22 .....

[IckyATLAS]

22 years since the release of the 1st IL2 Sturmovik that started it all. That was in 2001.

Just incredible when I look back. WOW! and still alive. It is a generation. I was 42 when it came out and I am 64 now.

And some/many are still playing with 1946 - 17 years after its release in 2006. 

How long can this continue is anybody guess at this point.

 

You can argue that there is a cut between the first IL2 series that ended with CLOD (Maddox era) and that the present IL2 is different and started in 2012 (Jason era). Since 2023 we are in Hans era. It is like the geological time eras.

 

To consider these geological eras connected through a common timeline we have to put ourselves from the players perspective , where we know teams changed, distributors or studios may have changed too but finally  we see a continuity in the game concept and that is finally what counts. ROF which development has stopped in reality has been integrated in IL2.

 

What about the others still alive and by that I mean with development continuing with paying evolutions.

 

We have :

Microsoft Flight Simulator that one will be hardest to beat. It started in 1976 so today it is 46 years and counting. This one has been rich in many eras too. 

 

X-Plane that was released in 1995 and still in development makes it for 28 years.

 

DCS that one has a complicated history (the geology here is complex) as it is the combination of separate games, over the time that came together into one module. All from the same Eagle Dynamics studio but different distributors. DCS as we know it today, starts in 2015 as a unified product. So that makes it for 8 years. But I know that some of you will not accept and consider the start in 2008 when the name DCS appeared and this means 15 years. Mainly those like me that started with the first title Flanker, and Lock-On, may say no. All this makes it for a complicated history but the first Flanker SU-27 was released in 1995 so that makes it for 28 years. I leave it to you here what is the real age.

 

We can group these:

 

War combat flight simulators:

IL2 was WWII based combat simulator with various theaters. Tanks in WWII are covered by IL2, and even if there is no new development as long as the present IL2 goes on Tanks remains an active proposition. You can also drive vehicles like tanks, trucks and fly planes. ROF was WWI and is continuing through IL2. IL2 covers WWII and WWI theaters.

 

Combat Pilot in development that will be WWII Pacific theater at start. Not yet released.

 

DCS is modern jets post WWII combat. Yes they made also a little on WWII with Normandy but this came very late in time.

 

Civilian flight simulators

Microsoft Flight Simulator which is the reference.

X-Plane started more focused on really simulating the physical phenomena about flying and modeling more the physics of flight. and that gave it an edge for flight sim nerds.

 

Both now converge now as MFS is also gone a lot into the physics of flight.

 

All in all that does not make for many releases, and as brand new starts, beside Combat Pilot, that seems serious I do not see much. There has been talks about B17 but wait and see.

 

There is a cemetery full of flight simulators of many types, some are really dead but others are zombies kept alive by players and enthusiasts that develop free updates or mods etc. 

One of these zombies is special to me and that is F16 Fighting Falcon that dates from 1984. I had all of them until Falcon 4.0 Allied Force in 2005 and then went on and continued through BMS until today where you have still new updates. It seems Microprose bought the rights this year. It is a longevity for the original code that is unique as it corresponds to 39 years. Not bad.

 

A small word about a different category like War Thunder which is an online game, where you can fly, drive multiple things, but that I do not consider a flight simulator as such. It is a different category, very successful but different. It was officially released in 2016 which makes it for 7 years. A newbie.

 

 

[Jaegermeister]

I posted this a couple of years ago... my Simulator Graveyard.

 

Spoiler

 

☠️ ?

[Raptorattacker]

Bloody HELL, you're even older than ME!! Not much but... 

[Voyager]

My first encounters with flight games were Flightmare and Sopwith from the dos era. I had to ask my parents to write out the commands to launch them because I was too young to read. My granddad had a copy of Flight Sim, and knew the code to go flying in WWI. 

 

Then there were the Lucas Arts flight sims: Battlehawks 1942, Their Finest Hour, and, of course Secret Weapons in the Luftwaffe, which was were I fell in love with the P-47.

 

Dynamix and their Aces of the Pacific was next. I played that game so much. I did a little bit in their Aces over Europe, but not nearly as much. 

 

Jane's came next. Their USN Fighters and their Anthology kept me flying for quite a while, but I never quite made the transition to Study sims at the time. I did manage my first successful carrier landing in their F/A-18E Super Hornet. 

 

For whatever reason I've never really jelled with padlock views, and its taken me a long time to get used to target markers, so I kind of dropped out of flight sims after that.

 

I remember running into Il-2 when it was in development and pre-release hype building. It was really the first flight sim since Aces of the Pacific to really capture my interest.

 

That was back when it was being published in the US by Ubisoft. They were also distributing Lock-on: Modern Air Combat which was how I got into what became the DCS line.

 

And as the original IL-2 wound down, I sort of drifted away from flight sims again. Ironically, it was the P-47 that got me back into things. I wanted to fly it again, and wanted to try VR. And it just so happened that Battle of Bodenplatte was in development and would have a P-47D-28 in it. 

 

And I sort of got into Flying Circus as just an off shoot of the main Il-2 game. Ironically, I've found that WWI flying really does seem to be the best VR setting right now. I'm still doing everything including modern, but the Great War era flying seems to be the most pure fun of all of them. 

 

It's been one heck of a ride. 

[senseispcc]

I am 68 and those 22 years are only a major part of my life, thanks to IL2, 1946, etc... so many months of games alone or with friends, thank YOU! 

But it was not my first aerial game, 1942, BattleHawks from Lucasfilm games had that honor, sorry...

Edited December 1, 2023 by senseispcc
additional detail

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

I'm 29 and began playing Microsoft CFS and CFS II with my granddad. Then migrated to FS2004 and Secret Weapons Over Normandy, before flying FSX, 1946, Wings of Prey, Birds of Steel, and CLoD. Around 2012, I played Warthunder and some other arcade flight games for a bit. We forget, but GB and DCS WWII are only our latest sims. There still is nothing that is in terms of technological context, scope of material, and scale of battles simulated, anything better than IL-2 1946 Y-Pack/BAT/HSFX/or Ultrapack. Excited to see what the next title is here and what COmbat Pilot brings down the pipeline.

[BlitzPig_Bill_Kelso]

I was in a Walmart in Alaska doing a flyby of the PC games shelf, back when the box was the size of a cereal box! I grew up playing board games and was a grognard and games like Panzer general and panzer general II were out on PC! Great times! 

Anyhooos...

I see this big box with a Russian plane on it shooting German tanks...I was intrigued. The thought of flying around and seeing tanks and artillery and trains that I could shoot!!!

On the Eastern front in WW2 was too much. I threw my money at the clerk, I rushed home and installed it and here we are 22 years later.

[Lusekofte]

Well. I flew mscfs also. Bought my first IL 2 when it arrived at the local game store all those years back. 
It sat a new standard. 
Now I fly mainly DCS choppers. 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Lusekofte

[No_85_Gramps]

I'm this old:

 

 

5 1/4" floppy on an Atari, 1984.

[CzechTexan]

For me, it must have been around 2001 when, by chance, I just happened to be looking through a magazine at store and I saw this IL-2 advertisement about this new flight sim coming soon.  When it became available, I quickly snatched it up.  It's been only IL-2 and now Great Battles ever since.  I did play some Xbox for about a year but it just did not fulfill me like the good ol' IL-2.

Before IL-2, the only computer game I played was Talonsoft's EAST FRONT.  The Eastern Front always interested me because there was so little information about it compared to the Western Front/Pacific.  There are so many "forgotten battles" to learn about!  And I'm still learning more as I go!  

 

I will never grow tired of these Eastern Front Great Battles.  The scenarios are endless.  I don't understand how players can get bored with the maps we have (including Normandy) and move on or be impatient, waiting for something new to come out.  Maybe it's a generation thing about being spoiled with all toys, but I say, enjoy the toys you have (IL-2).  We are blessed.

[Jaegermeister]

1 hour ago, No_85_Gramps said:

I'm this old:

 

Spoiler

 

 

5 1/4" floppy on an Atari, 1984.

 

You got me beat... this is the first sim I played on a laptop before Windows had numbers 

 

 

 

 

[Blooddawn1942]

22...Acacia Avenue! 

[IckyATLAS]

Now my first flight simulation game I played in my home was on a Macintosh and was Hellcats over the Pacific by Parsoft Interactive and released by Graphic Simulation released in 1991. That is 32 years ago.

But around me before that I had friends with Amiga, Commodore, Apple II etc. and I could see the Sublogic Flight Simulator II in somewhere 1986-88. At that time I was with a Macintosh but there were no 3D flight simulators until Hellcats over the Pacific. And in 1991 -1992 or so I had the Macintosh IIx. I was able to buy it at a much reduced price for particular reasons, but still it was an expensive machine. After that I moved to PCs.

 

[R33GZ]

Might as well throw my 2 cents in there.

 

The first flight simulator I can remember playing, was Dam Busters by Accolade on my neighbour's dad's computer, a commodore 64. This was around about 1987 I think. I was 10

 

Next up was Their Finest Hour, some time around 1989. This was a great game, very in depth and a large array of aircraft. After that I was hooked.

 

Then onwards through Secret weapons of the Luftwaffe, the Aces over the Pacific/Europe series and the Microsoft CFS series. 

 

I didn't discover Il2 until the release of 1946... but I only stopped playing it 2 years ago, albeit very heavily modified. I could create almost any land/sea/airbattle between the Spanish Civil War and Vietnam.

 

When my long suffering laptop finally died - 13years of service ? - I  bought a fancy new rig and installed BoS. Come to think of it... my dirty old X52 is 15 years old and still going strong too, a couple of buttons not working, but otherwise, she still flies pretty good... God I hope I haven't just jinxed it.

[Weegie]

Anybody remember this

 

 

[Jaegermeister]

Gotta love Wonder Woman view... None of that in IL2 FB, haha

[Lusekofte]

6 hours ago, Weegie said:

Anybody remember this

 

 

In DCs I always end up shooting down the tanker 

[Stonehouse]

First for me was Bruce Artwick's Flight Simulator on an Apple II while still in high school (about 13 years old). This was the genesis of MS Flight sim. 

[john262]

Mine was fighter pilot from digital intergration for the zx spectrum and dont ask the date because im am buggard if i can remeber

[AndyJWest]

21 minutes ago, john262 said:

Mine was fighter pilot from digital intergration for the zx spectrum and dont ask the date because im am buggard if i can remeber

 

Came out in 1983. I've still got the Amstrad CPC version, along with a CPC 464 to run it on. ?

[R33GZ]

1 hour ago, AndyJWest said:

 

Came out in 1983. I've still got the Amstrad CPC version, along with a CPC 464 to run it on. ?

Damn! Now I bet that's worth a few bob again ?

[jollyjack]

remember this?:

 

 

[Irishratticus72]

22 minutes ago, jollyjack said:

remember this?:

 

 

Tough ass game, I recall.

[Rjel]

This was the first flight sim I played. Very early 80s in an arcade. My first PC sim was LucasArts BoB. Truly a dream come true and so many enjoyable hours spent playing.

 

 

 

[Lusekofte]

@Rjel That was my frist attempt om flight too

[R33GZ]

3 hours ago, jollyjack said:

remember this?:

 

 

Famn, id forgotten about blue max. I think I might have played that on a commodore 64?

[FlyingH]

Anyone rememberOverlord? Your choise was Spitfire, Typhoon or P 51 attacking german insallations and supplyconvoys, bridges, radar stations and othe facilities in preparation of the D-day. Then on to the CFS 1, 2 and 3 before going head on into IL2. A stint at SU27, DCS then back to 1946 for the rest of the time until the GB series came along. Short ventures into msf 9 and X interspersed throughout the years and now I have MSF on my gamedrive but haven´t tried it yet. X45(?) and 52 and TRI 4 and 5 were the tools and since a few years Crosswind pedals and Warthog HOTAS do the job. (i´m 72)