News Archives Ordered by Date ExhibitTitle Comments Year Thumb First of a new breed Those were the days! DOS was just about dead as far as sims were concerned and USNF '97 was one of the first of the new breed of WIndows sims. Mind you it didn't look any different to it's DOS predecessors! 04-Jan-2002 First flight in Korean Combat Pilot Continuing the Korean theme, this week I looked at Korean Combat Pilot from Just Flight. Containing 12 good aircraft, 2 campaigns and detailed scenery, it has quite a bit to offer. 04-Jan-2002 More screenshots from F-19 Stealth Fighter A late 1980's classic sim, F-19 garnered fans on the popular 16-bit gaming computers of the 1980's - the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga. Francisco J. Campos sent in some more screenshots. 04-Jan-2002 Thrustmaster - why the stiff springs? Ever wondered why the springs are so stiff in the upmarket TM gear? Digging back into the PFCS Mk II manual I found all the answers. 04-Jan-2002 My first sim was Intercepteur Cobalt for ZX Spectrum "My absolute first sim was Intercepteur Cobalt for ZX Spectrum. I had a 16Kb Speccy by then, so I was only allowed to load the 'Pilot's Test' and the 'Take Off' module. IC just had instrumental flight, and for a good reason: it was written entirely in BASIC, with no graphics." 04-Jan-2002 Spectrum's BASIC Interceptor Read Francisco J. Campos' description of what it was like to fly this 1983 sim. "The program was entirely written in Spectrum's BASIC, but it looked wonderful despite Sinclair's poor graphic abilities. It was considered a "serious" game, compared with the ZX hits of that time: JetPac, Jet Set Willy, Cookie, and 8-bit versions of classic arcades." 05-Jan-2002 Updated list of Helicopter sims in the Museum   11-Jan-2002   Fly in Cockpits from BCC GUMP Peter Jungmann from BCC GUMP contacted me with information about their full motion simulators. They are full-motion cockpits and aircraft Types are B727, B757, B747-400, B747-200, DC9, DC10. 11-Jan-2002 Sinclair Spectrum screenshots for 1980's Ace of Aces Francisco J. Campos sent in some Sinclair Spectrum screenhots of this 1986 sim featuring the Mosquito: Ace of Aces. 11-Jan-2002 Jet Pilot ran in only 32 colours I received more info from Vulcan Software about their classic "Cold War" sim. It ran at 320 x 200 pixels and in 32 colours. No - not "32 bit colour" - thirty two colours only! Those were the days when gameplay meant all! 11-Jan-2002 Emergency Checklists in Fighters Anthology! Fighters Anthology is usually referred to as a "survey sim" - meaning that it covers a range of aircraft but doesn't go into great depth on each one. Well that may be so, but I for one never ran out of interesting things to do in the series. At one time I wrote a set of emergency checklists - and at one time or another every one of these problems happened to me! It was fun finding out just how many ways the programmers had provided to break the aircraft! Who can forget that screeching, irritating whine when you threw a turbine blade? 11-Jan-2002 Ka-52 Team Alligator: wrong code shipped? The sim looked fantastic and should have been a flagship product for the publisher. Sadly it was released without fanfare and at a budget price in April 2000. Unfortunately an early build of the code appears to be the one shipped to consumers. 11-Jan-2002 Comanche: Over the Edge Box scan   18-Jan-2002 Pearl Harbor - Box contents   18-Jan-2002 Pacific Strike - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Microsoft Flight Simulator 5 - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Jetfighter 2: Advanced Mission Disk - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Luftwaffe Collection - Box contents   18-Jan-2002 iF16 - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Incoming - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Gunship 2000: Phillipine Islands and Antarctica Scenario Disk - Box scan   18-Jan-2002 Fly the Grand Canyon - Box Scan   18-Jan-2002 Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Campaign report The Campaign consists of 25 missions ranging from 1938 to 1956. Here are my impressions of the first 6: 1940 - 1st Feb - Morning Patrol 1940 - 1st May - May Day! 1940 - 9th May - Battle of Britain 1941 - 1st March - Shipyard Protection 1941 - 12th June - Long Journey home 1942 - 8th August - Blackwater 18-Jan-2002 Europe 1 - Box scan   18-Jan-2002 Apache box scan   18-Jan-2002 Air Warrior SVGA - Box scan   18-Jan-2002   Air Power: The Cold War - Box Contents   18-Jan-2002 The expanding world of Flight Sim Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 has 20,000 airports. Flight Simulator 1 had.. .. .. .. ONE airport! The world of FSI seems extremely small 20 years later - but at the time it opened a whole new world to fans of aviation and computers. 18-Jan-2002 Pushing a 286 to the limit! This sim pushed 1980's technology to the limit. It looks crude now but consider that it ran on a 286 processor at 8 MHz and it wasn't too shabby! 18-Jan-2002 F-15 Strike Eagle 2 revisited In 1989 F-15 Strike Eagle II had one of the richest and most interactive sim environments ever seen. The virtual world was full of activity from enemy fighters and ships. 18-Jan-2002 Fighter Wing - Box scan   18-Jan-2002 ThunderHawk - Box contents   18-Jan-2002 Reach for the Skies - Box scan   18-Jan-2002 WW2 Air Force Commander - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Tahiti - Box art   18-Jan-2002 San Francisco - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Japan - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Royal Air Force 2000 - Box contents   18-Jan-2002 Rescue Air 911 - Box scan   18-Jan-2002 Red Baron Mission Builder - Box art   18-Jan-2002 Obscure 1988 sim by SSI Francisco J. Campos drew my attention to this obscure 1988 sim by SSI. 05-Feb-2002 Air Warrior - Spanish manual cover   05-Feb-2002 Su-25 Sturmovik - Box art   05-Feb-2002 80 page mega-guide to Luftwaffe Collection Luftwaffe Collection was developed by Flight Sim Developers and published by Just Flight in 1999. It recreates 20 classic aircraft from the Luftwaffe's 20th century roster and includes a couple of surprises like a gyrocopter, the V-1 Flying Bomb and a Zeppelin. 05-Feb-2002 R.A.F. Woodbridge in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim R.A.F. Woodbridge R.A.F. Woodbridge appears in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim when you install Air Power: The Cold War. 14-Feb-2002 Air Power: The Cold War - The N.A.T.O. Missions Chuck Yeager's Air Combat is remembered as a classic sim from the early 1990's. Would it cut the mustard today? Well... no! The graphics are primitive, the cockpits basic, scripted missions limited in number and scope. - READ ON.. 14-Feb-2002 Air Power: The Cold War - The N.A.T.O. Aircraft I test fly all the N.A.T.O. aircraft. 14-Feb-2002 Easy Flight - Recce mission in a Canberra from Gibraltar As the aircraft in Air Power - The Cold War install straight into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, I've put together a fun run across the straits of Gibraltar and through the valleys of North Africa. A low level sortie which you can complete in 15 minutes. I flew it in the Canberra but any of the N.A.T.O. jets will do the job. High speed and low altitude in a fast jet - yeah! 14-Feb-2002 E.G.A.F. Scholdmow in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim E.G.A.F. Scholdmow appears in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim when you install Air Power: The Cold War. 14-Feb-2002 Using the Virtual Cockpit I've put together a little tutorial on using the virtual cockpit. I do most of my flying in virtual cockpit mode, head up and looking about while getting the essential flight info from pop-up windows or the Text readout in the case of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002. 14-Feb-2002 A Cold Date at Hakodate Hakodate is the airport in Japan where Lt. Viktor Belenko defected from the Soviet Union in his MiG-25 in 1974. This mission takes about 20 minutes to fly. 21-Feb-2002 Flight Sims donated by Simon Robbins in 2002 In early 2002 Simon Robbins kindly contributed these sims to the Flight Sim Museum Collection: Afterburner by Sega, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Gunship 2000, Falcon and Mission Disk 1, Jumpjet, Shuttle and TFX. 21-Feb-2002 Warsaw Pact missions I flew the Warsaw Pact missions 1-10 in Air Power - The Cold War, an add-on for Microsoft Combat Flight Sim and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002. 21-Feb-2002 Warsaw Pact Aircraft Ilyushin IL-28 Beagle, MiG-15 'Fagot’, Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-19S 'FARMER', Sukhoi Su-11 'Fishpot’, Tupolev Tu-16 'Badger’, Tupolev Tu-142 'Bear’, Yak-28 'Firebar’. 21-Feb-2002 Cold War continues This week I continue the look at Air Power - The Cold War, an add-on for Microsoft Combat Flight Sim and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002. 21-Feb-2002 The Mis-named MiG The MiG-15 'Fagot' out-turned, out-climbed and had a higher service ceiling than the North American F-86K Sabre. It's original NATO reporting name was "Falcon" - it would be interesting to get the story behind changing the name from that of a 'Bird of Prey' to a 'block of wood' ! 21-Feb-2002 Harrier Jump Jet - those were the days! Those were the days! A 270 page manual printed on glossy stock and well bound in a size ideal for throne room reading. As well as heaps of tables detailing air-to-ground weapon effectiveness there was diagram after diagram on air combat manoeuvres. Not to mention the 3 full - colour maps! After scanning the material for this museum entry I moved with bated breath towards my P166 laptop, 3 disks in hand, all psyched up for some retro-viffing. Alas it was not to be.... there was data corruption on Disk 1 ... Aaaaaaaaaaaaagghh! Never mind. 01-Mar-2002 The N.A.T.O. Aircraft test flights concluded B-47E Stratojet, B-52F Stratofortress, Dassault Mirage IVA, F-101A Voodoo, F-102A Delta Dagger, F-104S Starfighter, Handley-Page Victor B.1, Vickers Valiant B.1. 01-Mar-2002 Microsoft Flight Sim History Jos Grupping has made a good start on a history of the Microsoft Sim series: at simflight.com. This inspired me to tidy up the Flight Sim Museum exhibits. Published by SubLogic: Flight Simulator 1, Flight Simulator 2. Published by Microsoft: Microsoft Flight Simulator 3, Microsoft Flight Simulator 4, Microsoft Flight Simulator 5, Microsoft Flight Simulator 98, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. 01-Mar-2002   DOS sim problems There isn't much info on the web these days on running old sims. Often the answer is as simple as this: Reinstall drivers. 01-Mar-2002   MiGMan to retail Thrustmaster Cougar in Australia In response to enquiries - YES - I will be retailing the Cougar for Australia only, and will announce details shortly. Email me - migman@migman.com and I'll put you on the contact list. 01-Mar-2002   Not sure what the Cougar is? Thrustmaster's latest hardware, the HOTAS Cougar. This new gear brings the earlier F22 Pro and TQS up to military standards, with all metal construction and new high performance parts. 01-Mar-2002 Microsoft announces Combat Flight Sim 3 Microsoft has announced the imminent release of Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 3 in Fall, 2002. Here is the press release and three official screenshots from Microsoft. 01-Mar-2002   F-16 Fighting Falcon/Harrier? Yes, yes, I know that's not an F-16! It's a Harrier.. .. .. with TWO vertical tails.. .. !Francisco J. Campos sent in the splash screen from this 1980's Spectrum sim: F-16 Fighting Falcon by Mastertronics. 01-Mar-2002 DID extravanganza I've taken the feather duster to the Museum exhibits on the classic sims from Digital Image Design. This UK based development team have created a string of innovative Flight Sims which manage to place the gamer in the most sophisticated air combat environments while maintaining a high level of accessibility. They consistently pushed the limits of 3-D modelling and portrayed the most up-to-date combat avionics systems, reaching an apogee with the 1998 sim Total Air War, which reproduced a modern air war as seen from an AWACS and from the cockpit of the next generation fighter, the F-22 . 08-Mar-2002 First sim to involve multi-tasking Dam Busters consisted of just one mission. It simulated the daring raids against dams in the Ruhr Valley which were heavily protected by flak emplacements and fighter patrols guided by German radar. The bombs were dropped with a back-spin (like a cricket ball), skipped along the surface of the water and then dove to the base of the dam before exploding. The Dam Busters sim was the first one to involve multi-tasking. You could be pilot, engineer, gunner or bomb aimer - in fact you had to do all at some point in the mission. Not a bad effort for 1984! 08-Mar-2002 Really easy flights Here are the first of my really really e a s y flights for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002. Microsoft have thoughfully provided preset scenic flights which take you to the world's natural wonders. But, as usual, I reckon they could have done better. One of the most immersive and fun parts of any flight sim is take-off and landing. So in this series I suggest quick and easy ways to combine the wonders of the world with a complete joy flight. Who can resist flying under or through a suspension bridge? Forget about rules and regulations, jump in, take off - and 15 minutes later come back in for a 3 point landing. 15-Mar-2002 RAF 2000 Royal Air Force 2000 was developed and published by Just Flight in 2000. This week I look at: 2002 compatibility, Box contents - Box Art, Campaign scenario, Cockpit gauges, BAe Hawk T.1A, English Electric Lightning T.4. 15-Mar-2002 F16 Combat Pilot This sim was a classic. I first played it in the 1980's on an Atari ST. The scenery was very basic but the cockpit was awesome! I used to fly on instruments most of the time and play with the comprehensive information available on the 3 Multi-Function Displays. I even managed to play it head to head with two Ataris joined by a null modem cable. Added: Splash Screens, Ready Room, The cockpit, Reference material, The box, Photos of the video display. 15-Mar-2002 Jump Jet box art Francisco J. Campos sent in the box art for this 1980's sim and Simon Robbins has just donated a copy to the Museum Collection - thanks lads! 15-Mar-2002 MSCFS3 interview with Tucker Hatfield www.combatsim.com has a great interview by Len "Viking 1" Hjalmarson with Tucker Hatfield about Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 3. Combatsim - Tucker Hatfield talks about the new features in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 3 - new aircraft, better clouds, a dynamic online campaign engine. 15-Mar-2002   HOTAS COUGAR is here !! MiGMan is shipping the Thrustmaster H.O.T.A.S. Cougar - today, March 22nd, 2002. 22-Mar-2002 Joyflights in Microsoft Flight Sim 2002 I went exploring in Flight Sim 2002 and found a few more areas ideally suited to joyflights, either because of the spectacular terrain, the architectural wonders or both! While most of the world is apparently modelled in mesh with 1.2 km between elevation points, some areas are modelled in much finer detail. 22-Mar-2002 Royal Air Force 2000 tour of duty concludes Nearly finished the Museum tour of this sim add-on pack - 70 pages and counting! I'm done with the jets and next week will look at the aircraft and missions for Microsoft Combat Flight Sim. 22-Mar-2002 Hawker Hurricane Mk I I take a look at this famous marque in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim. Some regarded the fabric covered fuselage as an asset as it was less likely to fall apart after a few hits. Also, unlike in the Spitfire, the pilot wasn't sitting directly above the gas tank. 22-Mar-2002 Strike Commander - Heart of Darkness? It's hard to believe today but I the public (including myself) was absolutely awestruck by the graphics in in this sim in 1993.I know one (Danish) fellow who upgraded his PC about 9 times in order to play it! To quote the creator, Chris Roberts: "To make RealSpace truly revolutionary we decided to gamble on two major graphics techniques: Gouraud shading and texture mapping. Both of these techniques are used extensively on high-end military flight simulators costing millions of dollars.. . .. our biggest mistake was thinking that we could achieve all of this in a single year." - Chris Roberts: "Recently, I watched the film Heart of Darkness.. " 29-Mar-2002 How much is expensive? If you think the Thrustmaster H.O.T.A.S. Cougar is an expensive piece of kit then check this out - the F-16 Flight Control System - Limited Edition was state of the art in 1995. 29-Mar-2002 Sims written for Japanese PCs Satoshi "Bin" Hiranuma hails from Nagoya in Japan and his website opened a new world to me - that of simulators written for the Japanese market and running on Japanese PC's. 29-Mar-2002 BAe MR2P Nimrod in RAF 2000 "A Derivative of the DH Comet developed as a successor to the ageing Shackleton, The Nimrod first flew in May 1967and entered service in 1968 as the MR1. 35 were upgraded to MR2 Standard and were delivered from August 1979." 29-Mar-2002 Jagdverband 44 - Screaming Eagles enters the Museum Jagdverband 44 - Screaming Eagles was released in 1999 by Hammer Technologies. Translated into English it means "Hunting Group ' 44" and features the Luftwaffe super-weapons. Francisco J. Campos points out : "Flight sims always have high sales in Spain and a videogame shop isn't complete here without a specific simulation section. That's why, at the end of 1999, when I heard first time about Jagdverband 44 - Screaming Eagles I jumped for joy. The bad thing about being a flight sim collector is that you buy everything just for the sake of having it... and sometimes you get bad surprises in nice boxes! " Despite Francisco's feelings about the quality, a flight sim is a flight sim so we covered it in the Museum's usual detail (over 60 pages). 29-Mar-2002 Australia is first in the world to get hands on with the Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar Thrustmaster H.O.T.A.S. Cougar. I just had to say that. It's not often we get anything first down here! What can I say about it? - it's great - it's heavy - it's solid - it's versatile I've been neck deep in Su-27 Flanker 2.0 since I got the unit and I have to say the spring tension (about 18 lbs) really helps create the illusion of flying a 30,000 lb beast! More next week on this. 29-Mar-2002 What is a H.O.T.A.S. ?   05-Apr-2002 Cockpit Database A handy database of real cockpits under restoration. 05-Apr-2002   1995 Hardware standards This Su-27 Flanker Customer response survey gives a good indication of what kinds of PC hardware people were using in 1995 - having only 1 Megabyte of system RAM was not uncommon!. 05-Apr-2002   Su-27 Flanker Developed by The Fighter Collection and published by Strategic Simulations Inc. in 1995. It was designed by a Russian team of programmers to run on 386 and low end 486 machines. The project was taken on by SSI and revised to SVGA graphics resolution. The Russian designers didn't have access to the faster PC's, and as a result the code is very efficient.... it ran very smoothly! 05-Apr-2002 Free area - new in the shop I added new hardware and some Microsoft Flight Sim combat add-ons to the shop. 05-Apr-2002   The Red Baron in 1983 Francisco J. Campos sent in some screenshots from this early 1980's sim. 12-Apr-2002 First look at Flanker Following on from last week's look at Su-27 Flanker, this week I dived into Su-27 Flanker 2.0, it's glorious successor. 12-Apr-2002 Top Gun Aircraft caricatures Click on the image to check out Rob "Bomber" Henderson's Aircraft Caricature site. 12-Apr-2002 Early sim Top Guns Rob "Bomber" Henderson, the UK's top airplane caricature artist, remembers his first multiplayer flying experiences in a a split - screen sim called Top Gun . 12-Apr-2002 Crimean comparison I thought it would be interesting to compare the rendering of the Crimean peninsula in Su-27 Flanker 2.0 with the version in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002. 12-Apr-2002 Printable Checklists From now on all checklists will be available in a more printer - friendly colour scheme as well - I use them! Print them out and keep them by your monitor or HOTAS! Mine sit where the PC Dash used to live. 12-Apr-2002 Incredible free upgrade I finally downloaded the upgrade to Su-27 Flanker 2.0 - which then becomes Su-27 Flanker 2.5, and allows you to fly my favourite a/c - the MiG-29 ! 19-Apr-2002 Su-27 in Flanker 2.5   19-Apr-2002 MiG-29K in Flanker 2.5 New, animated stick and throttle graphics have been added to the MiG-29K, Su-27, and Su-33 cockpits. Additionally, higher resolution art has been added to the lower and side portions of these cockpits. 19-Apr-2002 When MiGs collide: RAF Fairford 1993 Rob "Bomber" Henderson was at RAF Fairford in 1993 when 2 MiG-29's collided during an airshow. Read his dramatic account here. 19-Apr-2002 Back to the December 2007 WIP indexes
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