Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

How PC flight simulators have changed…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 28, 2018

My first simulator for the F/A-18 was Jet, by SubLogic. I think the F/A-18 in that game was just the F-16 with a different plane model and the ability to land on a blocky aircraft carrier. The real F/A-18 was newly deployed at the time, so it was probably added as an afterthought. To be honest, I think the F-16 was still the hot new aircraft when the software was being developed. Dang, I’m old… but I still think both aircraft remain some of the finest military aircraft ever produced, decades later.

 

 

There have been many other flight sims portraying the Hornet, or its massively updated (and bigger) successor, the F/A-18E Super Hornet. Some of the notable ones include F/A-18 Interceptor from EA (which also included the F-16 as a flyable aircraft) for the Amiga, the Hornet Naval Strike Fighter add-on in the Falcon 3.0 series by Spectrum Holobyte, Digital Integration’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, and Jane’s Combat Simulations: F/A-18 Hornet from EA.

The latest is from Eagle Dynamics, as part of its phenomenal DCS World series. It’s still technically in “Early Access.” If you get it on Steam, it might not be listed as such because it is considered DLC for DCS World which has been “complete” for a long time, although it’s currently on version 2.5. It’s still a pretty complete and painstakingly detailed flight sim, there are just some modes and weapon systems that aren’t yet implemented. But compare the video!

 

If you weren’t told otherwise, at first (and maybe second) glance this would be easy to assume to be real-world footage.

These are the days I was looking forward to as a gamer back in the day. If only I had more time to enjoy it! 🙂


Filed Under: Flight Sims - Comments: 3 Comments to Read



  • Captain Kal said,

    “These are the days I was looking forward to as a gamer back in the day. If only I had more time to enjoy it! ”

    Same here. Although to be honest, I prefer “survey” (like Jane’s USAF) to “study” sims. DCS Sims are WAY above my paygrade!!!! 😀 😀

  • Rampant Coyote said,

    Oh, I played a crap-ton of ATF Gold back in the day. And IL-2: Sturmovik, which started as a study sim and became a survey sim. (Actually, I still play games in that series… including the original). But the IL-2 aircraft are still about as complex as a 1990s-era single-aircraft sim.

    There *IS* the Flaming Cliffs module, though. It includes six aircraft that aren’t quite as detailed in their realism as most of the DCS modules. A lot of the tertiary instruments don’t function… you don’t have to worry about whether or not your oil pressure is exceeding norms, etc. Most of them have received a flight model update to the “professional” model (except the MiG-29), which doesn’t really make any difference except for some quirkiness near the edge of their flight envelope. Anyway, it’s a cheap way to get started.

  • Captain Kal said,

    Both sims are included in my monstrous backlog!!! But my free time is quite short!!!

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