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A History of Military Flight Simulations on the PC
by Len "Viking 1" Hjalmarson The Mature Years: 1997-2000 It wasn’t a banner year for boxed simulations, but the movies were hot. Gladiator, the Patriot, and U-571 all came to the screen this year. While not historically accurate, U-571 is one of the all time best submariner action flicks. While boxed retail releases have been fewer, online games appear to have increased. HiTech Creations released Aces High in January of 2000, and has been constantly upgrading and expanding the world, eventually including naval units. Claimed to sport some of the best online flight models ever, and with a host of flyable aircraft, Aces High is an impressive online simulation. In August of 2000 I heard from Mike Gilmartin that Confirmed Kill (CK) was still alive and kicking. This WWII prop sim was designed to compete with WarBirds and Air Warrior, and had been in development on and off since around 1997. Mike and some others purchased the rights to CK from Eidos and formed a new company, but nothing more has been heard on CK since August of 2000. |
In October
Microsoft
released their
Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2
: Pacific Theatre. Though reviews were mixed, the game is atmospheric, with solid flight models and the most beautiful aircraft ever. Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 added wingman commands to the game, as well as carrier ops. The command structure remained unchanged, but added the option of a command key set more similar to that used by generic combat flight sims. The user community behind the original Microsoft Combat Flight Sim adopted Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 quickly, and even before the release new user created aircraft were appearing. Some of these, like those by Roger Dial and Eric Joiner, rival the beauty of the aircraft in the original release. Thunderjets Over Korea is destined to spawn many add-ons. |
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This article is copyright ThrustMaster and Leonard Hjalmarson. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without permission. Email MiGMan with your experiences or any information related to this sim. |
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The contents of this website are copyright © 1998 - 2007 by MiGMan |
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