Your first flight Sim?

[power5]

Everything was a slide show back in the 486 era. And today kids complain when they do not get over 40fps. Wish they could go back to the good old days when 5 fps was amazing.

[Scratchy]

The 1st one I bought was Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer. Released in 1987 by Electronic Arts. I still have it. I remember I had to buy my first graphics card to play; a Hercules MGA which displayed shades or a gradient of amber.:megalol:

 

I've pretty much bought every flight sim since.

 

I was looking through my stash and found 2 different old versions of MS Flight Simulator. Interestingly, the one didn't include a version number in the title nor printed on the box. It is copyright 1982, 1984. Hum. Maybe that's the 1st flight sim... The other MS Flight Simulator is copyright 1989 and has version 4.0 printed on the box.

 

One last note: I also found my copy of A-10 Tank Killer by Dynamix, copyright 1989. So, I'm an old head when it comes to A-10's. :geek:

 

Fond memories all. 3 cheers for flight sims!

[menendezdiego]

An old B-52 sim on Dos...I was about...4?

[VincentLaw]

Stunt Island! 1992 Flight Sim with built in video editing tools = lots of really bad youtube videos. Here is one of the packaged missions.

 

[EtherealN]

Knights of the Sky on Amiga! That was sooo much fun. :D

 

(Hop to 3 minute mark for the flying.)

[VIKBELL]

My first was Microsoft combat simm the 1st one.

[Thor77]

As lots of people here, I am simming for most of my life... I guess my first sim was A.C.E. on ZX Spectrum. IIRC my first sim on the PC was F-19, followed by F-117. In the later years more of them followed like Strike Commander (loved the story), Falcon 3, DI Tornado (LOVE IT), DI Hind, DI EF-2000, TFX, Aces over Europe, Red Baron, Top Gun, US Navy Fighters,... to Il-2 (from beta to 1946 and yeah, lost the girl as well during the best simming times), Flanker 1, 2, LOMAC, Flaming Cliffs 1,2, DCS BS and A10 and Rise of Flight and to top it off, when I don't want to utterly destroy something but just enjoy the true essence of flight, Condoar Soaring Sumlator - glider sim made by my friend nad in my humble opinion, still the best glider sim out there...

[shagrat]

An old B-52 sim on Dos...I was about...4?

 

I guess that was "The Dam Busters" a favorite on my old C64 :thumbup:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dam_Busters_%28video_game%29

 

[Airbuster]

LHX: Attack chopper

 

[Agg]

My first sim was Jane's ATF back in 1996, and I was about 11 :P

[Pyroflash]

My first oddly enough was on the Xbox 360, and it was called Over-G Fighters. They made an attempt at a fairly realistic simulation and the market didn't grab on(no surprise), so the game kind of fell through community wise, but it was still a great game.

[ZQuickSilverZ]

My first Flight Sim was Sierra's 3D Helicopter Simulator on a Tandy 1000HX (also my first computer).

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000

 

For its time this thing was unreal. It had over the modem multiplayer (in 1987 no less) or you could fight the computer or just fly around. It came with a really cool instruction manual.

 

http://www.sierragamers.com/uploads/24082/The_Games/3D_Helicopter_Simulator_Manual.pdf

 

You could actually weave between buildings and use objects in game for cover.

 

One thing that was very strange was that it had 2 covers for the same exact game. I never could figure that out.

 

Funny at the time of this writing my First (Sierra's 3D Helicopter Simulator) and Last (DCS BlackShark) flight simulators were both Online (if you could call modem support in 1987 Online) combat helicopter simulations. Come to think of it maybe simulators have not changed all that much..........(just kidding) ;)

Edited April 30, 2011 by ZQuickSilverZ

[HungaroJET]

My first Flight Sim was:

http://www.zxspectrum.net/#fighter-pilot

from 1983 (F-15 sim)

 

2nd and the best from 1985 (AH-64 sim) :thumbup:

http://www.zxspectrum.net/#tomahawk :joystick:

 

Games need Java

[Napa]

1st sim bought in March 98'

 

2nd sim bought in August 98'

 

3rd sim bought in September 98' along with Apache and Hind

 

and this is my 1st civie sim bought in december 98'

 

what a year 1998 was for me. I was 12 years old and just bought my 1st PC in January 98'.

[Witchking]

My first was flanker 2.5

[MTFDarkEagle]

F-22 Air Dominance Fighter if I recall correctly was my first taste :)

[-odin-]

This was the first flightsim I had. Bought a second hand Amiga500 and this was one of the games which came along. Oh my god how many hours I played it - then watching Top Gun - and played this again - and some more watching Top Gun and the playing again - and so on and son on :megalol:

 

 

But my first experience with flightsims was on my cousins C64 or C128 (don't remember) I think it was one of the earliest MS FlightSimulator.

 

PS! Can someone give me that link on how to embed youtube videos in this forum?

Edited April 30, 2011 by -odin-
Can someone give me that link on how to embed youtube videos in this forum?

[PlainSight]

Flight Unlimited III and Jane's WW2 fighters

[sobek]

Novalogics Comanche. Not really a sim but more than i could handle back then. :)

[ZQuickSilverZ]

I have been reading and thinking about all these post of sims gone by. It's funny how what we used to consider "simulators" are by today's standards nothing but arcade games. I wonder what sims will be like in the future. I wonder if we will look back some day and see a DCS title as "arcadey". Nothing seems to change our perception as fast as advancing technology, and nothing changes our acceptance as fast as expectation.

 

I also find it funny how people describe these games they used to play. How fond thier memories are. When you see videos of these old games on Youtube they usually have really exciting, energetic music. In reality they had just bleeps and bloops (or worse*). At the time they made flight seem so real. In reality they were just slide shows. So I pose this question. How much of gaming is reality and how much of it is the player interjecting his own expectations into the game therefore changeing his overall perspective of the games believeability?

 

Is balancing believeability (some games are not realistic but maintain a believable atmosphere) with perception (it's real enouph for me so I perceive it as real and fill in the blanks) and expectation (how does it compare to what else is avaiable) the secret to making a good sim?

 

I mean you could play those games for hours back then right? I am betting you could'nt do that now. They could not hold your attention. Why? These games are the same today as they were 20 years ago. The only thing that has changed is your expectation of what a simulator should offer.

 

So my main question (finally) is this.

 

When does a simulator stop being a simulator and become nothing more than a video game?

 

*Back in the day we had these things called PC speakers. The speakers only had 2 settings. Off and smoke detector,fire alarm, train whistle, bust your eardrums out loud. Thank god for adjustable volume speakers.

Edited May 1, 2011 by ZQuickSilverZ

[nscode]

FS 5 :)

[Wartski]

US Navy Fighters

 

"let's get this guy"

[Cupra]

Jeah, US Navy Fighters was grat.. but not payable on modern computers :( Still USNF 97 für Win 95 runs tooo fast to fly straight.. :cry:

[S77th-konkussion]

Novalogics Comanche. Not really a sim but more than i could handle back then. :)

 

Had that too.. "gold"

[fourty03]

I had a couple favorites for the the old macintosh (68040 66mhz cpu with 4mb ram lol)

 

One was A-10 Attack :

 

 

Another was Chuck Yeager's Air Combat (this was the revised version with better graphics - better than the dos version!)

 

One last was F/A-18 Hornet made by Graphic Simulations

 

All were pretty good sims for their time. I remember wasting countless of hours on the A-10 Attack, Chuck Yeager and F/A Hornet (all for the system 7 o/s Apple), I remember losing half of my wing and barely making it back lol