Any old Aces High players here?

[cmorris975]

Just curious.

 

I flew Aces High a ton in my 20s under the name "Ely", or "Elysian" if you go back far enough.  We're talking Aces High I and maybe II here.  This was 20 years ago (!).  I flew mostly in outfit called "JG 2 'Richtofen'".  Had a really good time flying with these guys.  Shout out to Wotan, Drunky, Lazerus, Urchin, Jinx, AG, Moot and the rest of ya if you happen to see this!  

 

I really loved it.  It was the first approximation of what I dreamed of as a kid, a somewhat realistic simulator of flying World War 2 planes in combat with other people.  Born in 1973, there was nothing like this until Air Warrior; which I did play some but it was super pricey (not to mention primitive) over Kesmai on AOL.  I've watched the entire progression of flights sims: starting from playing something at my dad's work (he was a software engineer at Hewlett-Packard in the 80's) called "Jet" where you could fly an F-16 against wireframe Mig-21s and 23s, and the original Microsoft Flight Simulator, to Falcon and the Microprose sims and on to the present day.  But Aces High was where I cut my multiplayer teeth.  It really taught me a lot about BFM/ACM as well as flying with others.  There were some terribly good virtual pilots flying that game.

 

I mention this not only because of the fond memories, but because I just downloaded and fired it up again out of curiosity.  We obviously never had anything like TrackIR, let alone VR (cue the "back in MY day old man who had to walk 10 miles in snow to school everyday, both ways) - so I wanted to see how it felt in my new VR setup that I use for IL-2.  It was cool to try it from that perspective, see my old favorite in VR.

 

Interested to hear your thoughts and/or stories if you played good ole AH!

 

Chris

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by cmorris975

[LLv34_Flanker]

S! 

 

Flew AH a lot back in the day, of course with Lentolaivue 34 (BlauK, Camo, Raimo, Dicto etc.) I used name DB603 most of time. Started it when subscription was $29.90/month. Eventually dropped to $14 or so. 

 

AH maybe lacked in graphics and such, but the scenarios were leaps above anything else offered. Really interesting and exciting times to be pitted against the best squads out there and fly along with equally good teams. Hundreds of players! 

 

AH has suffered over time, sadly. Competition is just that much tougher now and free. Hard for HTC to really compete. But good memories do not fade though. 

[kestrel79]

I played Air Warrior on AOL   Grass is green, water is blue, brown pyramid mountains...great graphics haha.

 

That was my first flight sim. Dropping paratroopers in a C-47, capping bases. Flying B17s with other people as gunners to take out the Spitfire factory. In 1998 this was mind blowing to me and still hard to replicate in modern sims.

[cmorris975]

6 hours ago, LLv34_Flanker said:

S! 

 

Flew AH a lot back in the day, of course with Lentolaivue 34 (BlauK, Camo, Raimo, Dicto etc.) I used name DB603 most of time. Started it when subscription was $29.90/month. Eventually dropped to $14 or so. 

 

AH maybe lacked in graphics and such, but the scenarios were leaps above anything else offered. Really interesting and exciting times to be pitted against the best squads out there and fly along with equally good teams. Hundreds of players! 

 

AH has suffered over time, sadly. Competition is just that much tougher now and free. Hard for HTC to really compete. But good memories do not fade though. 

Oh, I absolutely remember you and your squad.  You guys were quite good.  I certainly saw your kills come up in the chat often enough.  I’m sure we fought one another many times in the virtual skies. 
 

I agree on the AH gameplay.  It’s just a really compelling design with the three teams trying to win the map.  GVs, CVS and all that.  Super fun stuff.  
 

I remember when Il-2 came out, around 2001?, because it was slowly draining my squaddies time.  The screenshots of the 109s were stunning.  I could see why my buddies were playing it.  Gradually I started to move into it as well.  Hyperlobby, I have fond memories of that and the scenarios there.  I still was playing AH until around 2003 but just kind of naturally slipped into the sims coming out of Russia that we still are playing today.

 

Good memories of all that.  I’m having a resurgence in interest in sims with the quarantine at the moment.  It is so fun to catch up with all the improvements in Il-2, not to mention VR.  Feels like a second olden age in simming, if the first was maybe the late 90s with Jane’s, Falcon, MSFS and AH/Air Warrior.

 

Big S!

2 hours ago, kestrel79 said:

I played Air Warrior on AOL   Grass is green, water is blue, brown pyramid mountains...great graphics haha.

 

That was my first flight sim. Dropping paratroopers in a C-47, capping bases. Flying B17s with other people as gunners to take out the Spitfire factory. In 1998 this was mind blowing to me and still hard to replicate in modern sims.

I remember gunning for someone in AW!  That’s how I got my first online kill.  I was so proud, hah.

 

It *was* amazing.  Was very exciting to be fighting other people online in virtual 3D air combat.  Good times.