MiGMan's Flight Sim Museum

Sir,

I am glad that there is a place on the internet that takes a look at a big part of my childhood as I grew up in the ealy 90s and was a big fan of simming.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anymore sims being made these days as market shares have been cut into by video game councils and developments in the licencing of aircraft likenesses my aircraft manufactures in any simulations any more. I feel with the death of Microsoft Flight Simulator that we are seeing the last days of the the flight simulations genre.

Especially when you take in aviation culture is trying to head these days with the increase in cockpit automation or taking the pilot out of the cockpit altogether in real aircraft not to mention simulated aircraft. I am given heart by you and the third party flight simulation industry (Including X-Plane) that something I have loved for a long time will not die out, now that it seems that the PC based flight sim development has all but stoped completely.

At least I will be able to fall back on my old trusty 486 to take care of my simming needs. If you have any thoughts please let me know, but I just wanted to forward my thanks for the work you do and sorry about the long email.

Sincerely,

Zac

---

Hi Zac,

Thanks for the email.

Flight Sims have been 'dead' before, at several points in history, so I have faith in the ultimate survival of the genre.

Certainly the disbanding of Microsoft's Aces Studios was a remarkable move! The loss of that corporate knowledge those developers had is not easy to replace. It must have been a devastating experience for those guys. It also beggars belief that Microsoft chose to abandon their flagship entertainment product, and one which has served as a technology demonstrator and development platform for over two decades.

Electronic Arts did the same thing back in the 1990s when it disbanded Janes Combat Simulations after it had produced a decade of the most popular combat flight sims ever seen.

From my own dealings with the industry I can verify that flight sims are not necessarily well understood by decision makers, as the two previous examples demonstrate. They are inherently much more complex than most game genres, and therein lies the secret of their long term attraction. They are not something you can master in a day. In fact, like musical performance, you can attain a level of mastery in the activity, but never completely master the activity.

It is my belief that flight sims are the most profound cultural artifact to arise yet out of the technology revolution (1980 onwards). So, yes, I believe they will survive!

MiGMan

If you guys loved Homeworld, especially the pilot view option, and you love flight sims, then you should LOVE these other space flight sim games:

BANG, Gunship Elite - almost arcade style space fighter sim, and quite challenging in difficulty.

Descent: Freespace 1 & 2 - they carry the earlier Descent series into fully 3D space, with rich graphics %26 scenery, indepth campaigns, and engrossing gameplay. The game engine is definitely more flight-sim than real, true space physics. You can customise your ships and play versus other fighters and gigantic capital ships of unimaginable size.