Ah yes, Microprose! I feel special growing up with Microprose's Simulations. Their games have always remained as my all time favourites. I still have a shelf lined up by the Microprose's Simulations.

Serious combat flight sims, thick manuals, quality products. And also great Strategy titles of all time. Even released a great RPG called Darklands.

Malik wrote:

Ah yes, Microprose! I feel special growing up with Microprose's Simulations. Their games have always remained as my all time favourites. I still have a shelf lined up by the Microprose's Simulations.

Serious combat flight sims, thick manuals, quality products. And also great Strategy titles of all time. Even released a great RPG called Darklands.

What I particularly love from Microprose's flightsims is their open-endedness. You create a pilot, then you play her/him through series of randomly generated missions. Gunship 2000 even has (semi) dynamic campaign.

Hell yeah Microprose!

Can't really comment on their sims, but I loved X-Com Apocalypse.

Oh yeah, I remember spending countless nights playing Gunship 2000 - especially the "tactic" where from behind a hill, you rise up, fire a missile, and descend again, hiding behind the hill to avoid retribution.

Malik wrote:

Oh yeah, I remember spending countless nights playing Gunship 2000 - especially the "tactic" where from behind a hill, you rise up, fire a missile, and descend again, hiding behind the hill to avoid retribution.

My favorite Gunship 2000 tactic is "dive salvo".

You see, when aiming your rockets, most of the times you need to pull up your nose to vertically line the cross hair with the target. Of course, pulling up the nose will raise your altitude, unless you compensate by reducing the collective. Problem is; compensating too much will slam your chopper to the ground, while compensating too little will increase your altitude anyway, making you nice targets for SAMs.

Instead of doing so, I prefer to not touching the collective at all. Right before firing the rockets, I make a dive, pointing my helicopter's nose even lower that it is, losing altitude in the process. And then, before I hit the ground, I immediately pull up the nose and fire the rockets. That way, I never need to guess the right amount of collective reduction to avoid gaining altitude.

This is a fantastically amazing read. Thanks for sharing! 😀

Somehow, I imagine many shrill PC speaker F117A engine noises..... going all at once during testing

I Read the article two weeks ago, a very interesting view on life behind the scenes.

Back then I enjoyed F-15 Strike Eagle II. And the F-19 game briefly. F-15 II is fun, and very much a game, thus less a sim. I wondered if that was the case with all their releases, but M1 tank Platoon II on the other hand is quite realistic and shows a very sober battlefield.

What I miss in the microprose flight-games/sims is that even fleet defender (1994) does not allow a video mode beyond 320x200, and there is usually a single flyable aircraft. So I turned to USNF/ATF (EA).

SquallStrife wrote:

This is a fantastically amazing read. Thanks for sharing! 😀

Glad you like it. 😀

Since we Vogoners are old game lovers, how many of us loved to play flight sims?

Frankly, I would be surprised if we don't have many flightsimmers among us. Flight sims were much, much more accessible during the good old days, and there was still a place for non-realistic flight sims like Strike Commander.

I also remember reading a column in a 1999 issue of CGW, where the writer ranted about the decline of flight sim genre. The writer also mentioned, that during the release of Aces of the Pacific and Aces Over Europe, flight sims were probably the most sold-out games in the market. The writer also mentioned that he worked hard during summer to collect the money to buy Aces of the Pacific - only to find that the game had been sold out when he finally got the money.

Still, from this thread, I was rather surprised that I'm the only one old hardware hunter who is interested in flight sims peripherals like Thrustmaster HOTAS and the like. We are old game lovers; are we not interested in old flight sims?

Anyway, despite my passion for flight sims controllers, I am by no means a hardcore flightsimmer. Nope. Not at all. Yes, I post in SimHQ sometimes (under the moniker KAN), but I generally don't play modern flight sims. Yes, modern flight sims are far more realistic than their vintage predecessor, and arguably better, but I found them too difficult for my taste.

Instead of IL-2 Sturmovik, where it takes me forever to down enemy aircraft (and I'm using Me-109 against IL-2, so you know how suck I am in that game), what I really need is a modern version of Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe; a flight sim with simple flight model, but exciting action and excellent strategy element. Yes, the strategy game in SWOTL is the part that keeps me coming back. Too bad Secret Weapons of Normandy doesn't have such thing. 😠

gerwin wrote:

I Read the article two weeks ago, a very interesting view on life behind the scenes.

Back then I enjoyed F-15 Strike Eagle II. And the F-19 game briefly. F-15 II is fun, and very much a game, thus less a sim. I wondered if that was the case with all their releases, but M1 tank Platoon II on the other hand is quite realistic and shows a very sober battlefield.

What I miss in the microprose flight-games/sims is that even fleet defender (1994) does not allow a video mode beyond 320x200, and there is usually a single flyable aircraft. So I turned to USNF/ATF (EA).

F-15 Strike Eagle II was fun, but I prefer F-19 (and F-117) due to its more complex (and interesting) gameplay. Flying at 110 feet under 200 knot in order to avoid radar is a thrill of its own, and avoiding to destroy unauthorized targets (despite the fact they may threaten you) is pretty much fun. Under such constraints, completing a mission as simple as photographing enemy site gives much satisfaction. And of course, there is thrill of making undetected landing at secret airstrip.

Fortunately, F-19 flight model and avionics is not as complex as, say, Lock-On: Modern Air Combat. I know my taste is much different than that of the flying hardcores, but like I said before, I'm not a hardcore flightsimmer.

Wow, that logo in reverse made all sorts of Dark Lands memories come back.

Flight simulation was and always will be my favorite genre. Got started with CYAC, got a Thrustmaster HOTAS setup, and continued through MSFS 5, Flanker, A-10 Cuba, X-Plane, etc. Eventually got a pilot's license but I still log more hours on the ground in front of my screen.

I've got a little collection of 90's flightsticks from TM, CH, and Suncom. Should do a video comparison someday.

I'm having the CH Pro Throttle, the CH Pro Pedals and the Jane's Combat Stick for use with my flight sims.

I enjoyed very much a tactical submarine combat simulator by Microprose and Sid Meier called Red Storm Rising.

Amazingly realistic for its time. Probably a bit too demanding and pressuring for the average gamer, but a jewel for 'the more realistic and tougher, the better' geeks like here your servant.

Played a lot of flightsims in the dos days, of Microprose only Strike Eagle 3 I'm afraid.
Others I played are Red Baron, Chuck Yeager, Harrier Assault, TFX, Retaliator, Dawn Patrol, Falcon 3 and EF2000.

Ah, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat: the first game that allows you to pit P-51 Mustang against F-4 Phantom. 😀

I remember strafing a lot in Chuck Yeager. Sometimes, I even used to sttafe on empty ground simply because it was fun. And also used to "experiment" with doing a quick dive-n-climb near the ground to make the trailing missile hit the ground instead.

Great read even though I've never been a fan of flight sims per se. Articles like these just show how the gaming industry has lost its way 🙁

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm8VTZ2fyos

Look at those framerates... 😳
How did people manage to play with 5-10 FPS?!