Thirty plus years in the writing

[brianivor 1]

I really should have addressed this letter to PC Pilot, having been randomly reading that magazine for many years since the days of Windows 3.1, but have yet

to invest any hard cash in flight simulation due to 'trying to hit a moving target':,

The only flight simulator I ever had on my first 386 SX computer with  Windows 3.1 was a Dos-based sim on a floppy disk. I can't remember the name but I think it was

based in Bristol and you could fly under a red suspension bridge if I remember correctly.

Then MSFS.came along and I soon discovered that I would need an unaffordably expensive PC to go with it. I also realised that you needed a fair amount of

computer skills to set it up and to keep it running properly as updates came along and computer hardware upgrades were also needed to keep up with the

software improvements. 

Hence the remark about 'moving targets' - there never seemed to a a right time to invest. Running a domestic flight simulator seemed to be a solitary hobby,

forking out for upgrades without local help.to make them work.

One of my worries was having to keep spending more and more cash on this hobby - if I had decided to become a pianist for example. it would have a one off

payment for a piano to set myself up for life,

So I never did take the plunge and become a flight simmer in all the intervening years to date and an irony is that in those intervening years I learned to fly

and got my Private Pilots Licence!.

Now I see MSFS has been established on XBOX.

No doubt long-establised simmers will not give it much consideration, but it sounds ideal for me, sort of plug and play?

In the short term, I would be able to just get on with enjoying the "game" just like switching on the TV and changing a few buttons on the remote.

As I said at the beginning, I am always browsing PC Pilot  for help in getting started, even at XBOX level,  but the content seems to be all about preaching to the converted.

How the hobby is going to attract new blood when there is so little guidance for a beginner on the bookshelves I have no idea.

It is too late for me to start thinking about multi-screen cockpit layouts now, as I am in my mid eighties now but I would consider dying while trying to land a Cessna 152 

sitting in my armchair.

Brianivor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zatoichi 46]

Like having children there are always reasons not to do it. You wanna fly\sim? Do it.
I bought Bruce Artwick's  gem on a cassette for my trash 80 circa 1980.

Still at it although a slow adapter. FSX atm.

[Wobbie 938]

Did I read correctly?

Buying a game an investment? (Does it increase in value the longer you keep it?

I've been simming for about 30 years now, without 'investing' anything. Yes, I spend time with my hobby, and have a lot of fun with the 'game'. Because of this, I've learnt a lot about different aircraft, and other things that populate my sim world. I have bought myself (not invested in) a set of pedals & a yoke to up my immersion factor. 

A great freeware developer once said that simming is all about Fun, Facts & Fiction. 

I also started with a Trash 80, Level 1, many years ago.. Good days indeed with those block graphics & jaggies.