Oddly enough, in an article in Atlantic Monthly by the editor, James Fallows. He wrote about his own interest in the hobby (he later got his ppl and wrote a book about GA, Free Flight) and mentioned that there was an entire community devoted to producing freeware for FS2000. The article used to be available for free online, but now its in the Atlantic online archive and you have to pay to see it.Anyways, there's rarely been a day since that I didn't spend some time here or at flightsim.BlairCYOW

Let's see...back in the late 80's to '92 I was "flying" all theboxed flight sims I could find. Then I began logging onto theCompuserve forums and heard about this online multi-player WWIIflightsim called "Air Warrior". It had actually been around inprevious versions since 1987 or 88.Well, this sounded really neat, to be able to fight against REALpeople piloting their planes from places, as I found out, all overthe world.Air Warrior ( AW ) was available in a boxed version, AW SVGA,that ran under DOS as well as a MAC version. Both versionsused the GEnie network as the host. I bought the box, got my GEnie account and my life changed immediately. You see, back then,it cost $6/hour to fly online during the evenings and $12/hourduring "prime time" 6AM-6PM. But after the first few evenings inthe air getting aquainted with the sim and the other folks flyingin the arena I was hooked! Many a $700/month credit card bill did I have during those early years!The AW community had a BBS on the GEnie network where we met duringprime time to chat and exchange barbs over the previous eveningsbattles. Totally text based and pretty crude by todays standards, but this was the beginning of something that would spin off into severalother "massively multiplayer" WWII flight sims.As the technology matured, so did Air Warrior. Kesmai, the producer,added Compuserve and CRIS as hosts and the price dropped to $3/hour.I was in heaven at that point. Graphics improved and a new versionrunning under Windows 95 came along. With that came a move onto AOLand the influx of "the 10,000 dweebs" since at that point the pricewent to a fixed rate of $19.95/month "all you could eat"!!The community grew 10-fold as a result.Early on we communicated in the air on "radio channels" whichwere nothing more that "tunable" text buffers but that was sufficientto taunt your adversaries whilst trying to gain that pure "6 shot" kill or keep in touch with your wingman or squad.We ran large multi-frame scenario events...12 days spread overa 4 week period, in which we replayed various WWII battles underconditions as close to the real battles as we could emulate. Eachframe was usually 3 hours in length.I remember when VOX was added to AW, just as we began a scenarioto re-fight the Battle of Britain. I was assigned to a Spitfire Squadron and on that first frame we got airborne and headed toward the channel and the Luftwaffe bombers coming in from France when to my surprise I discover that several of the members of my flightactually are Brits!!To hear those accents and the "tally ho"s come over my speakers wasabout as real as it was going to get :)Late in the 90's one of the early "hot" AW pilots, and also acoding guru, decided to spin off and build his own flight simthat after a few alterations over the years became what is today"Aces High". Also about that time , Electronic Arts bought KesmaiStudios and killed of Air Warrior shortly after! By the time EA killed AW, we had held several conventions in variousparts of the US ( and a couple in Europe ). I'd attended CON'sin Washigton, DC, Orkando, Fl, Houston, Indianapolis and here inSan Francisco. So I got to meet most of the guys and gals I flew with and against. Our community really jelled. We still have our own newsgroup on private server where many of us "old Air Warriors"still meet on a daily basis to discuss just about every topic underthe sum. We have members spread all over the globe and I always checkin with those that live in cities I'm traveling to or through.When AW died many of us moved to the other AW-like sims. Aces Highhas a very large contingent of ex-Air Warriors since most of usknow the owner/chief programmer and several of his staff there.Some went to WWII Online and Fighter Ace. But all of us still lookback on those early days when Air Warrior was the ONLY "game" intown and at $6/hour you HAD to be dedicated :)I started frequenting the MS FS forums a couple three years back( when did FS2004 hit the shelves? ) and now read half a dozendifferent forums on the "usual sites". Most of my "flying" thesedays if of the non-combatant type although I occasionally hopinto a Mig-15 or 17 for a flight through Eastern Europe or mytrusty A-6E to get some carrier traps in.I've not done any online FS2004 flying as I still dedicate myonline flying activities to Aces High, mostly scenarios ( Thismorning I flew 6 sorties in a Boston II, attacking various targetsin Finland north of St. Petersburg as we are re-enacting thatSoviet/Finnish front of WWII )My other interactions in the flightsim community here has beento create some re-paints of some Super Connies I crewed on duringmy Navy days and a L-188 Electra panel.I'm re-activating several Eastern European bases in Poland, theCzech and Slovak Republics and Hungary and "stocking" them withMig 15/17/19, IL-18 AI amongst others. After I return from my summer travels to Europe and Nova Scotia I plan to clean thatpackage up and upload it to share with others that appreaiate thoseclean lines of the 50' and 60's :) Paul "Gypsy Baron" Strogen, AW Tail Number 4580

Looks like I'm another old codger! Joined CompuServe back in '95 after hearing about the FS Forum. Very friendly community. One computer running a DOS-based version of FS and no on-line connection! Try telling that to the kids of today and they'd never believe you! :-lol Made friends there that I still have to this day.Cheers,

In 1990 when I joined CompuServe and discovered the flightsim and ATP forum.They also had (for that time) a very extensive download library. If I recall correctly, FS4 with the 800x600 resolution add-on pack was current.(Could also have been FS3 though...)Geez, those were the days: Running FS in a whopping 800*600 resolution on a Super VGA graphics card :-lol

Yeah I also first discovered the FSFORUM on compuserve, then soon discovered the IUP listserv run by Mark Strawcutter which is is also where I discovered what was then the motherload of FS add-ons at IUP's FTP folder. Regards.Ernie.

Well, it was only about a year ago that I started bothering folks with questions. As a matter of fact I felt a bit ashamed as I thought those forums were for kids. Grownups do not play FS, I thought.Boy, was I wrong!!!Robystar

You're not the only old codger! I too joined CompuServer back in the "dark ages" and we're probably one of a small group that can actually get to a command prompt! I remember getting on line and then trying to find someplace to go. That was obviously before the Browser was invented :) Ah the good ole days of a 2400 Baud modem.

Oh Boy... this is taking me way way back! Gonna have to clear out the cobwebs.Originally, I was calling long distance to Nels Anderson's BBS (which later morphed to Flightsim.com in the Internet age) and Joe Lincoln's BBS. This was way back in the very early 80's. Then I found that I could make a local call via Compuserve to visit the Gamers forum, where subLogic hung out with online support. This was the precursor to the FSForum on Compuserve. Anyone else here remember that? Hounding poor Holly from subLogic with questions and chat just so we could talk about FS. Then we started to message between ourselves and Compuserve decided it was time to start the FSForum just to get us out of the Gamers area. :-lol As mentioned already, the fly-ins started, and eventually the CPAA conferences in Cornell, NY sponsored by Dr. Jim Maas (last seen at the MicroWings Seattle conference).Great thread! I can't believe I still recall those early days online (dail-up). It's frightening to think that some of the current members of AVSIM weren't even born in those days... YIKES! (-: Bruce

Oh! Boy! your inquiry takes me waaaayyyy back to somewhere in the eighties where I started to use Compuserve. At that time my purpose was to exchange messages from Europe with our headquarters in Denver. There was no direct connection with Compuserve, we had to go through Telenet. I do not remember exactly which year I discovered the FSFORUM, But in 91 I started saving some messages and downloaded files on diskettes. Being rather conservative, I still have many of them burned on CD. For example, this is the result of a 3DBenchmark with FS4.J.J. JJ StruyfBraine-L'AlleudBelgium80 (386-20): 4.7 (yech!)Video (IBM VGA)**Seymour Greenberg 71241,2071Gateway 486/33Diamond Speedstar +3Dbench = 21.7Northgate 386/20 with a Vram card gives a FPS of 8.4.**MICHAEL VARIO 71620,3324486-25 quadtel bios 3D Bench of 16.9**Ron Harris 72411,1752ZeosSpeedstar video board without the plus3-D bench score is 23.8**Russell Mueller 76662,1623486-33 and Diamond SpeedStar21.7 in 3D-Bench64K cache**Norman Hartendorp 76256,27Touche (AMI Baby Voyager motherboard) 486/33Swan Palette Plus card (Tseng ET4000) 21.7 with a clean disk**chang gyu 70541,23018.9386-33 Mhz 64KB cache Trident 8800 VGA card with 512KB memory,plain dos disk 9.0**Karl M. Beem 72311,3467386/16 - Cardinal v600 5.9 386/33 - same VGA 6.4 with the 64K cache disabledenabled the result is 11.4.**Mark Schey 70701,1411386/20 with a Paradise Plus 16 adapter 6.1**Ed Williams 70606,5077.7 on my Zeos SX-20Diamond Speedstar version 3.01 W/ 512K.**Scott Pendleton 70070,334486/25Mhz, 64k cache, 4meg RAM, Paradise VGA 1024 Card: 14.0 fpsOrchid Prodesigner IIs in default speed mode (SW4 off): 15.8 fpsOrchid Prodesigner IIs in fast speed mode (SW4 on): 17.5 fps**Steve Peterson 70505,372Orchid PD IIS in 486-33 (w/256k cache)using the 'Speed-up' ram bios utility 22.2 f/s**jakes 70703,3074Speedstar Hi-Color just ran you 3dbench at 22.7Speedstar Plus at 22.6Speedstar Standard at 22.4 486-33, 32megs ram**Norman Hartendorp 76256,2721.7 on 486/33 (Touche w/ AMI Baby Voyager)Swan Palette Plus VGA w/ 1MB >>>>>>>>

It was approx 2 years ago for me...

As a surplus on my earlier message:What I also recall is the very first fly-in I joined and I think it was also one of the first fly-ins ever to be organized.It was a fly-in to KSFO, organized via the CompuServe forum.Before you could join, you had to qualify via a test flight a week in advance, conducted by one of the organizers. This was done to check if you had a good enough modem connection.I completely forgot this check and joined anyway. Flying offline from EHAM-Amsterdam to KSFO I connected after 11 hours of real flight time,only to discover that they refused me because I was not on the validated list. Geez, what was I disappointed. Chatted/negotiated for 30 minutes on the channel when they finally gave in :-jumpy I will never forget the landing at KSFO, one of the best online approaches I ever had. Me, a KLM 744, on approach for runway 28L and next to me on the same height and speed a 744 of Lufthansa for 28R. We landed both at the same time, simply awsome.

I toyed around with FS5.1 off and on starting in 1994 in blissful ignorance of the online FS comunity. It was only once I got FS98 around 1999 that I discovered flightsim.com, fsplanet and Avsim (in that order). Once I upgraded my machine and installed FS2000 I started going completely nuts. My current FS9 installation takes up well over half of a 40GB harddisk, all thanks to the prolific free- and payware add-on authors. http://www.commerciallevel.com/base/suppor...46supporter.jpg

Hey FTD,I know you're an old codger like me but that's no excuse for falling asleep with your head on the Return key :-lolCheers,

Must be a good 3 years now. Found out about AVSIM from usenet. Before that I had no idea there were ANY add-ons for FS!!I have to say though, I'm constantly amazed at how a bunch of mainly grown-up people can act so childish at times within this hobby though. The GIMME GIMME GIMME attitude stinks as well as the temper tantrums if someone doesn't get what they want.

>Must be a good 3 years now. Found out about AVSIM from>usenet. Before that I had no idea there were ANY add-ons for>FS!!>>I have to say though, I'm constantly amazed at how a bunch of>mainly grown-up people can act so childish at times within>this hobby though. The GIMME GIMME GIMME attitude stinks as>well as the temper tantrums if someone doesn't get what they>want.You should take a look at some forums for collectors of 1:400 scale die cast model aircraft. :-roll Makes FS forums look like the world social peace forum. http://www.commerciallevel.com/base/suppor...46supporter.jpg