; don't recall the name but it only had three or four aircraft and only a small area in which to fly (if memory serves me well that was around San Francisco), so I never tried it.

 

Flight Unlimited, my standout sim. In comparison FS98 looked like an arcade game.

 

I once heard someone say of MSFS, "it's all about navigating, not flying". There is some truth in that.

 

Maybe somewhat OT, but my standout flight simulator books would be John Rafferty's "Learning to Fly with Flight Simulator" and "Realistic Commercial Flying with Flight Simulator". In spite of the titles, those books basically learned you how to navigate. An Honorable Mention would go to "Microsoft Flight Simulator Handbook" by Jonathan M. Stern, also mostly about navigating.

 

PS: should have been "Flying on Instruments with Flight Simulator" by Jonathan M. Stern

[mabe5454]

Flight Assignment: A.T.P.

 

Cheers,

[XYflight]

What stood out for me was the jump between FS2000 and FS2002 with its incredibly better performance and visuals. FS9 simply iced that cake.

 

But the real stand-out flight experience for me was feeling that I was flying in an actual real-world environment with vibrant life and action all around, and that was in GTA

[tlorey]

I go way back in flight sim to the mid 1980's. I still have the original on a computer in the closet. But for me it would have to be FS9 - I still use it on occasion. Before that it was FS202. FSX was just too much trouble to get to run correctly and they gave up on Flight before it could show its potential.

[andyjohnston]

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat was my first intro to virtual flying, from there I went to FS 5.1, and never looked back.

 

I tried X-Plane and have never gotten in to it. Currently I run P3D.

 

Flight was fantastic for a GA sim, disappointing it got killed so quickly. There was *incredible* potential, but MS dribbled it out bit-by-bit. That's what DTG is doing as well, and I have a feeling that they didn't learn from Flight and so will end up repeating the situation.

[RatRace]

Flight was fantastic for a GA sim, disappointing it got killed so quickly. There was *incredible* potential, but MS dribbled it out bit-by-bit. That's what DTG is doing as well, and I have a feeling that they didn't learn from Flight and so will end up repeating the situation.

 

Agreed. Ironically, in spite of a very similar suicidal marketing strategy (curtailed content in the basic sim and hoping to cash in on the DLCs), DTG opted for the older and inferior FSX/ESP engine. DTG did learn one thing though. They included "the whole world", and even engaged the help of Orbx.

[lnuss]

Flight Unlimited 1 was outstanding for its aerodynamics and aerobatics capability, but was so limited in aircraft and where you could go. Flight Unlimited 3 was remarkable in many respects, and you could get some additional aircraft for it (at 4 MB a crack, huge for back then), but the way they handled water is still unmatched -- you could actually taxi an amphibian from the water to the shore, and back, with no jump, actually following the sea floor with the aircraft, once it touched the bottom, and the aircraft attitude matched, didn't stay level with sitting on a slope.

 

There was much more to like, but it was still limited in geographic area (not quite as bad as FU 1, though).

 

But Prepar3d (P3D) is, in most ways, head and shoulders above the rest, with its excellent handling of light and shadows (still far from perfect, though), the appearance (not so much the behavior) of its water, the volumetric clouds (which FU 3 also did, as I recall), and the drastically increased use of the graphics card to improve performance and to permit the lighting/water/shadows/etc. to be of reasonable performance.

[RatRace]

Btw, I did love the ATC in FU II.

 

Ah, you mean Betty ! :D

[lnuss]

That's true that P3D is far above the rest, but IMO it wasn't such a gaint leap over FSX than FU I over e.g. FS 5.1 at the time.

Btw, I did love the ATC in FU II.

 

True, true...

[davedingler]

Two come to mind in my experience. "FLY" was one and the other was "Flight Unlimited". Flight Unlimited was limited to the Pacific NW, but had lots of innovative features. It folded before more locations could be added.

 

Dave