20 Years of Military Flight Simulations, 1980-2000

The year was 1971. Intel released its first microprocessor, the 4004, which powered the Busicom calculator. The 8008 was released the next year.

In 1974 the 8080 was released. The 8080 became the brains of one of the first personal computers -- the Altair, allegedly named for a destination of the Starship Enterprise from the Star Trek television show. Computer hobbyists ordered kits for the Altair for $395. Within months, it sold tens of thousands, creating the first PC back orders in history.

In 1975 Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak built computers in Jobs’ parents garage. In 1976 they sold 600 units of the first Apple computers for $666.66.

In 1980 the Olympic Games were held in Moscow, and the U.S.A. did not participate. The 4th Annual Beatlefest Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois. Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and Margaret Thatcher had just come to power in Britain, with an unprecedented switch of the popular vote.

Fast forward to 1982. Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and Margaret Thatcher was firmly anchored in Downing Street. In 1982 the 286, also known as the 80286, was released. The 286 was the first Intel processor that could run all the software written for its predecessor. Within 6 years of its release, there were an estimated 15 million 286-based personal computers installed around the world.

In 1983 a startup company by the name of Microprose released Hellcat Aces for the Atari.

In January of 1984 the Macintosh was unveiled, and Jet was one of the early simulations released for both the PC and the Mac. Later in 1984 MicroProse released Spitfire Ace, a game developed by Sid Meier.

In 1985 Steven Jobs was fired from his job as CEO of Apple Computers.

The Strike Eagle line was born in the same year when F-15 Strike Eagle I was released by Microprose in a port for the PC.

The code was a whopping 53K.

In spite of the slim code and 16 color graphics, the marketing machine was beginning to work overtime. Ads for Strike Eagle appeared in the major gaming journals, reading much like they do today.

Whew.

In 1986 A.C.E. (Air Combat Emulator) was published by Cascade Games, billed as "the Ultimate Jet Combat Simulator."

In reality the simulations up to this point were point and shoot type affairs. It was difficult to develop any sense of situational awareness, and sometimes even difficult to tell when you hit something. Damage models were almost non-existent, and avionics and weapon systems really weren’t simulated at all.

Physics and flight, however, were concerns, and the challenge was to create anything remotely recognizable as a flight model in a few kilobytes of code.

If there is a landmark year it was 1987. In 1987 AirWarrior was born, developed by Kelton Flinn, an early try at online gaming

Air Warrior made its debut on the Mac II with simple black and white graphics, no real physics model, and lacking ballistics and other things we now deem as crucial to any decent flight sim. It wasn’t long before Air Warrior appeared on the PC.

In 1987 Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer appeared, attempting to teach the basics of flight on the PC, a needed preparation for the games that would follow.

In the same year the first iteration of the Falcon series was released by Spectrum Holobyte and Gunship (1987) was released by Microprose.

Many simulation fans today count one or more of these last four titles as their "first love" in PC gaming, or at least their introduction to the hobby. Falcon, in 1987, preferred an IBM AT and required 256K to fly under DOS 2.x. 256k wasn’t cheap at the time and not everyone could afford the 12 or 16MHz AT.

It was still too early for the 640K machines or for 256 color VGA graphics, but the excitement was kindled.

In 1988 there were at least three significant releases for the PC, and among them were Falcon AT and Battlehawks 1942. Battlehawks marked LucasFilm GamesÔ entry into the genre, and Falcon AT was a landmark in its own right. A friend remarked,

With Falcon AT, established their name as a premiere simulation developer. The quote from a simulation fan establishes the intimate relationship between the growth of hardware and software. The gaming industry was rapidly establishing its own identity, and simulation fans were becoming identifiable as a group.