Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a flight simulator program for Microsoft Windows, marketed and often seen as a video game. more...

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One of the best-known and most comprehensive home flight simulator series, Microsoft Flight Simulator was an early product in the Microsoft portfolio - different from its other software which was largely business-oriented - and is its longest-running franchise, predating Windows by three years.

Bruce Artwick developed the Flight Simulator program beginning in 1977 and his company, subLOGIC sold it for various personal computers. In 1982 Artwick's company licensed to Microsoft a version of Flight Simulator for the IBM PC, which was marketed as Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00. Bill Gates was fascinated with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "The Night Flight", which told in great detail of the sensations of flying a small aircraft.

History

Microsoft Flight Simulator began life as a set of articles on computer graphics written by Bruce Artwick in 1976 about a 3D graphics program. When the magazine editor said that subscribers wanted to buy the program, Bruce Artwick incorporated a company called subLOGIC Corporation in 1977 and began selling flight simulators for 8080 computers such as the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080. In 1979 subLOGIC released FS1 Flight Simulator for the Apple II. In 1980 subLOGIC released a version for the Tandy TRS-80, and in 1982 they licensed an IBM PC version with CGA graphics to Microsoft, which was released as Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00. subLOGIC continued to develop the product for other platforms, and their improved Flight Simulator II was ported to Apple II in 1983, to the Commodore 64 and Atari 800 in 1984, and to the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST in 1986. Meanwhile, Bruce Artwick left subLOGIC to found Bruce Artwick Organisation to work on subsequent Microsoft releases, beginning with Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 in 1988. Microsoft Flight Simulator reached commercial maturity with version 3.1, and then went on to encompass the use of 3D graphics and graphic hardware acceleration to become a state-of-the-art product.

Microsoft has consistently produced newer versions of the simulation, adding features such as new aircraft types and augmented scenery. The Professional Edition released with the 2000 and 2002 versions, which included more aircraft, tools and more extensive scenery than the regular version, was a format abandoned for the 2004 (version 9) release, which returned to the single edition format and marked one hundred years of powered flight, and with Flight Simulator X, has returned to dual editions with "Standard edition" and "Deluxe Edition".

The most recent versions of this simulation, MS Flight Simulator 2004 and the newly released MS Flight Simulator X, cater to pilots, would-be pilots and people who once dreamed of being pilots alike. Less a game than an immersive virtual environment, it can often be frustrating, complex and difficult due to its realism, but it can be rewarding for the skilled flightsimmer at the same time. The flying area encompasses the whole world, to varying levels of detail, including over 20,000 airports. Individually-detailed scenery can be found representing major landmarks and an ever-growing number of towns and cities. Landscape details are often patchy away from population centres and particularly outside the USA, although a variety of websites offer scenery add-ons (both free and commercial) to remedy this.

Read more at Wikipedia.org