Who has been Simming for 20 years or more ?

[KaC_Furias]

Battle Hawk 1942 - Lucasgames

[Juri_JS]

My first "sim" was "Ace - Air Combat Emulator" on the C64 released in 1985, though I think I first played it in 1987. This means I have my 30th simming anniversary this year.

https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/ACE:_Air_Combat_Emulator

[Blutaar]

I just glanced over the posts but did i saw no one mentioning gunship 2000 or what it was?

 

Uff, what was my first i am not sure, i was a kid and we had an C64 and i think the first game i played was some game with a double engined british plane where you didnt see the ground, just a cloudcover, if you wanted to land you did just slowly go down into the clouds, i dont know which game it was and maybe i missrembering but im sure someone will know instantly if my description is not to far off.

 

I dont know if this counts as a sim but there was another game around the same time i played on C64, blue max or so, man im old.

[Dutchvdm]

 

Here's my Flight Sim Dossier from what I can remember and I'm sure there's more I left out.

1. River Raid - Atari 5200 - Proud owner of the "River Raiders" Activision Patch
2. Sopwith
3. JET on my first 8088
4. Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Simulator
5. Microprose F-19 Stealth Fighter (Before they knew what it was but made the game anyway! Hitting the Radar at Tripoli, oh yeah!)
6. Microprose F-117 Stealth Fighter
7. Aces of the Pacific
8. Aces over Europe
9. Dawn Patrol
10. F-15 Strike Eagle III
11. Strike Commander
12. Comanche Series
13. A-10 Tank Killer II
14.  
15. After a few years, I upgraded to an F-16 FLCS and TQS.
16. Eventually I upgraded my F-16 FLCS with the F-22 PRO and modded it to make it digital from analog with the "Stickworks" SWF22 Digital Upgrade.
17. In the year 2000, I was one of the first to Pre-Order my shiny, new, all metal Thrustmaster Cougar!  I couldn't have been happier, the overall flow, the complex programming available, it was by far the best flight stick combo I had ever used.
18. Late one evening on April 1st 2011, we were escorting B-29's into Japan.  I took out an N1K, and pulled hard to engage a KI61 that was engaging the bombers.  I'm about the pull the trigger when I go into an uncontrollable aileron roll.  I finally disconnect my stick, disengage from the fight and fly the rest of the way home with keyboard trim.  The next day, I open my Cougar up and found that I broke the metal inside that keeps the X axis on track and and turns the potentiometers.  Tried to repair the damage by welding the piece, but it was apparently cast pot metal and just "melted" during the attempt.   They didn't make the Cougar any longer so I couldn't easily replace the piece.  I can't complain at all, as I had received 11 high quality years out of the stick.  Looking back, the damage was likely caused due to the high stress 'tailslide' maneuvers I had been practicing over the previous month.  
19. December 7th, 2011, I finally upgrade to a Thrusmaster Hotas Warthog and have been using it ever since.
20. March 31st, 2015, upgraded to the MFG Crosswinds Rudder pedals and couldn't be happier.
21. October 16th, 2015, I added a 10 cm extension to my Warthog Stick.

 

 

Nice list! But do you really count the first couple ones as sims  ?

 

Then i would like to add WIngs of Fury to the list!!

 

Grt M

[[CPT]CptJackSparrow]

Wings of Fury, Apple IIe, 1987.

[Gambit21]

1985

Jet 2.0, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2

[kissklas]

Not sure if would call it simming, but I did play loads of Chuck Yeagers combat sim back in the early 90s.

[[TWB]Pand]

Nice list! But do you really count the first couple ones as sims  ?

 

Then i would like to add WIngs of Fury to the list!!

 

Grt M

That's true, I wouldn't call them sims by any means however, I thought they carried some weight as that's where it all started

[THERION]

Nice list! But do you really count the first couple ones as sims  ?

 

Then i would like to add WIngs of Fury to the list!!

 

Grt M

 

Yes, seeing this list I realize I forgot a lot of titles I also had on the stash.. 

[No_85_Gramps]

The sim had to be loaded with 2 floppy discs one after the other. 

Ah..those were the days! Who remembers typing in basic and/or assembler code from magazine articles, and then saving them to a cassette-tape storage?

[Gambit21]

Jet 2.0

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2 (with the WWI sim remember?)

Janes F15

Falcon 4.0

European Air War

Janes WWII Fighters (uninstalled immediately - BLECH!!)

Flanker 2.0

B-17 Flying Fortress (Awful, again unitstalled immediatly)

IL2 Sturmovik

Lock On (gave up on it in short order, awful landing physics)

Rise of Flight

DCS (Only purchased the Dora, but can't be bothered to install and fly at this point...fool me once)

Battle of Stalingrad

 

 

Not to mention hard core racing simulation like Grand Prix Legends.

When I had a driving wheel I tended to cycle back and forth between flying and driving.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Gambit21

[Sokol1]

On PC since

in 1996.

IEN Warbirds MMO multiplayer in 1997.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Sokol1

[Skid]

1986? 1987? - Sublogic's Flight Simulator and Jet! for the Atari ST. I hadn't realized it has been that long...

[I./JG68_Sperber]

 

1998 Red Baron 3D

 

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

I started with Hellcat Landing. It was a text only game over modem to a dedicated text machine in the basement of my high school. You had a starting altitude, heading, airspeed and descent angle. You input data to get yourself down to a landing. I got it down to two steps after a few weeks. Early 80's.

 

I flew something on my dad's Macintosh in the late 80's or early 90's. I think it was supposed to be an A-10 but it was crazy grainy monotone.

 

First visual sim I owned was SWOTL.

Edited March 22, 2017 by II/JG17_HerrMurf

[Monostripezebra]

Anyone remember the old "Top Landing" arcade?

[-NW-ChiefRedCloud]

When did IL-2 first come out? But I started with Microsoft Combat series 1, 2, & 3.

 

Chief

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

More like 30+ here.  Were they all "sims" by today's standards? Nope.  Many hours spent with Red Baron I/II/3D, Aces of the Pacific and MS Combat Flight Simulator 2 along with others before the IL-2 series.

[Hoots]

First one was "aviator" on a BBC micro. God I'm old.

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

When did IL-2 first come out? But I started with Microsoft Combat series 1, 2, & 3.

 

Chief

1998, 

 

I started with the Amiga II 1989 Mech Warrior. that was the best Computer ever built, its to bad it didn't last long, because it was way ahead of its time, and would of blown Apple out of the water.

[1./KG4_Blackwolf]

 

 

Does anybody here remember the community project Target for tonight? After dissappointment caused by the fact that B 17 II ended up as a purely off line sim community started to work on its own sim based mainly on Lancaster and Bf 110 (but not only). http://www.combatsim.com/memb123/htm/2001/08/t4t/ Unfortunately it revealed after some time that they bit off more than one can chew.       

Target Rabaul, Tobruk and Tonight, I remember flying a little bit of them. Flanker 2.0 got me started in '99. Warbirds, Aces High, Strike fighter 2/Yankee air pirate, some fighters of the Pacific game, IL2, Lock on, FC/2, ROF, CLOD, BOX and DCS. So yeah been around a while. (Dang old age just caught me!) 

Edited March 22, 2017 by Blackwolf

[DakkaDakkaDakka]

30 years for me. My dad brought home an Apple IIc and (since he was a private pilot) a copy of the original MS Flight Simulator, in the theory that it might help him stay current (not really). He didn't care for it much but I loved it and all the other flight games I could get my hands on.

 

I was more of a jet and WWII buff back then, and played some wacky titles like "Wings of Fury" and "Thud Ridge." When we got a 286 in the late 80s, I loved SWOTL and Chuck Yeager, missed out (somehow) on Red Baron. Got a 486 in the early 90s and loved Falcon 3.0 and the Mig-29 expansion (first time I used padlock, it was amazing). In the late 90s played the first MS CFS and that was also my first taste of online multiplayer... remember seeing warping for the first time and was convinced people were hacking. Dialup... lol.

 

Didn't have another proper gaming PC till 2011 when I built one expressly to play RoF, a game that completely blew me away and still gives (for me) the greatest feeling of flight ever. Have since dabbled in il2:1946, CloD, BoX, and DCS, but still prefer RoF despite the dwindling online MP scene.

 

Anyways, I hope to see what the next 20 years of flight sims has in store for us.

Edited March 22, 2017 by surfimp

[Sokol1]

When did IL-2 first come out? 

 

"Leaked" demo in September 2001, released November 2001.

[Rjel]

My first "sim" maybe wasn't a sim in the strictest sense, but it sure was the realization of a long held dream to be a WWII fighter pilot. I knew then and I know even better now, I never could've been one in real life. But, the chance to play at it was the culmination of folding literally thousands of paper airplanes, building plastic models, spending my allowance on wind up rubber band balsa stick models and even more simple little cheap balsa wood gliders when I didn't have enough for anything else. Add to the hundreds of magazines and books, movies and TV shows, man I loved that first sim.

[19//Moach]

my first simulator looked like this: 

 

 

 

 

of course, mine was black&white - since my 386 laptop I had back then didn't have modern features such as "color"... 

 

 

sims have looked gradually better as that same laptop slowly evolved into this

[kestrel79]

Wow it has been over 20 years! I started with Air Warrior online at aol.com in 1996, then bought USNF '97 after that. I was in 7th-8th grade

Edited March 22, 2017 by kestrel79

[VBF-12_Stele]

First was F-15 Strike Eagle in '93 on my IBM 386. Played it to death with my keyboard. Took up Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0. I think there was a combat scenario, very crude, I was always drawn to fly. In 1999 I took up Jane's WW2 Fighters, where I had the chance to fly with an actual squad. Found out about IL2 soon after and the rest is history.

[1./KG4_Blackwolf]

my first simulator looked like this: 

 

of course, mine was black&white - since my 386 laptop I had back then didn't have modern features such as "color"... 

 

 

sims have looked gradually better as that same laptop slowly evolved into this

+100 for the seat belt! 

Edit: and the Bat phone!

Edited March 23, 2017 by Blackwolf

[Blooddawn1942]

I just glanced over the posts but did i saw no one mentioning gunship 2000 or what it was?

 

Uff, what was my first i am not sure, i was a kid and we had an C64 and i think the first game i played was some game with a double engined british plane where you didnt see the ground, just a cloudcover, if you wanted to land you did just slowly go down into the clouds, i dont know which game it was and maybe i missrembering but im sure someone will know instantly if my description is not to far off.

 

I dont know if this counts as a sim but there was another game around the same time i played on C64, blue max or so, man im old.

You are clearly describing Ace of Aces.

And yes. Gunship 2000 was my favorite microprose sim on the Amiga. That was a damn good time.

[ShamrockOneFive]

Some of you folks have some impressive lists!

 

I started with A-10 Tank Killer from Dynamix, progressed on to Aces of the Pacific and Aces Over Europe after that. I flew Microprose's F-15 Strike Eagle II, Strike Eagle III, and Fleet Defender. Then I had a break for a very long time before I got back into the sim genre with IL-2 Forgotten Battles (nearly bought Sturmovik until I found out about Forgotten Battles was about to come out).

 

I had a little side detour through the space sim genre for a while too. TIE Fighter, Wing Commander and Descent: FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2. Good times!

[I/JG27_Rollo]

Red Baron II and European Air War.

So yeah, pretty much spot on 20 years...

Edited March 23, 2017 by I/JG27_Rollo

[Blutaar]

You are clearly describing Ace of Aces.

And yes. Gunship 2000 was my favorite microprose sim on the Amiga. That was a damn good time.

Yaeh thats it, Ace of Aces hahaha, long time gone.

 

Thx for pointing out, i was sure that anybody who played this instantly know which game i mean, indeed a good time.

[Chief_Mouser]

I do, been a bit into that, too. Later 252 Sqdr emerged from it (right, Cat?), some IL2-46 mods and add-ons, SEOW-events, oh yes, good old times, greetings to the silverbacks

 

1999 for me with European Air War. Then Il-2; joined up with the Target for Tonight guys - that was my first multiplayer experience - who morphed into 242 Sqn. When CharlieChap joined up he was the driving force in creating HSFX and our involvement with 4Shades and SEOW. Brilliant times  . I'd still love to see a 'proper' European theatre night-bomber simulation with all the navigational gizmos and radar-equipped nightfighters though - the dream lives on.

Cheers.

Edited March 24, 2017 by 216th_Cat

[Retnek]

242 ... who wrote 252   "European Air War" with the large bomber formations was a milestone for me, too.

 

 

The itch for a proper night-bombing sim is still alive! A lot of elements were made available via IL2-46 mods, enjoyed all of it, but I've never seen a mission or a server presenting the whole picture in an acceptable way.

 

  Afaik the sim-engine of Il2-CloD has been prepared to cover the needs of night-bombing and -fighting. There are the Bf-110, Ju-88, He-111 and the early Blennies, hopefully the Beau and the Wellington are more or less finished, too. So we just need some details like proper implementation of search-lights and heavy AAA and further minor elements to simulate air war at night until 1943 ... looks like the perfect simulogical niche for CharlieChap (hope he's fine, he did so much!   )

[darthdooboss]

The first was in 1985 "Fighter Pilot".

After that XWing vs TIE fighter, SWOTL, European Air War, FS, IL2, FLANKER, Lock On, IL2CLOD and now DCS & IL2BOS/BOM/BOK

[E69_Chipi]

There are so many of them....

C64 -
The Dambusters
Spitfire 40

Battle of Britain

Solo Flight

Acrojet
F-15 Strike Eagle

F-15 Strike Eagle II

A.C.E.

A.C.E.2

Fighter Pilot

Jet

B737

Gunship

 

and some more I can´T remember their names

 

And then continued with the A500 and PCs. So many of them I can´t remember them all.
 

[FlyingH]

Chuck Yeager, Overlord, EAW, 1942 Pacific, Typhoon, the M$ flight and combat sims, then came a demo IL2 which was devastating to my selfconfidense as a " fighter pilot"! But I got there at last. Flying all the missions of the "Eastern front" campaigns. kept on and on following the sequels all the way ´til today! Upgradin PCs, sticks and all the other equipment needed. The biggest emersion lift was getting the TIR stuff! 20+ years and still not too old for this at a mere 66!

Edited March 23, 2017 by FlyingH

[mb339pan]

my first game/sim Knight of the Sky, I do not remember the year (1995?!?!)

 

 

at a distance of years I keep the Silent Service 2's Manual

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by 150GCT_Pan

[6./ZG26_Custard]

On PC -  Aviator by Acornsoft 1983, pretty much tried most other other titles since.

[TheNotoriousFNG]

My first simulator was technically Gunship on the ole C64, but I was way too young to appreciate it. Fast forward to Aces Over Europe, and I lost many hours to it. The next one I got hooked on was European Air War until a certain game by the name of Il-2 Sturmovik came along...