Thinking about plunging back into Fly after an interlude with x-plane. What's the status of Fly! II for Mac users? Is it available? can it be used with OSX? (My last adventures with Fly! were with Fly!2 and system 9 some time ago.These questions are probably old & stale for this group, and I apologize in advance.Thanks. Tom

Tom,No apologies necessary.With the final patch in place, Fly! II runs quite well under OS 9 (or so I'm told - my OS 9 instllation is unstable, and I almost never boot OS 9 any more.)There was a time when performance under OS X was pretty poor. However, partly due to openGL changes from Apple, it's now OK. I can get frame rates in the 20's in the exterior view sometimes. However, I can't get my yoke to work consistently under OS X.It would be interesting to see if Fly! II runs on the new 970-based Macs when they come out. According to the late Richard Harvey (gosh, it's hard to write that), the Mac's internal bandwidth was a limiting factor. My understanding is that this has changed for the better with the new PowerMacs.I'm curious about your X-Plane experience. What did you like and not like about it? I've played with a recent demo. Although the performance and the range of choices was astounding, neither the aircraft nor the scenery felt as authentic to me as Fly!'s.-Franklin------------------------------Franklin TesslerDP 800Fly! for Mac Co-moderator

Thanks for your help.Is Fly II commercially available? MacSoft doesn't list it anymore. Is it the same CD/box for mac and PC or do I need to locate a specific Mac version? I've seen it offered on E-bay for just a few bucks, but was wary about bidding for something that might not even work on a Mac.Xplane is a joy & a frustration. Your impression of scenery is right. Basic scenery is very poor, and to me the most painstakingly crafted custom scenery still falls far short of what I've seen in Fly. The same holds true cockpits. I am not a "real" pilot, but the Fly panels seem so much more real to me. I've heard some Xplane devotees say that Xplane offers everything that you really ought to need, and everything else is just "eye candy" that interferes with the epxerience. But I think (for me) the "eye candy" is something that makes the sim believable.On the other hand, there were huge numbers of aircract that enthusiast were creating and sharing -- the whole Xplane community seems quite active and vibrantI suppose different people wnat different things from flight simulators -- and if any of us were really serious, we'd have several different computers and many different simulators to match our different moods!I can't remember why I stopped using Fly!2K and started with X-plane. Presumably I was bored or disatisfied with Fly!2K or something. I can't even remember what I did with the disks, unfortunately. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I prefer Fly . . by a long shot.Tom

Tom,As far as I know, Fly! II is no longer commercially available, but you may be able to find a copy on the shelves or in the bargain bin somewhere. I know that CompUSA used to carry the Fly! series, including the Mac version - you might try there first.The Mac and PC versions are different, so you do need the Mac version.-Franklin