Jane's F/A-18 was wonderful. I flew the hell out of. It was back in the DOS 5 days right about the time that Windows 3 came out. It won't run on modern machines without a virtual DOS window because the timing is screwed up, like Wing Commander (which I also miss the hell out of).

Actually, it runs on Windows XP, I had it going a couple of years ago on that. You can soup it up a lot with stuff from the following link, and it is still pretty good with all those tweaks, even by today's standards: http://tsh.war-fighters.net/Short of Falcon, it's probably the best fast mover combat sim you can get.Al

Getting back on topic.. Does anyone know what happened to the "Unofficial" Alphasim Forums? I also purchased the C-17 over a year ago and have emailed Virtavia several times about the VC.. no response, only silence. I miss having the unofficial forums, at least we had a place to go for some information even if it was only rumor or speculation.

Getting back on topic.. Does anyone know what happened to the "Unofficial" Alphasim Forums? I also purchased the C-17 over a year ago and have emailed Virtavia several times about the VC.. no response, only silence. I miss having the unofficial forums, at least we had a place to go for some information even if it was only rumor or speculation.

I think Virtavia requested that the forum to be closed when Alphasim sealed its doors tight forever, because it now relied only on emails for easier access. Dave.

I think Virtavia requested that the forum to be closed when Alphasim sealed its doors tight forever, because it now relied only on emails for easier access. Dave.

Not even. Phil actually liked that the URL for the unofficial Alphasim forum ('virtual-avia') since it was similar to "virtavia" and even suggested that it might someday become the Virtavia unofficial site once more products went online. Sorry so late with this reply to set some things straight but the thread came up in a google search so I read it. Just had to reply to that last post.

In my view Alphasim got lazy (and/or greedy) and started overpricing everything, not to mention the C-17. I dropped $38 for the EA-6B which doesn't even have wing views, which really are visible from the cockpit. Weird seeing nav lights hanging in mid-air. Ridiculous.

Alphsim became infamous for this. They charged obscene prices for planes that sometimes didn't even have the quality of good-to-average freeware planes. The exterior models were, by and large, pretty good - not the best - but good, but many of their VC's left a lot to be desired. Their B2 for FS9 was disappointing in that the exterior model was very nice, the VC was one of the best looking VCs I've ever seen in an Alphsim product, but nothing was clickable from the VC! One had to either use the 2D cockpit or use the keyboard to activate anything. Their Catalina was disappointing too. The exterior model was beautiful, but the VC was average, and the panel was missing the MP gauges. They were simply not there. One had to "Shift-#" to open a half-completed MP gauge window to see what was happening there. Both were among the most expensive aircraft I've ever purchased for fs9. Then they had that never ending saga with the C-17 and it's elusive VC. I wanted the C-17, but based on my previous experiences with their products I decided to pass. Glad I did.

It works okay with my Saitek Cyborg throttle and my BU0836 custom throttle (The Alphasim B24 is the same as the Flight 1 B-24, right?). Good FS aeroplane actually, nicely detailed and a fair bit of VC functionality too, although not approaching the realm of A2A's B-17G, but even so, it's still a rather nice add-on.With regard to Alphasim going belly up, I do think that's a shame in the grand scheme of things, quality-wise their stuff is something of a mixed bag, which as far as I'm aware is down to the nature of how their various products were sourced, i.e from a lot of different people and places, and thus a lot of different approaches/skills. But it doesn't strike me as a dodgy in the wider sense, on the contrary, with the recent financial crisis, I wasn't surprised to see anyone go under, especially since the company I worked for was one which did!As far as not getting a VC for the C-17, I think that's a bit of a caveat emptor scenario really. I've bought beta versions of software to show support on occasion (Mount and Blade and the forthcoming DCS A-10 Thunderbolt II amongst others), but I'm always aware that there is an element of risk in doing so, for example, the just released current version of the DCS A-10 is pretty much unusable LOL, so I guess we'll see if they get it sorted, but where Alphasim's partially-finished C-17 was concerned, I personally thought it was a bit of a risky proposition, although I'm not entirely sure exactly why I thought it so, just a kind of feeling I got.Al

That's wierd. The current version of DCS A10 works fine here.*Edit...wow this showed up as a new thread on my phone. Sorry about that Chock. LOL

That's wierd. The current version of DCS A10 works fine here.

Funny, I have problems with dcs a-10 as well... Aircraft is constantly stalling, being pushed back into my seat as much as the game does makes display navigation and reading the HUD difficult.. -Damien