I was just thinking of my early days of flight simming on my old Apple IIe computer.  Ahhh, Flight Simulator 2 with a monochrome moniter and frame rates that would make us all cry if we experienced them today.  And subsequently flying MSoft FS on the original 128k Mac.  I learned a lot about flying back then and had tons of fun but compared to today's sims those were a joke.  I'd be interested to hear about any other retro flight sim experiences from those who wish to share.

I still have a bedroom full of my old Computers; hardware, and software: Apple IIe, Sinclair ZX80, Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k and Spectrum +, Commodore C64, Amstrad CPC 464, Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200, various old cartridge Consoles, etc...etc.....
...up until the emergency of the Windows PC's in the 1990's...
Microprose "Gunship" was/is my favourite Flight Sim on my Spectrum which I still use, courtesy of my excellent "Spectaculator" Spectrum Emulator on my PC!
I have converted many of my crates of my favourite 1/4 inch Spectrum tapes to my PC now!

http://www.spectaculator.com/

I still regularly program my Sinclair Spectrum, both in Sinclair BASIC and Zilog Z80 Machine Code!

The simple joys of 8-bit programming!... ...!

Paul..Elderly Bedroom Programmer... ...!

Fozzer wrote on Sep 24^th, 2011 at 7:11pm:

Too cool, Fozzer! 
Before my IIe Dad bought a Texas Instruments 994A.  My brother (only age 10 at the time) wrote a program where you had to land an airplane only by maintaining the correct airspeed.  It took 15 minutes to load via audio cassette!

pete wrote on Sep 25^th, 2011 at 2:07pm:

FS for the early Mac was about the same.  San Fran, L.A., Chicago.  I used to love flying in and out of Meigs Field on Lake Michigan.  The ONLY scenery was the Sears Tower, Hancock tower, etc.  I have to laugh when I think back.  I got pretty good at landing the Learjet with a mouse. 

Started out with sims on a Speccie

I started with F15 Strike Eagle III and AV8B on the PC. Moved on to FS5.1, then 98, 2000 - 2004. FSX is somewhere in the house, and X-Plane is on the phone, but sadly most of my sim time in the last 5 years has been real (and normally not that fun or pleasant!)

Paul... Print USR 1000

My first taste of flight simulation was "Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer" on a windows 3.1 Packard Bell PC. If I remember right, you had to open the game from a DOS prompt. What I remember about it was that the Cessna was almost impossible to fly, it would stall any time you tried to climb, no matter the power setting. I liked flying the F-16 and the X-1. You could get the X-1 into orbit if you did it right. 

Now I must go download this game and relive old times using the DOS BOX emulator.

Fozzer wrote on Sep 25^th, 2011 at 2:23pm:


I loved FU2 and 3. Once you joined them together you had northern and southern California in detail that at time still puts FSX to shame. Also as I recall there was a config line you could add so that all airports to around half width of the USA from the West Coast appeared. I loved flying around in the Beech Jet and the "Windstar".....a Beech Baron. Supposedly the name had to be changed as FU had crash graphics for each aircraft and Beech got upset, but not about the Beech Jet though  

I first started off on a Sinclair Spetrum, then a Spectrum plus. I then went to a Commodore Amiga, followed by an Amiga 1200 with a hard drive. At that point I was king of the world, a hard drive!!  The only reason I bought each one and (in my eyes) upgraded each time was because of flight sims, though the first games I had for the Specky was Jet pack Willy and Manic Miner. In 1993 I sold all my Amiga and Sinclair remnants and bought a PC. A 486 DX with 4MB of ram and a 256 MB hard drive......man was I cruising . I had a "borrowed" copy of FS4. I bought FS5 shortly after and the difference was unbelievable. I then bought TFX and when it came out, EF2000 and a 4MB expansion chip as EF2000 was a hungry game. After EF2000 with its water and the terrain, I really felt let down when I got FS95. But to be honest, I have always felt let down by every flight Sim and the ground graphics. Maybe I am expecting too much

Here is a blast from the past Fozzer, 1985





Matt

Fozzer wrote on Sep 26^th, 2011 at 5:02pm:


You should come over and visit me in Germany Fozzer, I live down the road from Paderborn where the Heinz Nixdorf computer museum is. You name it, they have it. After wondering around it, you would be ready to die a happy man. Even my wife was impressed

http://en.hnf.de/

Matt

Do you know what?...

Due to this thread, I suddenly realise what all today's youngsters have missed out on...

"How A Computer Works!"

In the early days of 8-Bit computers, we all learned quickly the inner and outer workings of a computer, and how to program them to do anything we wanted!
We browsed through the memory of the computer, knowing exactly where different parts of the program were stored, and how to modify them.
We understood the workings of the Central Processor, and how to program it in Machine Code (Assembler).
...and the BASIC language was written in plain English, for all to understand!
There was much joy to be had in directly inputting various commands on the keyboard, and seeing the results displayed on the screen (Television)!
All this early magic is lost on the present computer gamers.

Try doing that in Windows 7!.... ....!

I think its such a shame!

Paul... ..!

10 INPUT A: PRINT A (2)
20 INPUT B: PRINT B (4)
30 LET C = A*B ( 2 times 4)..(or any other mathematical equation)
40 PRINT C (8)

Simple, innit?... ...!

Just popped my Atari 2600 on one side for a moment whilst I fire up my Babbage Computer...

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/

...and play the mechanical version of Packman... ...!

Paul... ...

I need to stoke the boiler up first, and oil the gears..... ...!

todayshorse wrote on Sep 29^th, 2011 at 2:52am:


..the many joys of leading a solitary life on ones own, Horse...

I can fill my house up with tons of toys/stuff/things to play with, and no-one to complain about it....

(I spent a whole of my working life-time collecting; "stuff" to play with, for when I retired)... ...

...I'm reaping the results now!... ...!

(My large, 3-bedroomed house is nowhere big enough... I need an Aircraft Hanger now!).... ...!

Paul...buried under "Stuff"...Joy!.......!

P.S...all my Children occurred during the breeding season... ...!