My first experience of a flight game 1972 - Mattel Vertibird :)

[Mysticpuma]

 

This ad is from 1973 but it came out a year before.... genuinely loved

[dbzero]

Showing my age...I remember this. Friend had one and I had to get one. I got the one that was housed on a Styrofoam ship and came with an Apollo capsule that had an astronaut you picked up. Unfortunately the Vertibird didn't have the power to life the astronaut up. Still was tons of fun. I also had a contraption where you strung up an airplane by 3 wires and landed it on a cardboard runway. Don't remember who made it.

 

Had to use a lot more imagination back then.

[BOO]

My nextdoor neighbour Jonathon had this. He moved from Oldham to Cleckheaton and going to visit on the odd Friday night every few months to play this was something i got very excited about (that and the No88 dish of the Chinese takeaway menu that always used to get ordered). Eventually it all got surpassed by his dads (Uncle Robert to me - its a 70s thing i think - adopted uncles and aunties) train se....sorry...model railway, which took over the entire loft. 

 

Cant recall how accurate the FM was i know the lack of it coming without VR integration wasnt an issue. 

 

I had this aircraft carrier thing that never really worked. You basically strung up a wire across the living room that garotted grandma and eleastic band launch a vague representation of a Phanton. The idea was it would go up the wire, turn around and fly back with you controlling it via an odd joystick arrangment to land on the plastic "deck". Never worked really. Odd that nearly 40 years later I find myself wasting time with another supercarrier game that doesnt exactly work well......

Edited July 15, 2020 by BOO

[Izel]

Thanks for the memories! 

 

My cousin had a "polar" version where you had to rescue a stranded man being blocked by ice cubes. You needed to remove all the cubes before you could rescue the man. To add a challenge, there was a timer in the form of a polar bear that was slowly but steadily approaching.

 

Loved it!

 

[dbzero]

31 minutes ago, BOO said:

My nextdoor neighbour Jonathon had this. He moved from Oldham to Cleckheaton and going to visit on the odd Friday night every few months to play this was something i got very excited about (that and the No88 dish of the Chinese takeaway menu that always used to get ordered). Eventually it all got surpassed by his dads (Uncle Robert to me - its a 70s thing i think - adopted uncles and aunties) train se....sorry...model railway, which took over the entire loft. 

 

Cant recall how accurate the FM was i know the lack of it coming without VR integration wasnt an issue. 

 

I had this aircraft carrier thing that never really worked. You basically strung up a wire across the living room that garotted grandma and eleastic band launch a vague representation of a Phanton. The idea was it would go up the wire, turn around and fly back with you controlling it via an odd joystick arrangment to land on the plastic "deck". Never worked really. Odd that nearly 40 years later I find myself wasting time with another supercarrier game that doesnt exactly work well......

My wire contraption was a Cesna and it was held up on hooks and you pulled back on a joystick and it would pull the Cesna off the hooks for a runway approach. Speaking or Train sets I had a Tyco train set back then. Living in Hawaii at the time the humidity and salt air would start to rust the metal tracks so I had to use an eraser to clean them off. Tyco released a train that would be would on a wall and run vertically. I think it was called the Turbo train? I looked for one a few years back, but could never find one and I'm sure if I did it would be very pricey.

 

Speaking of the Phantom, I used to see them all the time as there was an airbase across my house. One of the pilots took me to the hangar and let me sit in one. They were noisy and at certain power settings left a long smoke trail...

 That supercarrier game is that DCS Supercarrier? I just downloaded it yesterday.

 

[BOO]

1 hour ago, tiger_0988 said:

 

 That supercarrier game is that DCS Supercarrier? I just downloaded it yesterday.

 

It is and im perhaps being a little unkind. Its pretty good provided you stay above deck but im always left frustrated that there really isnt a single timeframe that you can recreated a real to life carrier air wing with what you have. Thats not going to be fixed with the early access excuse.  No A6s, No A7s. No prowlers, no growlers, no superbugs, no F14Ds, low poly S3s, even worse SB60s, No HH60s, No SH3s no california class, no auxullaries etc etc.   Same goes for the upcoming syria map and the claim about the battles you can recreate going back to the 60s. Its just not possible. 

 

Id even go as far as to you actually got to use MORE imagination now than in 1972.

 

Anyjow OT - apologies