Great hearing everyone's stories! I was 11 and a year away from getting a Commodore 64 as an Xmas gift from my parents (totally on a whim I'd later find out from them as one of their friends had advised them how these "computer" thingies might be good to get the kids into)... that one machine would change everything, getting me hooked on computers, programming, gaming (and particularly sim games for driving and flying, and RPGs like Ultima 3 etc 🙂). Eventually in 1984 when I got Sublogic Flight Simulator II for my C64 I was floored, seeing a 3D wireframe world in my computer that I could interact with in a cockpit, and my imagination filling in the rest compared to my experiences sitting wide-eyed on window seats on jets of that time on family trips (i.e. Lockheed tristars). Hard to fathom just how far we've come now in the 40 years to bridging that gap between reality and simulation with MSFS.
 

Edited November 7, 20223 yr by lwt1971

I was a sophomore at USC (South Carolina) learning FORTRAN as a business language. Punch cards baby! 

I was at US Navy Nuclear Power School in Orlando, FL, in training to be a nuclear reactor operator.  Don't really remember any FS before FS4.

Joe Alferio

I was at school in Kyiv, Ukraine waiting for December 24 when my dad among other test crew take Antonov 124 into the blue skies for its first ever lift off.

I was 15 and pulling my Apple //e and monochrome monitor down the street in a red wagon. Wearing way too short shorts and long socks on my way to my friend's house. Where we would all bring our computers and show off code and trade software with Locksmith. And also wondering why none of the girls were interested. I am sure this is how I acquired Sublogic's Flight Simulator.

I was at school, doing the last year of my graphic designer course, learning how to get things done with stuff like paper, scissors, glue, paint, ink and a reproduction camera's that filled an entire room. Back then I thought Rotring pens and Letraset dry transfer typefaces were the future! All of that became totally redundant pretty quickly after I took a seat behind a Macintosh IIfx around 1990. But by then I myself already owned an Atari 1040STF, bought it in 1986 I think, and flew some combat fighter sims on it. Civil flight sims didn't interest me until I bought my first PC later on in the early nineties. I think I liked Flight Unlimited the most back then. I owned a few of the MS sims but didn't really get serious with them until FSX was released in 2006. Anyway... on November 11 1982 I was at school, not knowing at ALL what the future might bring.

In my second year at Graz University, probably at the library and studying for an exam. As for the evening, I assume I was at my girl´s place, Flightsimming didn´t cross my mind before 1990, when my wife presented me a copy of FS 5 for birthday. And since then I´m hooked on simming. Also got me a copy of FS4 with all Austrian sceneries that were availabe, then on to FS95, FS 98, FS 2002, FSX, FSX-SE, Flight, Dovetail Flight School, also had Sierra Pro Pilot, Fly,! Fly2, and all X-Plane variants from XP 7 on.

Nothing ever came close to MSFS 2020 and now I´m a very happy camper going low and slow.

I was in class watching STS-5 launch. 

Working as a mechanical engineering specialist at Gilbert/Commonwealth in Reading PA.  Member of the design team for Perry Nuclear Power Plant.

I was 5 so probably playing Pong on the old Atari.

3 hours ago, Alpine Scenery said:

The first Pentiums (75 and up) were like the first "real PC's", everything before it was like a glorified calculator more than a PC.

I remember my upgrade to a 486 being very exciting because I could finally play Doom.

three years away from popping out my mama like some kettle corn

In my dad's balls.

In my dad's sack 

I was a kid so I was in costume and celebrating the Carnival Season Opening which is on 11. November each year in the Rhineland.

 

Edited November 7, 20223 yr by darshonaut