Found this post (guy was answering someone asking what they thought of Flight Simulator). Posted October 1st 1984. Ahhh, the simple times...."I have rented the flight simulator II for the atari; It is a magnificently done program, no doubt about it. It has most of the features of the IBM Microsoft version (there are some minor features that are only loaded in if you have 64K, ie, an XL machine). Of course, the screen update is slower...about 3 frames per second, compared with the IBM's 16 frames per second; however, I found the speed perfectly adequate. The controls are responsive and the "dashboard" seems to get updated even faster than the scenery. The program comes on two disks, one with the main program and two "scenery areas", Chicago and the WWI pilot scenario. The other disk comes with four additional scenery areas. All parameters are user modifiable (weather, reliability, etc). The documentation is excellent...one large book describing the program itself and the plane's operation, the other book about flight physics and acrobatics. In addition, pilot's maps of the program's geographical areas are included. My opinion of the program? Again, it is a masterpiece of programming. The detail is unsurpassed. Most of the plane's controls are from the keyboard, however, and I found they were not easy to learn. Also, sometimes the details were a bit too detailed. For instance, should I really have to worry about kicking in the magnetos for each engine? In fairness, there is an "easy" mode where many details are automatically taken care of. However, you can't get some details without including all of them. Basically, I feel that the program is SO realistic that it was too much work to be much fun. You get the work of flying without the exhilaration. However, as a true simulator, it is among the best for micros, and it is certainly worth having as a collector's piece (if you feel like shelling out the money...I didn't think it was worth i

Oh I remember quite well the thrill when a cousin showed me FS 4 (I think it was) for his computer, how hard and immersive it was to try to land the C172 on Meigs Field... Man, I was sweating! :( Should have saved a screenshot from that flight and recreated it in FSX with the Carenado 172, Aerosoft Chicago, real weather, REX... I bet someone will look back on today's "immersiveness" and have a good chuckle :(

SublogicShowing my age :)

SublogicShowing my age :)

Commodore 64 here... And I felt like I was really flying!!! amazing what the imagination can do... I remember sitting there for hours and my mom chasing me off to bed... 27 years later and I am still just as lost in my own little world when I sim as I was as a 9 year old flying this: Only now I can sim however late I wan't and mom can't say squat! LOL

System Requirements for Version 3.0: copyright 1988 (Reading from the original box)256K memoryOne 5-1/4" disk driveColor/Graphics Adapter (CGA),Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA),Video Graphics Adapter (VGA)Personal System/2Graphics System, or Hercules CardAppropriate monitor for your graphics adapterDOS 2.0 or higherI've had every version. Problem is they won't run on todays computers. I don't even have a 3-1/2" drive, much less a 5-1/4" one.Roy

Commodore 64 here... And I felt like I was really flying!!! amazing what the imagination can do... I remember sitting there for hours and my mom chasing me off to bed... 27 years later and I am still just as lost in my own little world when I sim as I was as a 9 year old flying this: Only now I can sim however late I wan't and mom can't say squat! LOL

its amazing how far flight sims have gone since there

System Requirements for Version 3.0: copyright 1988 (Reading from the original box)256K memoryOne 5-1/4" disk driveColor/Graphics Adapter (CGA),Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA),Video Graphics Adapter (VGA)Personal System/2Graphics System, or Hercules CardAppropriate monitor for your graphics adapterDOS 2.0 or higherI've had every version. Problem is they won't run on todays computers. I don't even have a 3-1/2" drive, much less a 5-1/4" one.Roy

yeah thats the problem with FSX apparently, with ll the new cores like the i7 and stuf, they wont run fsx as well because MSFS was built to run in the older CPU'S/video card etc etc

That was a great post. Reminds me of the days using TAPCIS to get messages from COMPUSERV forums.scott s. aka 75270.3703.

My favorite was the combat sim F19 Stealth fighter. I played that for hours on end on my TRS 80 from Radio Shack. I could not believe the detail. How could it get any better? I got it just after I joined the USAF and the guy next to me in the dorm had the same setup and game and we would yell back and forth through the bathroom about accomplishing a mission and getting rank and medals. Didnt have to "tweak" back then. :( It s amazing what was thought to be so advanced at the time. I write this as I am flying along in my accusim B-17. Will we ever look back on what we have now and wonder how old it looks?

I remember playing Fighter Pilot on the ZX Spectrum. I could fly for hours looking for an enemy plane.Every key on the keyboard was used and there was an overlay with each keys' description.Just remember what sims used to be like next time you want to complain about getting 10fps at KLAX with REX, GEX, UTX, UT2 etc :(

Commodore 64 here... And I felt like I was really flying!!! amazing what the imagination can do... I remember sitting there for hours and my mom chasing me off to bed... 27 years later and I am still just as lost in my own little world when I sim as I was as a 9 year old flying this: Only now I can sim however late I wan't and mom can't say squat! LOL

Difference was I was 22 at the time and no mom. Anyone remember Jet? I spent hours on that too on my Amiga-threshold lines-yes-Jet never manifested if I recall though atp did!Never expected to get into real flying but my wife of all people took care of that in 1989.My wife who is quite beautiful despite the early days of fsx- a fsx hater telling me she must be otherwise if I possibly liked fsx, after seeing all the time spent simming bought me rw flying lessons in 1989..My life has never been the same since-and I love my wife for not only pushing me into a direction I probably would have never took but accepting me since, as for the past 21 years have been a rw flying junkie due to her possible mistake..eat your hearts out-this is the wife you all seek! :(

I wrote a flight simulator for the BBC micro computer in 1984. The memory was 28k and the programe ran in the memory space taken up by two lines of code in BASIC. And yes it ran faster than FS9 toooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!vololiberista

I wrote a flight simulator for the BBC micro computer in 1984. The memory was 28k and the programe ran in the memory space taken up by two lines of code in BASIC. And yes it ran faster than FS9 toooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!vololiberista

Great thread!!!!You are a lucky man Geofa!!! Cherish it!-Paul

Here is a great site about FLIGHT SIMULATOR HISTORY. Check it out. I don't think you will be sorry.http://fshistory.simflight.com/fsh/index.htm

My favorite was the combat sim F19 Stealth fighter. I played that for hours on end on my TRS 80 from Radio Shack. I could not believe the detail. How could it get any better? I got it just after I joined the USAF and the guy next to me in the dorm had the same setup and game and we would yell back and forth through the bathroom about accomplishing a mission and getting rank and medals. Didnt have to "tweak" back then. :( It s amazing what was thought to be so advanced at the time. I write this as I am flying along in my accusim B-17. Will we ever look back on what we have now and wonder how old it looks?

Andrew, you thought '...how could it get any better...'. I bet you that before at least half of this forum membership is too old to even pick up a joystick, we will have a version of flight simulator, that has/uses holographic emitters (the size of a small desk-top speaker that you place around your chair, turn it on, and you are IN the cockpit of your airframe, where you will access the world through hand movements simulating touching surfaces and controls. Beyond that, will be a head-band (like in Arnold S's movie concerning Mars) that will have you see, feel, taste, as in real life. Get into and out of the aircraft...perhaps even 'vacation' in that blue-water getaway you just flew to. When that happens...I feel that will be the end of society as we know it. Don't like the real world?....stay in your den and exist for Life in the virtual....I believe that this is going to happen, and is on the menu. We'll see the first example I have no doubt. As for the second...I hope there is also an effects-of-aging-inhibiting drug out there as well...lol. Ah........Mitch

That was a great post. Reminds me of the days using TAPCIS to get messages from COMPUSERV forums.scott s. aka 75270.3703.

Oh, man, TAPCIS... Alan (71420.3306 - I haven't thought of that number in about a decade and a half, at least!)