| Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sublogic |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft |
| Designer(s) | Bruce Artwick |
| Series | Microsoft Flight Simulator |
| Platform(s) | IBM PC |
| Release | November 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Amateur flight simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
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. [1] It is the first release in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.
Around the years of 1981–82, Microsoft contacted Bruce Artwick of Sublogic, creator of FS1 Flight Simulator , to develop a new flight simulator for IBM compatible PCs. This version was released in November 1982 as Microsoft Flight Simulator. It featured an improved graphics engine, variable weather and time of day, and a new coordinate system (used by all subsequent versions up to version 5). It was later updated and ported to other home computers as Flight Simulator II , published by Sublogic.
Advertisements claimed "If flying your IBM PC got any more realistic, you'd need a license", and promised "a full-color, out-the-window flight display". [3] Early versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator were used as a test for PC compatibility. If a computer could run Microsoft Flight Simulator and Lotus 1-2-3, it was 100% IBM PC-compatible. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
In Microsoft Flight Simulator (1.0), the player flies a Cessna 182 in one of four US regions: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, or Seattle. The starting airport was Meigs Field in Chicago, with a view of the city skyline to the left and Lake Michigan to the right. It would remain the default airport in future versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator, until the real airport was closed.
There was also a "Europe 1917" mode which was similar to the "British Ace" mode of FS1 Flight Simulator. This mode had the player flying a Sopwith Camel in a grid-divided area with mountains on two sides. They could declare war and fire at enemy aircraft.
Will Fastie for Creative Computing said "In their established tradition, Microsoft has again chosen to market a classic program, unique in the market." [11]
Jay Marrone for SoftSide said "the MS-Flight Simulator is an entertaining program for anyone who ever wanted to pilot an airplane." [12]
Hartley G. Lesser for Electronic Fun with Computers & Games said "Microsoft's Flight Simulator actually turns your IBM PC into a Cessna. The thrill of flying becomes a reality." [13]
Stan Miastkowski for Byte said "The Microsoft Flight Simulator is a tour de force of the programmer's art." [14]
The game sold about 800,000 copies in its first five years. [15]
In 2021, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted Microsoft Flight Simulator to its World Video Game Hall of Fame. [16]
IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. The term "IBM PC compatible" is now a historical description only, since IBM no longer sells personal computers after it sold its personal computer division in 2005 to Chinese technology company Lenovo. The designation "PC", as used in much of personal computer history, has not meant "personal computer" generally, but rather an x86 computer capable of running the same software that a contemporary IBM PC could. The term was initially in contrast to the variety of home computer systems available in the early 1980s, such as the Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore 64. Later, the term was primarily used in contrast to Apple's Macintosh computers.
The Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) is a computer graphics controller formerly made by Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. that combines IBM's text-only MDA display standard with a bitmapped graphics mode, also offering a parallel printer port. This allows the HGC to offer both high-quality text and graphics from a single card.
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.
Sublogic Corporation is an American software development company. It was formed in 1977 by Bruce Artwick, and incorporated in 1978 by Artwick's partner Stu Moment as Sublogic Communications Corporation. Sublogic is best known as the creator of the Flight Simulator series, later known as Microsoft Flight Simulator, but it also created other video games such as Night Mission Pinball, Football, and Adventure on a Boat; educational software; and an Apple II graphics library.
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.
Solo Flight is a third-person flight simulator written by Sid Meier for the Atari 8-bit family and published by MicroProse in 1983. It includes a game mode called Mail Pilot. This was the fourth flight simulator Meier wrote for MicroProse—following Hellcat Ace, Spitfire Ace, and Wingman—and the first which did not involve aerial combat.
Bruce Arthur Artwick is an American software engineer. He is the creator of the first consumer flight simulator software. He founded Sublogic after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1977, and released the first version of Flight Simulator for the Apple II in 1979. His original Apple II software was purchased by Microsoft in 1982 and became Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0.
Following the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer, or IBM PC, many other personal computer architectures became extinct within just a few years. It led to a wave of IBM PC compatible systems being released.
The Deskpro 386 is a line of desktop computers in Compaq's Deskpro range of IBM PC compatibles. The computers feature Intel's 32-bit 80386 microprocessor. Introduced in September 1986, the Deskpro 386 is the first implementation of the 80386 processor in a computer system for sale to the public. It also marks the first time that a major component of the IBM Personal Computer de facto standard was updated by a company other than IBM themselves—in this case, upgrading from the 80286 processor of the Personal Computer/AT.
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.
Aces Game Studio (ACES) was an American video game developer based in Redmond, Washington, owned by Microsoft Game Studios. It was founded in 1988 under the name Bruce Artwick Organization Limited at Champaign, Illinois, by Bruce Artwick, creator of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Microsoft Space Simulator and also co-founder of Sublogic.
Jet is a combat flight simulator video game originally published in 1985 by Sublogic. The game was released in 1985 for MS-DOS and the Commodore 64, 1986 for the Apple II, 1988 for the Atari ST and Amiga, and 1989 for the Macintosh and NEC PC-9801.
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.
Night Mission Pinball is a pinball simulation video game published by Sublogic in 1982. It was developed by Bruce Artwick for the Apple II, then ported to the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, and IBM PC.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is a 1986 video game developed by Sublogic and published by Microsoft for the Macintosh.
The Dimension 68000 is a microcomputer introduced by the Micro Craft Corporation in 1983 that sought to emulate the Apple II, the IBM PC, and various CP/M-centric computers through a family of coprocessor expansion cards and emulation software. The Dimension 68000 can also run as a standalone computer based on the Motorola 68000 from which it gets its namesake. The computer is mostly the brainchild of Mike Carpenter, a former executive of a scientific instrument manufacturer who incorporated Micro Craft in Dallas, Texas, to develop the Dimension 68000. It had a market lifespan of three years and received mixed, mostly positive, reception from the technology press. Criticism was leveled at the $6,250 price tag for the computer with the full deck of coprocessor cards, as well as the extent of the emulation power of those cards.