When was your "Golden Age" in this hobby?

[Q_flyer 766]

When you look at the whole period you have been enjoying the FS hobby, when would you say is your Golden Age?

 

....the time when things seemed most exciting, happy and enjoyable for you within the hobby?

 

For me, this would be 2004-2006, with FS9 and specifically, the Dreamfleet developments.    Lou Betti and his team creating some jaw droppingly beautiful general aviation aircraft (particularly the Archer III and Dakota), all based on aircraft that Lou knew of personally.    ......... and they flew fantastically!!!

 

If I was to choose one FDE that I would rate higher than all others in the 15 years I have been enjoying this hobby, it would be the Dreamfleet PA28-235 Dakota.

 

then came............. the Dreamfleet 727  :cool: .......... Wow, when you rotated that jet you just thought to yourself "heck, I'm really taking off here, this just feels so real".     It was an amazing airliner.    If we looked at the textures and visuals now we would probably consider them below par, but the systems, FDE and sounds of that FS9 jet were still better than a lot of today's releases IMHO.

 

So those were magic days for me.    Now, to an extent we are spoiled by many good releases.   It sometimes feels like we have too much choice now.

 

But in this particular Golden Age of mine, all I wanted to fly was the Dreamfleet Archer III, The Dakota, Their Baron 58, and their fantastic A36.         (oh and the 727 for airliner duties :smile:).

 

It would be good to hear other people's anecdotes of their Golden Age of the FS hobby.

[Eric Tomlin 10]

Hard to say Dave. I love the new stuff we have- it is INCREDIBLE how far the hobby has come. Things that I would lie awake in bed at night and dream of have been far surpassed for years now (like smart AI that has proper airline liveries that operate from the correct gate on a correct schedule, etc.)

 

I really got saturated back in 1998 (FS98) and flew that sim into the ground until FS2000 (so horrible, yet such neat new things) was replaced by FS2002. 

 

Back to FS98- I was really into the MD88 panel by a guy named Eric Ernst I believe...he developed it as freeware and he also did a few other panels (757/767) that I just loved. Then there was a nice 777 panel made by a Japanese guy for freeware- loved it too! This was probably a heyday for me as for my pure addiction to sim time. I would spend hours EACH day flying across the US and to Europe occasionally. I was so addicted then I remember days of going and driving home on my lunch break across Jacksonville (a 20 minute trip minimum from work to home) only to fly 20 minutes, then drive back 20 minutes to work.

 

I then got addicted to the idea of doing what Kevin Saker, Dave and Mike Lehkamp, and many like James Price were doing by hacking keyboards/joysticks to build full scale replicas, except I never was able to actually build my own until about late 2007. The hobby has turned into a part time business that I obsess over full time. So, as a result I do not always get to fly much, but I'd say that right now we are likely seeing the peak of it as a hobby only because of the way we see the likes of MS and others coming and going. Naturally, we hold on to hoping that LM, Laminiar Research, and others will continue to develop.  

[simmerhead 885]

Arguably the golden age is now, althought somewhat bittersweet after what Microsoft have been up to, and not up to, after January 2009.

 

But on the whole, I'd have to agree with you that the glory days was the FS2004-era, especially because of the booming freeware community.  I used very little payware back then because much of the freeware was just as good.

[VH_JLC 1]

When Vista Australis reigned supreme and PSS had a great A320

[John F 2,398]

Back in the days of Project Freeware and FS98. I had just discovered I could download a livery for every occasion. Once I mastered Tom Allensworth's very helpful tutorial on how to decompress a zip file I was good to go!

 

John

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Strictly speaking, the best is right here, right now.

 

But in terms of my "Golden FS age" I concur with those fellows naming dreamfleet, PSS, and other developers producing for FS9.

[BillW 210]

I've been with the hobby since its first inception. I have to go with FSX. It is amazing for the price.

[Wendall 50]

The day I learned how to correctly program an FMC.That set out all sorts of giddiness and newfound excitement for loading up the CS 757 and the likes. After that, the second Golden Age started when I could complete an entire 4 hour flight in the A2A 377 and greasing my landing! That led me to all sorts of old airline routes that I continue to enjoy.

[Snuffleupagus 327]

Ah, the "Golden Days". Mine was back in 2006-2007 when I first discovered VATSIM online flying. The feeling I got when I had time to sit down and load up a flight online. I thought it felt so real being able to talk to other people as controllers, get my clearance, etc. I would wake up early in the mornings to get some uninterrupted time. It was a feeling I can't really describe and certainly one I miss.

[HansRoaming 73]

My golden age is now and continuing, just can't get over the immersion and so many great planes / helicopters + Opus, Accufeel, Aivlasoft EFB, PFPX etc available across FSX, then you got DCS and so on. Looking forward to DCS WWII!

 

Just need to be financially independent in order to have enough hours to fly it all!

[greggerm 312]

Late 1980's and early 1990's...

• MSFS v.4 with the Aircraft and Scenery Designer had me engrossed for hours and hours, making fictional cities and airports, flying through them in my newly created fighter jet.... hours and hours.
   
• Disney's Stunt Island had me equally enjoying both flying AND setting up props, worlds, and environments to "film" my exploits.

It seems that each "generation" of flight simulator technology has something I look back on and enjoy, but for some reason this time period stands out. This is not to say I'd like to go back in time, or that it was more fun then than it is now considering what more than twenty years has brought to the table, but I look back fondly on those days.

[MSFS Ralf 149]

Late 90's, with FS98 and Aerowinx PS1. Flightline, Northwest Virtual with it's CEO Ed Augustine, those were the days...

Nowadays software is more perfect, but some parts of the fun and fellowship were lost.

 

Gesendet von meinem GT-I9100 mit Tapatalk 2

 

 

[NGXfanatic 85]

I think one of the most exciting periods for me was sometime in the late 90s/early 2000s when there was intense competition among different flight simulators.   Remember when FLY! was first released?   That was groundbreaking stuff, with photo realistic ground, a multiple part 2d cockpit, and pretty much all the planes (the few that were offered) having complete cockpit gauge and button functionality.  Fly forced everyone to step up their game, I remember some other sims besides MS flight sim competing for market share around that time like Looking Glass Flight Unlimited and of course, X-plane.  I suppose that was the golden era for me, because there was the potential for a fresh upstart to force Microsoft to innovate or die.  But we all know what happened. 

 

Now, even with Aces gone and the possibility of a FS11 up in the air, I think we are embarking on  a resurgence in development for FSX, especially the potential for P3D v2.0 to revolutionize the industry if they deliver as promised and more FSX only developers adopt that platform.  Even without P3D, which I can't imagine using without PMDG's involvement, I'm excited for FSX for the first time in years because of recent addons like ORBX global, PFPX, and PMDG 777.   If HiFi's Active Sky Next turns out to be the total rewrite of the abysmal FSX weather engine it promises to be, that is one more reason why now is the best time to be a FSX ######.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

 

 

Once I mastered Tom Allensworth's very helpful tutorial on how to decompress a zip file I was good to go!

 

Wow. Someone actually read that? I had totally forgotten it and am very impressed that you remember.

 

My golden age? Two days before AVSIM became "aware" and online. It's been down hill ever since. :lol:

 

 

Remember when FLY! was first released? That was groundbreaking stuff, with photo realistic ground, a multiple part 2d cockpit, and pretty much all the planes (the few that were offered) having complete cockpit gauge and button functionality. Fly forced everyone to step up their game,

 

That was an important nexus in the hobby too. FLY was the creative origins of PMDG, which has raised the bar in more than a few areas since and has driven more innovation than most.

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

I don't think I've reached a golden age yet. 

 

Even though I've loved aviation since my first flight when I was a little kid, I got into FS in March 2011 after running into FSX videos on youtube.

 

I started with FSX and got into FS9 shortly after.  I enjoy both sims equally and have them running very well using some tweaks and my in-game NI settings.

 

I feel my golden age will come when I upgrade my PC in the future to something that can run FSX completely maxed out with smooth fps.  I tried this on my system before and the sim had a completely different feel to it.  The world was so much more "alive".  Of course, I was in the single digit fps during the test, but what I saw was incredible.

 

So at the moment, I feel I'm still on my journey to a golden age.  Sure, I'm having a blast right now with the payware sceneries, PMDG MD-11 on FSX and FS9, various CLS add on's, NGX, and waiting for the 777.  But just the thought of running all these add ons completely maxed out on FSX makes me salivate.

 

then came............. the Dreamfleet 727   :cool: .......... Wow, when you rotated that jet you just thought to yourself "heck, I'm really taking off here, this just feels so real".     It was an amazing airliner.    If we looked at the textures and visuals now we would probably consider them below par, but the systems, FDE and sounds of that FS9 jet were still better than a lot of today's releases IMHO.

 

The DF 727 is the most intense aircraft I have.  I love the way it handles and the primitive a/p system is so different.  I still consider it one of the best aircraft add on that I have.