CRASH’s reviewers liked Fighter Pilot in March 1984, with one reservation: the controls were sluggish, and you had to hold a key down to get anything to happen. The next issue printed a correction. Dave Marshall of Digital Integration had shown them that the controls were proportional, like a real aircraft’s: “the longer you keep a key pressed the more effect it has, moving, for instance, from a slow to a very fast bank or turn.” The magazine had been judging a flight simulator as if it were an arcade game, and that is the difference between the two. A flight sim models how an aircraft flies, with its momentum, fuel and instruments, and hands the player the controls. It expected to be learned before it could be enjoyed, and its players were willing to read.
Fast facts
- The idea: a model of an aircraft that the player flies, through instruments and controls rather than direct steering.
- First on home computers: subLOGIC’s FS1 Flight Simulator for the Apple II and TRS-80, advertised from January 1980.
- In Britain: Psion’s Flight Simulation for the ZX81 (1982), then Digital Integration’s Fighter Pilot and Tomahawk.
- Combat simulators: MicroProse’s Hellcat Ace (1982), F-15 Strike Eagle and Gunship; Spectrum HoloByte’s Falcon.
- The longest-running: Microsoft Flight Simulator, licensed from subLOGIC in 1982 and still going.
- The cost to the player: many keys, a thick manual and a long time learning to take off.
Learning to fly at home
The first flight simulators for home computers arrived with the first colour and graphics machines. In January 1980 subLOGIC was advertising its FS1 Flight Simulator in Byte as “a visual flight simulator that gives you realistically stable aircraft control”, and asking readers “DO NOT confuse the FS1 with other software claiming to offer flight simulation”, so it already had rivals. Bruce Artwick’s program grew into Flight Simulator II for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari computers, and Microsoft licensed it for the IBM PC in 1982. The Microsoft Flight Simulator entry follows that line to the present day.
In Britain the first well-known flying program came from Psion, sold by Sinclair Research for the 16K ZX81 in 1982. Sinclair’s listing for the cassette promised “a highly manoeuvrable light aircraft with full controls”, a view through the cockpit window and navigational aids: “Happy landings!” Computer & Video Games was realistic about what a home computer could do: it was not one of the “flight simulators which real pilots train on”, but it did “offer some of the excitement and a very real challenge”. The Spectrum version was among the first cassettes Sinclair sold for its new machine.
The keyboard as a cockpit
Fighter Pilot, written by Dave Marshall for the 48K Spectrum and sold by Digital Integration for £7.95, shows what the genre asked of its players and what it gave back. CRASH counted fifteen control keys, “although fortunately these are not used all at once!”, working the rudder, flaps, thrust and undercarriage, with the cursor keys or a joystick for the stick. The instrument panel had an artificial horizon, a thrust gauge with a red section for reheat, radar and compass, an instrument landing system, fuel gauge and an undercarriage light. The aircraft reached “802 knots (at sea level, full reheat)”. The runways had names and were drawn “in full, correct perspective”. One reviewer called it the best simulation for the Spectrum so far, “and one of the most exciting to play”, and its list of game features ended: “Lives: 1 — how many more do you want?”
That one life sums up the genre. Most games of the time gave the player three chances and a score. A flight simulator gave one aircraft and judged the player on whether it landed.
Combat and the manual
Combat flying grew alongside the civil kind. MicroProse began in 1982 with Sid Meier’s Hellcat Ace, advertised as “a real time, three dimensional WWII flying simulation with a unique pilot’s eye view”, and made its name with F-15 Strike Eagle and the helicopter simulation Gunship. Meier later explained to Compute!’s Gazette how MicroProse chose what to model: “In an airplane simulation, that’s pretty straightforward. It’s not the mechanic, it’s not the guy who designed the plane … It’s the pilot who has the most interesting job.” The game design entry has more of that interview.
The manuals grew with the games. When ACE compared flight simulators in February 1988, it described Gunship as having “all the hallmarks of an American up-market product, with an excellent manual”, and Digital Integration’s helicopter game Tomahawk as more restrained, but judged that “once you’ve put down the bulky manual and started flying”, the British program was the more convincing of the two. Spectrum HoloByte’s F-16 simulator Falcon, which ACE called “the definitive American flight simulator”, came with the magazine’s firmest advice: “Read the manual. It’s much, much more than window dressing. You won’t get very far at all if you just take to the air and try toughing it out.” Players who wanted to fly them properly soon wanted better controls than a keyboard, and the flight stick entry tells that story.
Flight in space
The press used the same words for flying in space. Access Software advertised Echelon in 1987 as “a true 3-D space flight simulator”. The best-known British space game, Elite (1984), shipped with a flight training manual for its pilots, though it is better described as a space trading and combat game, with no score, only a rank to earn. Jez San’s Starglider (1986) was a fast vector combat game, and the same 3D technology went into Argonaut’s flight simulator Birds of Prey. By 1990 Wing Commander had taken space combat in the other direction, towards story and spectacle, while the aircraft simulators kept their manuals.
Sources
- Byte vol. 5 no. 1, January 1980, p. 96: subLOGIC FS1 Flight Simulator advertisement.
- Computer & Video Games issue 10, August 1982: news of Psion’s Flight Simulation for Sinclair (p. 15), and Sinclair’s listing for cassette G14 for the 16K ZX81.
- CRASH issue 2, March 1984: review of Fighter Pilot (controls, instruments, runways, verdict). Issue 3, April 1984: the correction on proportional controls.
- ACE issue 5, February 1988: flight simulators feature comparing Gunship and Tomahawk.
- ACE issue 13, October 1988: Falcon and the advice to read its manual.
- Ahoy! issue 44, August 1987: Access Software advertisement for Echelon.
- Tom Netsel, “Simulation Designers Speak Out”, Compute!’s Gazette vol. 7 no. 3, March 1989, pp. 12–13: Sid Meier on choosing the pilot’s role.
- For Hellcat Ace, the Elite manual and Birds of Prey, see the sources in the MicroProse, Elite and Starglider entries.