Microsoft Flight Simulator is a series of flight simulator programs for MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and differed significantly from Microsoft's other software, which was largely business-oriented. As of November 2022, Microsoft Flight Simulator is the longest-running software product line for Microsoft, predating Windows by three years. Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of the longest-running PC video game series of all time.
Stunt Island is a flight simulation video game for MS-DOS PCs released in 1992. It was designed by Adrian Stephens and Ronald J. Fortier and published by Walt Disney Computer Software. The game, marketed as "The Stunt Flying and Filming Simulation", provides an island which contains a number of different film sets, such as a large city, various small towns, airports, oil rigs, a canyon, an aircraft carrier, and many others locations situated on a fictional island off southern California. There is a free flight mode, where the player can simply fly around in a variety of different aircraft which have unique flying characteristics and flight envelopes. Additionally, the player can position cameras and props around these sets, and create triggers to start actions including the camera panning and an object moving. The game also has an editing mode where the player can splice together taped footage and insert sound effects. The game world is small and it is impossible to leave the area of the island without returning to it. The game runs well under DosBox from ver. 0.65 to present. The game was heavily patched more than a year following its initial release. The last patch, V3 removed copyright protection and addressed many issues. GOG.com released an emulated version for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 2016. This GOG version, and the one offered by Steam, appear to be the unpatched ver. 1.0 release of the game.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 98, abbreviated commonly as FS98, is a flight simulator video game. It was released in September 1997 for Microsoft Windows.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 also known as FS2002, is a video game released in October 2001, and is the 8th installment of the Microsoft Flight Simulator video game series. A version called Professional Edition was released at the same time as standard edition that added two aircraft, a flight instructor feature, and an editor to create buildings and aircraft.
Flight Unlimited is a 1995 aerobatic flight simulator video game developed and published by LookingGlass Technologies. It allows players to pilot reproductions of real-world aircraft and to perform aerobatic maneuvers. They may fly freely, race through floating rings against a timer or take lessons from a virtual flight instructor. The instructor teaches basic and advanced techniques, ranging from rudder turns to maneuvers such as the tailslide, Lomcovák and Immelmann turn.
Microsoft Flight Simulator began as a set of articles on computer graphics, written by Bruce Artwick throughout 1976, about flight simulation using 3-D graphics. When the editor of the magazine told Artwick that subscribers were interested in purchasing such a program, Artwick founded Sublogic Corporation to commercialize his ideas. At first the new company sold flight simulators through mail order, but that changed in January 1979 with the release of Flight Simulator (FS) for the Apple II. They soon followed this up with versions for other systems and from there it evolved into a long-running series of computer flight simulators.
Microsoft Flight Simulator X is a 2006 flight simulation video game originally developed by Aces Game Studio and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and the tenth installment of the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, which was first released in 1982. It is built on an upgraded graphics rendering engine, showcasing DirectX 10 features in Windows Vista and was marketed by Microsoft as the most important technological milestone in the series at the time. FSX is the first version in the series to be released on DVD media.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight is a flight simulation video game released in 2003, and is part of the Microsoft Flight Simulator video game series. It is the last version to support Windows 98/9x series of operating systems. A set of two third-party add-ons were released in 2004 and 2006, titled Wings of Power.
Links is a series of golf simulation video games, first developed by Access Software, and then later by Microsoft after it acquired Access Software in 1999. Microsoft also produced its own series of golf games based on Links, under the title Microsoft Golf. The Links series was a flagship brand for Access, and was continued from 1990 to 2003. The first game in the series, Links: The Challenge of Golf, won Computer Gaming World's 1991 Action Game of the Year award.
EF2000 is a combat flight simulator video game developed by Digital Image Design (DID) and published by Ocean Software in 1995 for the PC DOS. It is the sequel to DID's earlier software title, TFX. An expansion pack, EF 2000: TACTCOM, was released in 1996. A compilation, EF 2000: Evolution, that included the main game and the expansion was released in 1996. An updated version, Super EF2000, was released exclusively for Windows 95 in 1996 in Europe. In 1997, a compilation titled EF2000 V2.0 was released in North America that included the original DOS versions of EF2000 and TACTCOM and also the Windows exclusive Super EF2000. In June 1997, the graphics were boosted when DID released the "Graphics+" patch, which added Rendition Vérité hardware support and Glide API for 3dfx graphics card support to EF2000.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000, abbreviated commonly as FS2000, is a flight simulator video game. It was released in late 1999 for Microsoft Windows. A Professional Edition was released alongside the standard edition. It added two airplanes, six cities, and a flight model/instrument panel editor.
Microsoft Flight Simulator, commonly known as Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0, is a flight simulator video game, released in November 1982 for the IBM PC. It is the first release in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.
Microsoft Flight Simulator, commonly known as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0 or FS2, is a flight simulator video game. It was released in 1984 for the IBM PC as a self-booting disk.
Microsoft Flight Simulator, commonly known as Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 or FS3, is a flight simulator video game. It was released in mid-1988 for the MS-DOS.
Microsoft Flight Simulator, commonly known as Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0 or FS4, is a 1989 video game developed by Bruce Artwick Organization and published by Microsoft.
Microsoft Flight Simulator, commonly known as Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.0 or FS5, is a flight simulator video game. It was released in late 1993 for the MS-DOS. A port for PC-98 was released in 1994. It was the last game in the series for DOS and the last game to appear on a non-Microsoft platform. An updated version, 5.1, was released in 1995. In November 1995, Microsoft acquired the Bruce Artwick Organization (BAO) from Bruce Artwick. Employees were moved to Redmond, Washington, and development of the series continued in-house at Microsoft.
A flight simulation video game refers to the simulation of various aspects of flight or the flight environment for purposes other than flight training or aircraft development. A significant community of simulation enthusiasts is supported by several commercial software packages, as well as commercial and homebuilt hardware. Open-source software that is used by the aerospace industry like FlightGear, whose flight dynamics engine (JSBSim) is used in a 2015 NASA benchmark to judge new simulation code to space industry standards, is also available for private use. A popular type of flight simulators video games are combat flight simulators, which simulate combat air operations from the pilot and crew's point of view. Combat flight simulation titles are more numerous than civilian flight simulators due to variety of subject matter available and market demand.
FS1 Flight Simulator is a 1979 video game published by Sublogic for the Apple II. A TRS-80 version followed in 1980. FS1 Flight Simulator is a flight simulator in the cockpit of a slightly modernized Sopwith Camel. FS1 is the first in a line of simulations from Sublogic which, beginning in 1982, were also sold by Microsoft as Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Flight Simulator II is a video game developed by Bruce Artwick and published by Sublogic as the sequel to FS1 Flight Simulator. It was released in December 1983 for the Apple II, in 1984 for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64, in 1986 for the Amiga and Atari ST, the Atari XEGS as a pack-in title in 1987 and in August 1988 for the Color Computer 3.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is a 1986 video game developed by Sublogic and published by Microsoft for the Macintosh.
