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.
Descent is a first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Parallax Software and released by Interplay Productions in 1995 for MS-DOS, and later for Macintosh, PlayStation, and RISC OS. It popularized a subgenre of FPS games employing six degrees of freedom and was the first FPS to feature entirely true-3D graphics. The player is cast as a mercenary hired to eliminate the threat of a mysterious extraterrestrial computer virus infecting off-world mining robots. In a series of mines throughout the Solar System, the protagonist pilots a spaceship and must locate and destroy the mine's power reactor and escape before being caught in the mine's self-destruction, defeating opposing robots along the way. Players can play online and compete in either deathmatches or cooperate to take on the robots.
SimCity 2000 is a city-building simulation video game jointly developed by Will Wright and Fred Haslam of Maxis. It is the successor to SimCity Classic and was released for Apple Macintosh personal computers in 1993, after which it was released on other platforms over the following years, such as the Sega Saturn and SNES game consoles in 1995 and the PlayStation in 1996.
Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but technical and memory restrictions resulted in Sega developer Yu Suzuki redesigning it around a jet-propelled human character in a fantasy setting. The arcade game is controlled by an analog flight stick while the deluxe arcade cabinet is a cockpit-style hydraulic motion simulator cabinet that tilts and rolls during play, for which it is referred as a taikan (体感) or "body sensation" arcade game in Japan.
Pinball Dreams is a pinball simulation video game developed by Digital Illusions and originally released for the Amiga in 1992. It spawned several sequels, including Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions. The MS-DOS port was digitally released by Rebellion Developments along with its sequel and Pinball Mania on February 22, 2011 on GOG.com with support for Microsoft Windows. It received an OS X build on April 23, 2013; and a Linux build on August 19, 2014.
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.
Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and military flight training which consist of realistic physical recreations of the actual aircraft cockpit, often with a full-motion platform.
Star Wars: X-Wing is a space simulation video game, the first of the X-Wing combat flight simulation games series. The player's character flies starfighters, including the eponymous X-wing, for the Rebel Alliance as part of a narrative that precedes and parallels the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
Terminal Velocity is a shooter video game originally developed by Terminal Reality and published by 3D Realms for DOS and Windows 95, and MacSoft for Mac OS. It is an arcade-style flight combat game, with simpler game controls and physics than flight simulators. It is known for its fast, high-energy action sequences, compared to flight simulators of the time.
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.
Falcon 3.0 is a combat flight simulator video game developed by Sphere Inc. and published by Spectrum HoloByte in 1991 as third official main entry in the Falcon series of the F-16 Fighting Falcon simulators.
Star Fighter or Star Fighter 3000 is a 3D flight-based shoot-em-up. The gameplay is mission based and involves elements of strategy and planning. The player can order wingmen to fly in formation and attack specific targets.
Star Wars: TIE Fighter is a 1994 Star Wars space flight simulator and space combat video game, a sequel in the Star Wars: X-Wing series. It places the player in the role of an Imperial starfighter pilot during events that occur between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Overlord is a combat flight simulator by Rowan Software. It was released in 1994 for Amiga and PC MS-DOS platforms.
Virtuality is a line of virtual reality gaming machines produced by Virtuality Group, and found in video arcades in the early 1990s. The machines deliver real time gaming via a stereoscopic visor, joysticks, and networked units for multi-player gaming.
AV-8B Harrier Assault is a combat flight simulator/realtime strategy game developed by Simis and first published by Domark in 1992. An updated version using SVGA graphics was released later the same year, alternatively known as SVGA Harrier. In 1994, a modified version of the SVGA version was released for the classic Mac OS under the new name Flying Nightmares, which was later ported to 3D0.
Star Wars: X-Wing is a series of space flight simulator video games based in the Star Wars media franchise that attempts to simulate the fictional experience of starfighter combat, while remaining faithful to the movies. The player took the role of a pilot of the Rebel Alliance, and, in later games, the Galactic Empire. To complete the games, players must complete missions such as simple dogfights with opposition starfighters, reconnaissance and inspection tasks, escort duty for freighters or capital ships, or attacks on larger opposition ships. In addition to dogfighting designed to resemble the free-wheeling duels of World War I, the games also offered the challenge of managing power resources and wingmen, and using weapons effectively.
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.
VR Stalker is a combat flight simulator video game developed by Morpheus Interactive and originally published by American Laser Games for the 3DO.
NASCAR Racing is a 1994 video game developed by Papyrus Design Group and published by Virgin for the PC. A PlayStation version was released in 1996 by Sierra On-Line.
