We sure have come a long way, I for one cant wait until tomorrow

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICb9ZXiD3q4&list=PLj-csFqq49nBWNKsnm3KRlQ8VVlwDmwVv

Great stuff! Thanks for the memories. I can't wait either.....

Doug

Wow! That sure brought back some old memories.  Appreciate you giving us a glimpse on how it use to be.  We have surely come a long way.

Great video (I had to mute it though, I'd argue that it's better to have horrible music rather than no music at all)

 

I started flying with FS2002. I tried it there and again before that, but really the first FS I owned and started to use actively was 2002.

 

Question to those who tried earlier versions:

 

- Were FS1 and FS2 really "flyable", doesn't look like that from the video, judging from both the frame-rate and the scenery, you can't really distinguish the runway, how can you land on it properly? It looks like FS3 was the first really "flyable" one.

- What happened to the aircraft designer from FS4? It looked like a cool feature, it might have evolved to what is Plane-Maker on X-Plane today.

 

It's interesting how the largest improvement was found in FS2002, and how FSX doesn't look all that different from that 15 years later. Improvements have been made of course, but by third-party producers.

I too started this flight sim obsession on FS1 & FS2, (which were indeed flyable, however crudely), then bought the many versions over the years up to the current FSX-SE.  In those early days, I used my workplace computer to surreptitiously fly, an actual IBM-brand PC: 30MB HD - 540kb RAM - it cost about $5000 back then!   

 

One of the first airports available was KAVX on Catalina Island - it was as hard to land on back then as it is today!  They even had a aircraft carrier: I think it was off the coast of San Diego - also almost impossible to land on.   

Great video (I had to mute it though, I'd argue that it's better to have horrible music rather than no music at all)

 

I started flying with FS2002. I tried it there and again before that, but really the first FS I owned and started to use actively was 2002.

 

Question to those who tried earlier versions:

 

- Were FS1 and FS2 really "flyable", doesn't look like that from the video, judging from both the frame-rate and the scenery, you can't really distinguish the runway, how can you land on it properly? It looks like FS3 was the first really "flyable" one.

- What happened to the aircraft designer from FS4? It looked like a cool feature, it might have evolved to what is Plane-Maker on X-Plane today.

 

It's interesting how the largest improvement was found in FS2002, and how FSX doesn't look all that different from that 15 years later. Improvements have been made of course, but by third-party producers.

Yes, FS II was certainly flyable ( maybe a couple of frames per second, but in 1984 it was great!), The runway edges were marked as white lines, which narrowed on takeoff and widened on landing, giving the sensation of changing altitude (along with the changing altimeter readings). It may be hard to believe now, but these early FS versions, despite the lack of scenery and crudity by today's standards, gave an really exiting feeling of being airborne.

 

-- Cobalt

2 fps. Lol ahhhh the good Ole days of 8088's, dos, and green screens

Yes, once we got the Z80 all our dreams came true! :smile:

You are going back in time. And I thought the mountain peaks in fs95 were bad

They were flyable, yes. The very first, though, subLOGIC 1 on the Apple II? Barely so. See this:

 

 

I remember seeing that for the first time on a green screen.

 

And you know what? It was awesome. Entrancing. I remember exactly where I was, where I was sitting, the room I was in. I was amazed.

 

Just like today.

I have every version of MSFS since version 1.00 and collecting all matching companion user manuals (remember those?).  What struck me was how involved the manuals were involved at first in physics and aerodynamics packed with formulas, charts, ratings, etc.  They looked like you were taking a course to get your Captain's rating!  The last version was for FSX and it read like a gamers companion! 

After several hours of flying subLogic 1, I got vertigo at night in my bed thinking about the horizon and how it moved.  

 

I do have a cast iron stomach for the most though.

...no mention of Flight Assignment ATP.... VERY close ties to MSFS..  

Anyone remember a title for the Atari 800 called kennedy approach? an ATC simulator with planes that used speech synthesis complete with emergencies like running low on fuel , Solo flight was my first flight sim :smile:

Not sure if I do remember Kennedy approach, but I do have TRACON II by Wesson International -it had speech too; quite impressive on a PC speaker. I still play it on an old GRIDcase 286 (a slightly later version of the laptops controlling the sentry guns in Aliens movie).