After looking at some neat old DOS sims over on a social media site, I thought: "What sim/software really got me hooked into flight simulation?"

 

For me it was playing Microprose's F19 Stealth Fighter.  I believe it was released in 88.... which would put me around 5-6 years old hehe

 

After that I played various DOS sims, and eventually ran into MSFS 5.0 at a neighbor's house (first for dos, then later the Win95 FS95 version!)

 

FS98 - was the sim where I really started learning how to fly and navigate!

 

F19 Stealth Fighter

 

I started with Pro Pilot 99 then went to FS2000, then to FS2004, then FSX, then FSX Steam and now Xplane 10 and soon going to Xplane 11.  Flight sims are just fun and I love seeing how far they have come.

F-15 Strike Eagle on the C64, Microsoft Flight Simulator (the first one.. all black and white!), Falcon 3.0 and Falcon 4.0 is when I really got excited for flying simulators!   That branched out into being a tank commander, sub commnder, Apache pilot, Starfighter pilot and then finally a commercial airline pilot.  

Started with Skyfox on the Apple2:

 

 

Then I got a bootleg copy of Flight Simulator 1 and I was hooked, so I saved my allowance and bought Sublogic Flight Simulator 2 at the computer store in the mall. Took a long time to save because it cost $65 back in 1984, that was a lot of money for a 12 year old back then

I bought my first PC in late 1991, when I was 15 years old. A used 386sx25, and I had to save a long time for it!

 

I was never purely a flight sim only person - the very first game I bought for my 386 was Civilization... based purely on reading the box. It kept me occupied for a long, long time. But 91 was a good year for flight sims too - my initial favorites were F117A Nighthawk, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. I have such fond memories of SWOTL. Falcon 3.0 came around that time too, but I think I might not of played it until I upgraded to a 486 a couple of years later. Oh... I was also hooked on F-15 Strike Eagle III somewhere around there too - loved the campaign mode in that one, where you had a call sign, and accrued medals.

Timex Sinclair ZX81 "The Flight Simulator" ... believe it or not. The Timex Sinclair was my first computer back in the early 80s (yeah ... I've been around a loooong time).

Like Joel my first flight sim was 'Fighter Pilot' for the Sinclair Spectrum 48K. No visible mountains, no clouds, 4 runways (May be 5), but in my mind I was in an F15!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09cvB6ywiFA

My first experience with flight sims was in the late 70's (F4 military fixed based simulator). In the 80's, was the KC-135 and B-52 military motion simulators (Singer).

 

F-19 Stealth Fighter for the PC was my first on a 386x16 system.

 

Still have these two Sega Master games before owning any computer system. 

 

Credit card size...

 

Sublogic flight simulator for the Commodor 64.

Jim Elder

Fsnavigator in 2000

My first experience with flight sims was in the late 70's (F4 military fixed based simulator). In the 80's, was the KC-135 and B-52 military motion simulators (Singer).

 

F-19 Stealth Fighter for the PC was my first on a 386x16 system.

 

Still have these two Sega Master games before owning any computer system. 

 

Credit card size...

 

In fact I had afterburner on my atari St.....my god I'm dreading being 40 next year

This was my first taste of digital flight, on my first PC, the Dragon32.

 

http://archive.worldofdragon.org/index.php?title=Worlds_Of_Flight

747 simulator in the Spectrum, and latter FS2 in the AMIGA and then on a MAC

The first one I ever played, was some fighter simulator on the C64. The first one I fell in love with, was Birds of Prey on Amiga (because it was so advanced):

 

It has to wings for me on the Amiga 500+, there was also a B17 one that you kept moving to all the crew positions to try to survive a mission. It always surprises me that no one has ever come out with a game that covers the bombing missions of ww2. there have been some that covered the odd mission but nothing fully that I know of.

I wonder if we will look back in 20 years time and wonder how we ever flew P3d or x plane with its ancient graphics?

It has to wings for me on the Amiga 500+, there was also a B17 one that you kept moving to all the crew positions to try to survive a mission. It always surprises me that no one has ever come out with a game that covers the bombing missions of ww2. there have been some that covered the odd mission but nothing fully that I know of.

 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/328900/

 

Wasn't so bad at all! Coincidentally it has 75% off til 17 October

 

For me it was subLogic FS 1 when it in 1984 when I got my first Apple II, immediately followed by FS II.

 

Cheers,

Sascha