VOGONS


First post, by darkenedroom

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Hopefully this is the correct topic to post under, if not, mods please feel free to move.

So I have recently completed (for now) a series of articles on Falcon 3.0 covering:

  • The various versions and official patches, including official 3rd party utilities.
  • A list of unofficial 3rd party tools, mods and utilities collected from the depths of the Internet

So with the first article I'm hoping it's a fairly definitive history, it can be found here:
https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/post/ … n-patch-history

So I have managed to track down nearly all the Falcon, MiG-29 and Hornet patches except the Falcon v3.0e patch. It wasn't widely distributed as it was shortly superseded by the preferred v3.02 patch. If anyone has a copy of the patch it would be useful to have them all for preservation purposes. It would also be useful if any errors or omissions in the article could be identified (and then I can correct them). I've recently placed the collection of patches on the Internet Archive.

The second article, is my attempt to be as complete as possible today, identifying 3rd party tools, mods and utilities. I believe it isn't as complete as it could be and although I've done my best there are probably missing entries that should be included. If anyone knows of any errors or omissions please let me know so I can add or correct them. The article can be found here:
https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/post/ … cial-mods-tools

Any help would be gratefully received, thanks in advance!

https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/ - Retro PC gaming on Windows 10, technical aspects, flight sims and space sims a speciality

Reply 1 of 8, by rfnagel

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I vaguely remember the v3.0e update patch in the long-since gone Spectrum Holobyte and Flight Simulation Forums on Compuserve many years ago. I remember at the time that I had already updated Falcon/MiG/Hornet to the latest version, so I never downloaded that specific update patch.

As far as the list of utilities, it looks fairly complete to me 😀

P.S. Love your web site, as I've been flying a lot of F3 lately 😀

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 2 of 8, by darkenedroom

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Yes, I think a lot of people did the exact same thing, the v3.0e patch was never 'current' for very long , as the 3.02 patch came out fairly soon afterwards and like yourself, most people moved to that version.

It's good to get confirmation that I've managed to capture most/all of the third party utils available today.

If you come across a util I've missed in the future, feel free to give me a shout about it and I'll update the relevant Falcon article.

If you're playing Falcon 3.0 these days with a throttle I'd recommend TMSTICK (should be on the Falcon/Falcon Gold cds), it managed to correctly set the afterburner detent on my Warthog throttle! Just be careful which version you use, as I think the TMSTICK util on the Falcon Gold cd is the wrong version! Should be TMSTICK v2.1 but v1.9 is on the cd.

Good hunting in those Falcon 3.0 missions! 😀

Any thank you for the kind words about the website, good to hear it's useful and people are liking it! 😀

https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/ - Retro PC gaming on Windows 10, technical aspects, flight sims and space sims a speciality

Reply 3 of 8, by rfnagel

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Yeah, TMSTICK on the Falcon Gold CD is an older version than the one that is included on the Falcon 3.0 CD. I'm not sure what the differences are, but I'm using the newest one.

BTW, I use TMSTICK under DOSBox with my ThrustMaster T.16000M, I like to reduce the default 20% null zone in the games.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 4 of 8, by rfnagel

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For anyone interested: The complete soundtrack of "Falcon Gold" ("Falcon 3.0", "Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter", and "MiG-29: Deadly Adversary Of Falcon 3.0") recorded to MP3 files using the MUNT Roland MT-32 software synthesizer (in CM-32L mode): http://bhservices.us/weeds/Temp/Falcon_Gold_MP3_Music.zip .

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 5 of 8, by rfnagel

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darkenedroom wrote on 2025-01-17, 08:25:

If you come across a util I've missed in the future, feel free to give me a shout about it and I'll update the relevant Falcon article.

Here's something that you may be interested in (I also posted this in another message thread here at VOGONS where I was asking about it):

I went on a massive digging hunt through my ancient Compuserve Gamers Forum file library backups, and unearthed the Strategic Falcon v1.22 update patch that I mentioned in a previous post. I uploaded and attached it to this message post.

[74650,746] Bill White                Lib: 5 Modern Air (A-F)
SFALL.EXE
Bin, Bytes: 538220, Count: 572, 07-Nov-95

Title : Strategic Falcon 1.22 Update Patch (Full)
Keywords: STRATEGIC FALCON 1.0 1.22 UPDATE PATCH UTILITY STRATFALC
Catalog#: 1033

Requires Strategic Falcon. This self-extracting patch file updates any
version of StratFalc to version 1.22. New features in 1.22 include the
ability to choose your mission types, the Phoenix missile in the F-14,
adjustable chaff & flares, and more. (This updated version of the 1.22
patch will install STRTSPRT 1.5.). Please look at the READ.ME! file
before applying the patch. Uploaded by Bill White.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 6 of 8, by rfnagel

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Green square in the War Room? Maybe someone can answer this question for me. OCCASIONALLY I see a green square in the War Room located above the DOS Prompt (where you would normally click to exit the game) in the upper-left corner of the screen. It's rather infrequent, but I HAVE seen this green square a few times.

Attached is a screenshot that I edited, adding the green square in it's approximate position (as lately, no matter what I did, I couldn't make it appear <aarrgghh>).

Does anyone have any idea of the significance of that green square in the upper-left corner of the screen and what it means?

The attachment Falcon_3.0_Green_Square.png is no longer available

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 7 of 8, by ripsaw8080

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Only a guess: because the small box looks like the one representing the selected squad's theater on the world map, perhaps it is a reminder that another squad (not currently selected) has been assigned a theater (whether the same theater or a different one).

Reply 8 of 8, by rfnagel

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ripsaw8080 wrote on 2025-02-13, 13:54:

Only a guess: because the small box looks like the one representing the selected squad's theater on the world map, perhaps it is a reminder that another squad (not currently selected) has been assigned a theater (whether the same theater or a different one).

Thanks for the info, ripsaw8080 😀 Yeah, I was thinking of something like that along those lines, but for the life of me, I can't seem to recreate it.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net