Simviation Forums

I wandered across this forum sorta by accident after my main forum AVSIM has been closed for several days.  I was blown away to see an active ongoing forum for FS98!  :o

I gotta know... is it just a passing fancy or are you guys (and gals even) really into flying FS98?  By it's simplicity, FPS, or lack of hardware to keep up with the newer vsersions?

I came on board during FS2002 and I am getting a kick reading the threads and especially the screenshots  ;D

For those interested, I have a video on the history of Flightsimming.  Some of you might get a kick seeing versions even before FS98.   Can be found at my site:

www.MileHighProductions.cwhnetworks.com

Now I gotta browse through the FS2000 forum  :D

Luckily I recently found the FS98 CD again, still shiny and working after 5 years of forgetful unuse and in spite of a transfer of domicile in another town. The bedlam of those days had the CD of FS98 end in a crate stored in the under-roof, and up till recently I thought it went lost.

So I took the time to install it on a working laptop I bought for cheap in a second-hand shop. Upgraded this ancient flight simulator with all the bell and whistles and a lot of add-on planes, so I can fly with it when away from my PC on which I have FS2004.

The laptop I bought being not really that fast and a better one not being an option (I've no money nor real urgency in upgrading the rarely used laptop, anyway), so I had the choice to install either a working FS98 or... nothing (as I never owned nor used FS95 way back in those days, and lost for real the diskettes of the previous versions of FS I had), FS2000 being unusable on my new (?) notebook.

A simple choice to make.

I've been on your site and seen the various clips.

Beautiful, it's the first word that comes to mind.

Having long lost the diskettes of FS5 and FS4 to the injuries of time on magnetic supports, I am now able to remember more clearly thanks to your work. To remember, and quite in spite of myself, to cringe in horror and disbelief.

I'm well aware that the old good times were never so good. If I try strongly I can recall, against the inner working of the mind that try to steer any and every memory as a good thing (removing the bad parts), that those times did not even feel good while they were being lived, even with no better standard to compare to at the time (of course I speak for myself).

But I still wonder at the simulators previous those I used, FS2 on C64 for example, as devoid of anything as you can get and slow too. About 1 FPS...  :o ...nowadays a software like that would be unthinkable even as a freeware. Not that the other versions for other computers were that much better off.

Watching the videos on your site I had a vision of myself at the time of FS2 (at the time I owned a C64 like anyone else on the computer world, here in Italy. The advent of the Amiga first and the PC as game machines still far away in the future), younger and in possess of much less patience than nowadays (age gives you patience, if nothing else among the positive facts of life ) trying to get something out of that version of flight simulator... and throwing the diskette (or rather the audio-tape ah, the wonders of old CBM computers) out of the window out of absolute frustration.

Just two white lines drawn on the virtual ground and a lot of imagination, with panels that were a jumble of hardly working lines as well (take the HSI of FS3 in the clips, for example). This was FS at the time. And nowadays we sometimes bitch at softwares that would have ANYONE at the time die of a coronary or sell their soul to eternal damnation to have it (with the hardware and OS to make it work), had they (I) seen it back then.

It's something that makes one wonder.

If it aint broke, don't fix it. I do own FS2000 as well (got it on eBay cheap). I did play around with 2000, but came back went back to 98. It just fits like a really good pair of broke in jeans. Familar and comfortable. Nothing I've seen in 2002 or 2004 has convinced me a hardware upgrade was worth the cost.

John

well, i had to upgrade my machine anyway for other reasons ...

now on this machine FS 98 doesn't work, and therefore i got me a cheap copy of 2k2.
i really like the difference it makes, but i wouldn't have upgraded just to make it work.

Ponyboy, thank you for your site. So cool to see all those old FSims again. I remember how impressed I was with FS3, the fact it was (sort of) in colour!

FS98 was the FIRST game I ever played in my life and i still enjoy it and use it.  I have a fully modern computer.

I think I might install FS98. I have problems with DirectX and OpenGL so I cannot run FS2000 or FS2002. I tried X-Plane 7, but the scenery is terrible. The airports float on water and there is a radio tower right in the middle of the runway!

So, my only option is going back to FS98 or deal with the fucked up scenery and play X-Plane.

Too bad FS98 was removed from the MSN Gaming Zone - they still have Outlaws though, that game does not work on Windows 98, you need Windows 95 to run it online but it is still on the Zone but FS98 isn't!