Added by Prelude on 29 Jan 2009 07:49

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Fly the Friendly Skies: History of Flight Sims

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X-Plane 9 - PC Games

Release: April 2008
-Latest in the X-Plane series of aircraft simulators
-adds shader support for better shadows, water ripples, and mountains
-comes with six double-layer DVDs, with over 60GB of high-res terrain

What is X-Plane? It is an advanced flight simulator that is used in FAA-certified simulators, ranging from $5,000 Level 1 desktop simulators thru to $60,000 Level 3 cockpit simulators. Beginning with version 6 onwards, it became available for the home PC market, priced at under $50, in direction competition with MS Flight Simulator series. All hardcore flight enthusiast are encouraged to check out their Free Demo. It doesn't get any more real than this.

Prelude's rating:

7.9

Microsoft Flight Simulator X - PC Games

Release: October 2006 (FS Version 10.0)
-Tenth and latest release in the FS series
-Higher resolution scenery and textures; flight dynamics unchanged
-Fewer aircraft than 2004 version; vastly improved multiplayer
-New Feature: Red Bull Air Racing series

Prelude's rating:

X-Plane 8 - PC Games

Release: November 2004
-High Resolution scenery; multiple DVDs with over 60GB of data
-3D cockpits now have same quality of detail as 2D ones
-one of few sims that simulate the Space Shuttle accurately

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight

8.5

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight... - PC Games

Release: July 2003 (FS 2004, Version 9.0)
-First in FS series to see Dynamic Weather and three-dimensional clouds, with localized precipitation
-Shipped with many historical aircrafts like the Wright Flyer and DC-3
-Feature allowed real-world weather data to be duplicated in the game, via internet synchronization

Prelude's rating:

X-Plane Version 7 - PC Games

Release: July 2003
-X-Plane differentiates from MS Flight Simulator series by using blade element theory to calculate all physics of flight in real-time off from shape of ships and airplane, rather than rely only on chart of plane data

8.1

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 - PC Games

Release: October 2001 (FS 2002, Version 8.0)
-Introduced Air Traffic Control to airports
-Introduced interactive AI planes (finally, traffic in the skies!)
-Release was postponed to remove the WTC Towers from the game
-Graphics were improved, and frame rates optimized over 2000 version

Prelude's rating:

X-Plane - PC Games

Release: June 2001 (X-Plane Version 6)
-First major commercial version of X-Plane was version 6
-Increased resolution to minimum 1024x768
-Major terrain upgrade, auto-generated buildings

Fly! II - PC Games

Release: June 2001
-Second and final in the Fly! series
-this version included more aircraft, better high altitude scenery, and higher resolution of terrain

Fly! - PC Games

Release: December 1999
-Developed by Terminal Reality
-Five main scenery areas to fly through

Pro Pilot 2000 - PC Games

Release: November 1999
-third and final of the Pro Pilot series from Dynamix
-with disaster that was Pro Pilot, and Pro Pilot 99 being reduced to value bins, Pro Pilot 2000 came with too little too late, coming after FS 2000

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 - PC Games

Release: October 1999 (FS 2000, Version 7.0)
-Introduced the Concorde and Boeing 777 to the series
-First flight sim to include virtually every airport and navigation beacon around the entire world, and first ever GPS system
-Introduced 3D elevation to scenery maps
-Criticized for slow frame rates on even fast computers at the time

Prelude's rating:

Flight Unlimited III - PC Games

Release: September 1999
-new dynamic weather system, and 10 aircraft to choose from
-Flight area is limited to around Seattle, but if player owned FU II, San Fransisco imagery also available, along with flights between the two areas

Pro Pilot '99 - PC Games

October 1998
-unofficial sequel to SubLOGIC's Flight Light
-drastic improvement over the first Pro Pilot release, but still not enough to compete feature-by-feature with Microsoft

9.5

Flight Unlimited II - PC Games

Release: December 1997
-departs from aerobatics emphasis from first Flight Unlimited game; this title is a general civilian aircraft simulator
-flying was only limited to San Fransisco area, but with very detailed photo-realistic textures taken from real imagery

Pro Pilot - PC Games

November 1997
-rushed to market to compete with FS 98
-as a result, game felt rushed; very buggy and unpolished
-Developed by Dynamix, makers of the 'Aces' war plane series, together with some of SubLOGIC team, after Sierra's buyout

Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 - PC Games

Release: September 1997 (FS 98, Version 6.1)
-New Aircraft: Bell 206BIII Helicopter
-included more scenery, such as 45 detailed cities & 3,000 airports
-first version to include DirectX 3D support

Prelude's rating:

7.7

Microsoft Flight Simulator 95 - PC Games

Release: October 1996 (FS 95, Version 6.0)
-First release for Windows 95, but based heavily on FS 5.1 for DOS
-vastly improved frame rates, better haze
-new aircraft: Extra 300 Aerobatic plane

Prelude's rating:

Flight Unlimited - PC Games

Release: 1995
-primarily an aerobatics flight simulator
-Developed by Looking Glass Technologies
-First flight simulator to feature fluid dynamics rather than direct control of airplane movements; this allowed realistic aerobatic maneuvers
-for its time, best textured ground in any simulator

Prelude's rating:

Flight Light - PC Games

Release: 1994
-last simulator developed by SubLOGIC; they got bought out by Sierra in 1995 and title re-issued simply as 'Flight'
-tried to go back to basics of simple flight simulator, but graphics were well below par of competition

Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.0 - PC Games

Release: 1993
-First FS release to introduce SVGA graphics and Sound Card support
-added textures in certain flying areas
-added Paris and Munich areas

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A320 Airbus - PC Games

Release: 1991
-Developed in cooperation with Lufthansa and Deutsche Airbus

Flight Assignment: ATP (Airline Transport Pilot)

Flight Assignment: ATP (Airline Transport Pilot)... - PC Games

Release: 1990
-SubLOGIC's first simulator after its split from Microsoft
-focused more on mission-based flights of airlines, complete with career mode and point system

8.2

Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0 - PC Games

Release: 1989
-Random Weather patterns introduced
-Supported MS Aircraft and Scenery Designer
-Five cities included, as well as new sailplane

Prelude's rating:

Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 - PC Games

Release: 1988
-three different airplanes, and over 100 different airports
-EGA graphics were a huge improvement over older CGA and monochrome
-First MS Flight Sim developed after its split from SubLOGIC

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0 - PC Games

Release: 1984
-Microsoft released SubLOGIC's 2nd flight simulator for the IBM market
-same 20 airports as original, but could fly across all of US
-added Joystick and Mouse support
-1985 revision (Version 2.12) added EGA 16-color support

Solo Flight - PC Games

Release: 1984
-for its time, very detailed controls and panel
-designed by Sid Meier, who went on to Civilization fame

Flight Simulator II - Commodore 64

Release: 1983
-SubLogic, under pressure from its Apple fans, released the 2nd generation of its flight simulator for the Apple II system. Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga & TSR ports would follow, with the Atari and Amiga ones not until 1987, but with graphics and features comparable to MS FS 3.0

Prelude's rating:

Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 - PC Games

Release: 1982
-Developed by SubLogic for Microsoft, to push IBM PC sales
-Even back in 1982, this simulator met FAA regulations
-more than 20 airports included
-early computers were tested with this software; if they could run MS FS 1.0, they were 100% IBM Compatible

FS-1 Flight Simulator - Macintosh

Release: 1980
-First ever flight simulator, developed by SubLOGIC for Apple II system
-despite its black and white wireframe graphics, it was a top seller
-only one plane and small area to fly in

This list is a showcase, from most recent to original, of the wonderful world of flight simulators. I've only included civilian-centric simulations (i.e. no battle or warfare flight sims). Enjoy!

Timeline of SubLOGIC, makers of the first Flight Simulator

1975: Bruce Artwick, an engineering student at Univerisity of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, developed FS-0 for his thesis, a 3D demo of a flight simulator running on Apple II hardware

1979: Bruce Artwick and Stu Moment found SubLOGIC to market and develop flight simulators for the personal computer market

1980: FS-1 Flight Simulator, the first ever flight simulator software, is released by SubLOGIC for the Apple II

1982: Microsoft contract SubLOGIC to develop Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 for the IBM PC market

1983: Under pressure from Apple fans, SubLOGIC releases Flight Simulator II for the Apple II, and gets extra colors, more airports, roads, and scenery

1984: SubLOGIC develops Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0, with most of same features found in its 2nd generation simulator

1986: SubLOGIC begins to develop add-on scenery for both Microsoft and their own flight simulator series, gradually covering all of the US

1987: First European sceneray add-ons developed by SubLOGIC

1988: Bruce Artwick leaves SubLOGIC and founds BAO Ltd, and takes the 'Flight Simulator' trademark with him
- BAO Ltd develops Flight Simulator 3.0 for Microsoft
- Microsoft eventually acquired all trademarks for Flight Simulator series and Bruce remained with Microsoft as a consultant

1990: - SubLOGIC develops a new simulator, Flight Assignment: ATP, focusing on airline industry and mission-based flights

1994: After the split from Microsoft, SubLOGIC developed and released Flight Light simulator

1995: Still under Stu Moment's leadership, SubLOGIC was working on a follow-up to Flight Light when they got bought out by Sierra

1998: Sierra merged SubLOGIC's team with their own Dynamix development studio, creators of the Aces series of WWII flight simulators, and released Pro Pilot '99. It was not the success Sierra hoped it would be.

Other Simulator Lists:

* As Real As They Get: BEST SIMULATORS

* Evolution of Racing Simulators

* WWII Air Combat Flight Simulators

* WWI Air Combat Flight Simulators

* Dive! Dive! History of Submarine Sims

* All Aboard! History of Trains & Rails - (coming soon)

* Ahoy Mate! History of Pirates & Sails - (coming soon)

* Bogie on your six! History of Modern Air Combat Sims - (coming soon)

* Helicopter Flight Simulators - (coming soon)