I mean they released FS 5.0 and it was the first version that worked with windows instead of DOS. You could go into any Costco and see stacks of boxes of Flight Simulator 5 out on a table by the check out stand, you did not even have to look for it on a shelf somewhere in that big warehouse.

And then a few months later boxes marked FS 5.1 were there instead. You could NOT upgrade from 5.0 to 5.1, you had to pay the full price again!

Wouldn't it be funny if Microsoft did that trick again with these updates, he he !

For the record.....I think that FS95 was the first version to be designed for use with Windows. I am reasonably certain that FS5 and 5.1 were both DOS.

Edited October 11, 20205 yr by Christopher Low

Yeah, FS 95 was the first true Windows version.

5.1 was DOS but you could play it in windows without dropping from Windows to DOS.. With 5.1 you could boot it in Windows, and have another windows program running alongside FS and switch back and forth. You could not do that with FS4.

5.1 also caused a massive rumpus as the masses exclaimed "you need a supercomputer to get more than 5 fps". True! That's a quote from Usenet at the time. It was very very hungry resource wise and I remember trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of my 386 20mhz machine at the time. Messing around with Config.sys and Autoexec.bat to free up a smidgen of base memory etc!

It's probably why us old gits don't scream so much about 'performance' because we've been there so many times that we know we're at just the beginning with MSFS and there's a long road ahead.

 

I'm sure going from FS5 to FS95 you could send in a page from the paper (!) manual of the former to MS along with a copy of your receipt for the latter and you got a small cashback via a cheque or postal order.

If MS really want to start making more money, perhaps they should consider splitting the content from the superior versions and sell individually - the airport scenery for £5.99 each and the aircraft for (say) £7.99, after being fixed of course.

FS 95 was not better then 5,1, it only works in Windows and had a few new planes-thats it.

FS5,1 was the first one who works with textures, and yes it was horrible in perfomance.

Makes sense, let's judge someone actions based on what happened years and years ago. What could go wrong?

Adding textures may have been a revolution, but (IMO) it was a revolution that arrived too early. If I had the choice to use rubbish textures or no textures at all, I would choose the latter every time. In fact, this is why I recently decided to switch the water textures off in P3Dv4.5HF2.

Edited October 11, 20205 yr by Christopher Low

Pointless. FS 5.1 was working, the opposite of FS 2020. FS 2020 makes offensive commercial on marketplace offerings. They earn with every selled product on the marketplace. Third FS 2020 will have paid content.

So, its either this choice or the other one. I defenately prefer a working simulation product and would have payed for the updated version, rather knowing I have two wait 2, 3 or even 4 more years for a simulation jet airliner from external companies, because they can`t do it themselves.

Here is a little comparison 😉

FS 5.1

FSX

and today

Wish I could add a pic of FS4 on my amber screen PC running on one of these big floppy disks. Must have been almost 20 years ago. Seeing MSFS today I can easily wait some more weeks to see it mature and just get better. Rock on Asobo and MS!

1 hour ago, BigDee said:

Pointless. FS 5.1 was working, the opposite of FS 2020.

Sorry, what?

Not sure what I've been doing in the game for 100 hours but it can't have been flying, can it?

55 minutes ago, sal9000 said:

Here is a little comparison 😉

FS 5.1

Where can I buy this scenery addon? Is this ORBX?

6 minutes ago, 737_800 said:

Where can I buy this scenery addon? Is this ORBX?

Chicago Cityscape w/ Meigs Field

1 hour ago, sal9000 said:

Here is a little comparison 😉

FS 5.1

<snip>

FSX

<snip>

and today

What are you trying to show us? That the vertical height of the window gets reduced every new generation?!
😜