Evolution

[CaptSopwith 18]

So last night, I conducted a small experiment... a little historical research, if you will.

 

I went through my flight sim collection - at least the World War I category - and played through a mission in each, in order. I started with Wings of Glroy - my first taste of aerial combat in the Great War. Here's a video of what WoG looked like, way back in 1994.

 

 

Next was Red Baron 3D in its stock form. Followed by the Beery Patch, 1918 Air War (a really fantastic UOP released by a guy named WingStrut that was tragically under-appreciated). And then came the Western Front Patch and Hell's Angels.

 

 

Then I moved over to Over Flanders Fields and I had to sit back and marvel...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di8adFiN_Ps&feature=relmfu

 

If you had told me, in 1994, when I was a 12 year old kid, that one day I would have a computer that would model not just what it was like to fly an airplane from World War I, but also simulate the war on the ground and the entirety of aerial operations for nearly every squadron that served on the Western Front from Flanders to Alsace-Lorraine and model it day after day after day, from 1915 through to the end of the war in November 1918... I probably would have passed out - and never seen daylight for the rest of my adolescence!

 

And then, if you told the 1994 version of me that one day I could snap a device to my headset that would allow me to look around my aircraft - lean over the side of the cockpit and see troops on the march below me, watch as my enemy dove out of the sun - guns blazing - and use it to dogfight my way out of trouble... I'm not sure what my reaction would have been - but you might have needed to revive me!

 

This is a long, round about way of saying... my God, how far have we come?? Seriously - take a moment and think about the difference. When I was a kid, I was aiming at blurry pixels of German planes in the sky. This morning, I fired up OFF and took a Fokker Eindecker out on patrol over the mountains of Alsace-Lorraine and watched as a flight of Bristol Fighters - which were rendered in such high definition that I could recognize them long before they attacked - bounced us and open fire.

 

We have it pretty good, chaps. Pretty damn good.

Edited May 24, 2012 by _CaptSopwith

[Rugbyfan1972 1]

CaptSopwith,

 

Eindekker v Bristol Fighters, that must have been interesting? lol. Joking aside I know you meant Bristol Scouts.

 

I agree with you completely, however my flight simming goes back even further the the Amstrad CPC 464.

 

Also I can't wait to see what advances WOFF makes over BHAH.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Rugbyfan1972

[Hasse Wind 46]

Good post.

 

Yes, we've definitely come a long way since those days. A couple of years ago I installed the original Red Baron (1990) on Dosbox. That sim was a mind-blowing experience twenty years ago, but now it really showed its age. It's amazing just how much things have changed in that time.

[CaptSopwith 18]

CaptSopwith,

 

Eindekker v Bristol Fighters, that must have been interesting? lol. Joking aside I know you meant Bristol Scouts.

 

I agree with you completely, however my flight simming goes back even further the the Amstrad CPC 464.

 

Also I can't wait to see what advances WOFF makes over BHAH.

 

Oh Dear... yes, I did mean Bristol Scouts - how embarrassing!

 

I would imagine a tangle with Bristol Fighters in a Fokker Eindecker would have been a rather short and nasty affair!

[Hasse Wind 46]

Well, not necessarily, if by Eindecker you mean the Fokker E.V.

[NS13Jarhead 6]

for another full blown blast from the past, here's what got me going on WWI flying games:

 

Edited May 24, 2012 by NS13Jarhead

[CaptSopwith 18]

for another full blown blast from the past, here's what got me going on WWI flying games:

 

 

Ah, Wings for the Amiga. Now this is the game I missed. I didn't get a PC until about 1993 and by the time I did (I was 11, mind you, so my family did, really), it was all DOS/Windows PC's. That said, this game has held up well. I dig the sound effects and the visual of placing you behind the pilot. It's a nice nod to movies like Hell's Angels and I can see, from a coding standpoint, how much this simplifies things - no cockpit to render.

 

I dug around on youtube, if you have 8 hours to kill... ... someone posted the long play of the game. So you can see some of the intro cinematics - handy for someone like me.

 

 

And yes... there is a part 2. I'll leave you to find it.

[RamblingSid 3]

Chuck Yeagers Air Combat is what

got me into simming.

 

Anyone remember that ?

 

Still got the discs somewhere.

 

You have to wonder where sims will

be in 10 years time .

[Hasse Wind 46]

I remember that one. It was a great sim for its time.

[Von Paulus 8]

Yes, Wings was my first WW1 "simulator". It was so great.

 

But my first flght/combat simulator was this:

 

[Olham 164]

My very first air combat game (it cannot be called a simulation) was "Their Finest Hour" von LUKAS Games.

The Battle of Britain in pixelated Messerschmidts.

When I see the "screenshots" today, I can only wonder about how much my phantasy must have added!

 

 

[CaptSopwith 18]

Yes, Wings was my first WW1 "simulator". It was so great.

 

But my first flght/combat simulator was this:

 

 

 

That is quite rudimentary, Von Paulus! The first flight sim I ever played was, like yours, a modern sim. Here was the firs true PC flight game I ever played: F117-A Stealth Fighter; a game that introduced me to the great name of MicroProse.

 

[HumanDrone 4]

I recall the first civilian simulator that I had, some early version of Microsoft Flight Simulator that was pretty much like Von Paulus's above: green ground, blue sky, and not much more. But OFF is my first WWI sim. I wasn't really able to get into simming and a decent machine until the kids had grown (5) and we got some of the bills paid off.

 

Now if you REALLY want to go back, I used to play "War" on a teletype machine attached to some kind of mainframe at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1973-1974 time frame. You typed in a pair of azimuth and elevation numbers and it would type back either a HIT or the distance short or beyond the target (on paper, no less) ...you just keep adjusting until you get a hit, and then it gives you a new distance to target.

[Von Paulus 8]

Well CaptSopwith that was in 1983.

I've tried later Jet from sublogic but he didn't appeal me.

 

It was only later with F-18 Interceptor for Amiga that I've played for the first time a nice combat simulator.

It was possible, finally, to imitate Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

 

[redpiano 6]

My first flight sim.

[Olham 164]

I wonder what Manfred would say to that???

[CaptSopwith 18]

Well, I guess if we include Nintendo games... and we should. This is my first real flight sim..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZwD1yGsG7A

[CaptSopwith 18]

Redpiano - just watched your video. I love the music! Very "Great Escape" somehow...

[CaptSopwith 18]

Well CaptSopwith that was in 1983.

I've tried later Jet from sublogic but he didn't appeal me.

 

It was only later with F-18 Interceptor for Amiga that I've played for the first time a nice combat simulator.

It was possible, finally, to imitate Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

 

 

I like it Von Paulus! This was how I imitated Tom Cruise during my childhood in the late 1980s!

 

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Ah, Wings for the Amiga. Now this is the game I missed. I didn't get a PC until about 1993 and by the time I did (I was 11, mind you, so my family did, really), it was all DOS/Windows PC's. That said, this game has held up well. I dig the sound effects and the visual of placing you behind the pilot. It's a nice nod to movies like Hell's Angels and I can see, from a coding standpoint, how much this simplifies things - no cockpit to render.

Wings on the Amiga was my intro to WW1 aviation. What sets it apart is the storytelling, the focus on life in the squadron as told by your pilot writing the squadron journal. It was as much about what was occurring on the ground as in the air. The actual air combat is arcady, but it's worth playing for the story and character development. No flight sim has made me care more about the list of names on my duty roster. That personal feeling is what I've been trying to bring to OFF with OFFbase. Future versions will have characters like chaplains, trainers, medics, etc. visit the squadron like in Wings, perhaps even squadron mascots with unique names, breeds, and doggy personalities.

[Von Paulus 8]

Well captain, Tom Cruise for us meant this at 1:13:

 

Edited May 25, 2012 by Von Paulus

[Hauksbee 103]

Chuck Yeagers Air Combat is what got me into simming. Anyone remember that ?.

YES! My very first Sim. I was in computer school, getting literate. I was living in a garret room with a cat and an Apple II held together with duct tape. Somebody loaned me a floppi disc with Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. I took it home and played for about three hours that night. No joystick. I was a devotee of the track ball in those days. When I'd be chasing a Me-109 from right-to-left, and he'd disappear off the left side of the screen, I'd find myself leaning farther and farther to the left in my chair as though trying to look around the corner to see where he'd gone. I'd start flying big loops to try and spot him, lest he turn up on my six. When I finally decided to call it a night, I looked at my hands; they were covered in sweat. I played that game 'til the one's and zero's fell off the disc. These days, you can't ask for much more than OFF, but even now, CYAC remains my benchmark for white-knuckle, immersive flying. It also caused me to divided the computer game world into two basic camps: Flight Sim, and everything else.

[corsaire31 7]

That is quite rudimentary, Von Paulus! The first flight sim I ever played was, like yours, a modern sim. Here was the firs true PC flight game I ever played: F117-A Stealth Fighter; a game that introduced me to the great name of MicroProse.

 

 

I remember spending a lot of time on this one too, and the whole Microprose thereafter. I also remember Aces over the Pacific and Aces over Europe ... we sure came a long way !

[Von Paulus 8]

Hi corsaire31.

Good to see you also here in CA.

But I'm afraid, that the newbies pay always the first round.

I want a virtual Gin Tonic.

Welcome.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

for another full blown blast from the past, here's what got me going on WWI flying games:

 

 

God, I sooooo loved that game!

 

I really miss Strike Commander too...the only Jet sim I've ever liked