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Retro flight sim playthroughs

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Reply 121 of 146, by appiah4

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I just started re-playing X-Wing Alliance with the XWAU mod and it's glorious and beautiful. Give it a go if you haven't, in case you are into that kind of stuff.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 122 of 146, by damson

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I'm completely fine with stock X-Wing Alliance, seen the XWAU and though it looks nice I'm not fond on some changes. Might give it a go at some point. I do look forward for the XWVM though.

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 123 of 146, by MrFlibble

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Any chance you could look at the flight sims made with Domark/Simis' Flight Sim Toolkit? We've found quite a few already, but it looks like they have no presence on YouTube whatsoever.

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Reply 124 of 146, by damson

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MrFlibble wrote on 2021-05-28, 19:46:

Any chance you could look at the flight sims made with Domark/Simis' Flight Sim Toolkit? We've found quite a few already, but it looks like they have no presence on YouTube whatsoever.

I'm familiar with some of FST made flight sims, like those from Ron Walker, tried them back in early 2000s. But there were better ones on the market so I didn't delved deep into them.

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 125 of 146, by MrFlibble

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damson wrote on 2021-05-30, 18:42:

I'm familiar with some of FST made flight sims, like those from Ron Walker, tried them back in early 2000s. But there were better ones on the market so I didn't delved deep into them.

Well, I always appreciate the creative effort from the player side, and have a keen interest for community made stuff in general, especially since these FST games are mostly free, stand-alone games. Of course they could not compete that well with contemporary commercial sims because of the technology leap - I guess FST games already were very dated in 1996 or thereabouts, compared to newer titles like Jeftighter III/Full Burn. But from an early-90s perspective, games like Ron Walker's sims (so far I only played Jaguar GR1 to some extent), would be pretty much commercial quality stuff, and fairly advanced to that.

Not to mention the nostalgia factor, as I tend to be way less excited by more realistic-looking 3D graphics in flight sims. I appreciate the hardware accelerated modes in Jetfighter III and the like, as I can imagine how cool it must have looked like back when it was new (also lately, I developed a greater taste or mid-to-late-90s true 3D in general), but even more recent stuff, I just don't have enough emotional attachment to that.

I also find it very impressive how Simis kept providing support and updates to FST users well into mid-90s, and ultimately open sourced the entire thing too. And people continued to develop their games with FST, and maintained their interest in it, up to mid-late-2000s -- more than a decade after the original release. This is essentially my idea of a perfect game, one which you come back to again and again, and a community continuously produces more content.

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Reply 126 of 146, by damson

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I'm currently revisiting Jet Fighter Full Burn. It's bascially Wing Commander 3/4 set in Jet Fighter 3 engine. It has pretty good story (FMVs!) that keeps you playing. There are 2 campaigns available - it's the same conflict depicted from 2 sides - NATO and Russia, as they fight for control over oil fields on the Norway coast.

Interestingly, contratry to some reviews in gaming magazines from 1998 (like CGW) the story is not linear. In Russian campaign there is a fork in the storyline which can put you on 2 different paths (completely different missions and endings). Anyway I will be putting a video each day, if you want to follow the story here's the link to the playlist:

Jet Fighter Full Burn Playthrough

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 128 of 146, by appiah4

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Errius wrote on 2021-11-11, 23:31:

I just noticed that the original IL-2 Sturmovik came out in November 2001.

I used to play it on my Radron 8500LE, good game with a terrible campaign system..

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 129 of 146, by Errius

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appiah4 wrote on 2021-11-15, 06:06:
Errius wrote on 2021-11-11, 23:31:

I just noticed that the original IL-2 Sturmovik came out in November 2001.

I used to play it on my Radron 8500LE, good game with a terrible campaign system..

I'm playing it now on one of my XP retro rigs. I also have the two Just Flight expansions.

However, unlike the sequel (Forgotten Battles) it doesn't support TrackIR, which is a huge annoyance.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 130 of 146, by damson

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Errius wrote on 2021-11-15, 08:11:

I'm playing it now on one of my XP retro rigs. I also have the two Just Flight expansions.

However, unlike the sequel (Forgotten Battles) it doesn't support TrackIR, which is a huge annoyance.

Yeah, it's a pity. I used mouse emulation feature of Track IR to circumvent that. It wasn't ideal but it kinda worked.

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 131 of 146, by damson

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I recently found out that there was a port of USNF for PSX! It was a shock for me and many of my viewers this remained so long under our radar. The fact it was released only in Japan may be the main contributing factor.

US Navy Fighters PS1 Version

There's also remake of the first 10 missions from USNF Ukraine Campaign for DCS World

DCS World • USNF Ukraine Campaign Remake

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 132 of 146, by appiah4

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I want to get back into flight sims, military in particular. Last games I played were Jane's Longbow and Jane's F-15 (which I was not very good at - it was beyond my skill level..) What is a good game to get into these days? And what is a cheap joystick that will get me by?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 133 of 146, by damson

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appiah4 wrote on 2021-11-29, 17:05:

I want to get back into flight sims, military in particular. Last games I played were Jane's Longbow and Jane's F-15 (which I was not very good at - it was beyond my skill level..) What is a good game to get into these days? And what is a cheap joystick that will get me by?

Well, nowadays there's not really anything that could please you from your description. If you don't mind lack of realism you can try Ace Combat 7 or Project Wingman, it's good fun with lots and lots of missiles. On the other side of the spectrum there is DCS World or BMS for Falcon 4.0 which are waaaaay more complicated than the Jane's F-15. Basically Jane's F-15 would be considered as lite-sim nowadays, but there are no games like this currenlty. It's either arcade or full-blown realism. If you can see past the age, there's Strike Fighters 2 which is something of a middle ground, but it's already a decade old. There are some flight sims from other eras, like Il-2 Battle of ... series which are not very complicated and are still being worked on (it's WW2 flight sim). If you have VR I heard VTOL VR is a good game. It falls into the middle on complexity scale as well.

Regarding joystick, if you want to play arcade flight sims you can just use gamepad, for DCS/BMS you really need a stick (and a throttle) with lots of buttons and hats, and good quality sensors for axis, because precise control is paramont (for example during refueling). I'm using VKB Gladiator NXT, it's well made and not overpriced (though it's still not cheap).

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 134 of 146, by Repo Man11

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Errius wrote on 2021-11-11, 23:31:

I just noticed that the original IL-2 Sturmovik came out in November 2001.

Janes WW-2 Fighters was the first game/sim I played (I bought my first computer at 35 in late 2000 to be able to write papers and such since I planned on going back to school, but then I saw this on my neighbor's computer), but after playing it quite a bit in 2001, I grew tired of the damage model and the performance of the Me 262, so in early 2002 I bought IL-2. The FM was so much more difficult than that of Jane's (even with Jane's set at full difficulty) that it put me off. And only after I had it did I realize the Me 262 was AI only. So I went back to playing Jane's, and about that time I discovered all of the Jane's mods. It wasn't until the release of Forgotten Battles that I made the time investment to get good enough to enjoy IL-2. I played it almost every night after work for years, but I finally gave up on it because the servers I played on were very exclusive about their squads. The way they would ignore players flying on the same side, even leaving them to be shot down by the other side because "Who cares, they aren't on my squad?" became intolerable to me and broke my immersion; so after having it happen one time too many, I logged off and never logged on again.

I don't remember that being nearly as much of an issue when I played on the Greater Green server, which had some great maps, and another server I can't recall the name of that had Finnish maps exclusively (and was mostly populated by Finns, so by afternoon/evening west coast USA time it was almost always dead, so it was weekend mornings only for me). But good servers, like all good things, don't last forever.

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Reply 135 of 146, by Errius

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Yes, my experiences were similar. I got IL-2, jumped in a fighter, and died. And died again, and again. Usually in stupid crashes. Very easy to lose control if you don't know what you're doing. I set the game aside.

Later I got Forgotten Battles and had the same experience, but this time I decided to try flying bombers instead (especially the titular IL-2). This was much easier. Bombers and heavy fighters are how I learned to fly. Only then did I go back to fighters.

The first rule for novice players is stay away from fighters. They're no fun until you're an experienced pilot.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 136 of 146, by appiah4

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damson wrote on 2021-12-01, 15:25:

Well, nowadays there's not really anything that could please you from your description. If you don't mind lack of realism you can try Ace Combat 7 or Project Wingman, it's good fun with lots and lots of missiles. On the other side of the spectrum there is DCS World or BMS for Falcon 4.0 which are waaaaay more complicated than the Jane's F-15. Basically Jane's F-15 would be considered as lite-sim nowadays, but there are no games like this currenlty. It's either arcade or full-blown realism. If you can see past the age, there's Strike Fighters 2 which is something of a middle ground, but it's already a decade old. There are some flight sims from other eras, like Il-2 Battle of ... series which are not very complicated and are still being worked on (it's WW2 flight sim). If you have VR I heard VTOL VR is a good game. It falls into the middle on complexity scale as well.

Regarding joystick, if you want to play arcade flight sims you can just use gamepad, for DCS/BMS you really need a stick (and a throttle) with lots of buttons and hats, and good quality sensors for axis, because precise control is paramont (for example during refueling). I'm using VKB Gladiator NXT, it's well made and not overpriced (though it's still not cheap).

Wait, wait, no no you misunderstand me - Ace Combat and gamepad stuff are NOT what I want 😁

To put things into perspective I was QUITE good at Jane's IAF for example, and could do most of the campaign missions just fine. Low altitude flight and tank busting was just natural to me. Same for AH-64D Longbow (though Longbow 2 threw me off - that one I just had a bad time with) but Jane's F-15 was too much for me. I remember trying the air to air refueling tutorial for 4 hours straight and not managing it 🤣. So I guess I am looking for something like Jane's IAF or USAF today, but that does not exist? Such a shame. I looked for Strike Fighters 2 on Steam but it does not exist, I guess I need to track down a hardcopy? I hope Microprose goes back to making accessible military flight sims 😀

As for a joystick, I was considering Logitech Extreme 3D: It has 3 axis, a hat, throttle, some buttons - seems similar to the Sidewinder 2 I used in the day.. Fair stick for a returning noob?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 137 of 146, by gerwin

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appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-01, 20:55:

I looked for Strike Fighters 2 on Steam but it does not exist, I guess I need to track down a hardcopy?

This is the store for that game: https://store.thirdwire.com/store_p1.htm

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 138 of 146, by appiah4

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gerwin wrote on 2021-12-01, 21:36:
appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-01, 20:55:

I looked for Strike Fighters 2 on Steam but it does not exist, I guess I need to track down a hardcopy?

This is the store for that game: https://store.thirdwire.com/store_p1.htm

That's kind of stupidly expensive for a 10 year old game 😁

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 139 of 146, by gerwin

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appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-01, 22:14:

That's kind of stupidly expensive for a 10 year old game 😁

That Store is just a remnant of more promising times. When there was still hope for a viable market for the series. Around 2012 it appeared that development cost versus amount of customers was just not going to work out. Not even when it was the only remaining lite survey-sim. Consider that development of a flight sim is always more tedious compared to fictional games, because part of the customers are 'rivet-counters'; checking the accuracy of the flight models and the appearance of the objects.

For what it is worth; all those Strike Fighters games are DRM free and you can easily add 3rd party planes and terrains to them.

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul