DOS Games Archive Newsletter http://www.dosgamesarchive.com ___________________________________________________________ Issue 17 - Sunday, December 10, 2000 Contents What's new? + Lots of games added + New message board Feature: Microsoft Flight Simulator + 1977 to 1980: the alpha years + 1980 to 1983: FS 1 becomes an instant hit + 1984 to 1987: FS 2 + 1988 to 1994: FS 3 and 4 + 1995 to 1997: FS 5 becomes FS 95 + 1998: FS98 and the dynasty gets a few nephews + 2000: FS 2000 + Conclusion Wanted! + Dave + Can't remember the title + Captain Comic II Code Sheet + Walkthroughs for Blackstar: Episode One ___________________________________________________________ WHAT'S NEW? + Lots of games added In the previous weeks, we added a lot of games to the archive. Here they are. If you want to download one of them, go to DOS Games Archive (www.dosgamesarchive.com). - Blocks from Hell - Darts - Digger - Drugwar - Duke Nukem 3D - Epic Baseball - Grand Theft Auto - Hexen: Beyond Heretic - Hocus Pocus - Hugo's House of Horrors - Hugo 2: Whodunit - Hugo 3: Jungle of Doom - Keen 1: Marooned on Mars - Keen 6: Aliens ate my Babysitter - Keen Dreams - Mean Mini Golf - MechWar - Lemmings 2: The Tribes - Quake - SimCity Classic - Sopwith - Sopwith 2 - Tomb Raider - Tennis Elbow - Ugh! - Velcro Mind We will add more games in the future. Stay tuned! + New message board In a previous webpoll we asked the visitors whether we needed a new message board. More than 50% percent of them said they would like a new one with more features. So we've installed a new one. You can take a look at the following URL: http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/msgboard ___________________________________________________________ FEATURE: MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR By Doug Farmer Microsoft Flight Simulator: a 23-year-old software dynasty that just keeps getting better and better. + 1977 to 1980: the alpha years Several decades ago, when PC was an acronym that more often would be translated to mean "pretty-cool," a young software engineer by the name of Bruce Artwick was looking for a job. Artwick shared a human dream that pre-dates recorded time--he wanted to fly or, at the very least, simulate it and produce a bit of cool demo-code for his next job interview. + 1980 to 1983: FS 1 becomes an instant hit Fortunately, Artwick did not end up getting tucked into an obscure 6"x6" cubicle of some faceless company's software development dungeon. Instead, early in 1978, he formed subLOGIC and decided to turn 10,000 bytes of cool and fluid assembler code into something that would go on to create one of those defining moments in the history of computing--Flight Simulator version 1.0 for the leading edge personal computers of 1980: the Apple II+, the Tandy/Radio Shack (TRS)-80, the Commodore 64, and the graphically stunning Atari 800. With Flight Sim's first release subLOGIC had grown to include two additional members, Dave Denhart, and Charles Guy, who together with Artwick, unleashed just under 16 Kbytes of code that was sold, along with the manual, on a single audiocassette tape; a product that would create a seemingly simple black and white line art world of limited dimensions, but one that would nonetheless go on to immerse thousands of flight sim fans high in the skies of the PCs very first simulated reality. + 1984 to 1987: FS 2 Meanwhile, cash rich from their recent sweetheart deal with IBM involving a new product called MS-DOS, a bunch of code-heads decided that buying a slice of subLOGIC could prove to be a "fruitful" investment. Enter Microsoft and the introduction of solid 3D models into the world of FS with the release of version 2. Microsoft's arrival also introduced contention and disagreement within the management ranks of subLOGIC and late in 1984 Artwick, while still very much involved with subLOGIC, realized he was no longer in the captain's chair and formed the Bruce Artwick Organization, or BAO for short. For a time BAO was an independent company that would go off to create several of the premier add-ons to the FS family. In particular was the FS Aircraft Factory that many fans far preferred over the similar offering from Microsoft/subLOGIC--The Flight Simulator Aircraft Scenery Designer. Eventually BAO would, like its predecessor subLOGIC, be absorbed by the collective that is Microsoft with Artwick consulting to the new keepers of the FS code in Redmond, WA. + 1988 to 1994: FS 3 and 4 subLOGIC spent the next seven years dancing with the giant releasing one of the first F-4 Jet Simulators for the new kings of the PC hardware world (the Amiga and Atari line), cryptically entitled Jet along with a healthy collection of beautiful scenery add-ons disks. In 1988 FS Version 3 arrived, and Artwick, along with most of subLOGIC's development team headed off to work fulltime at BAO. By the next year, FS Version 4 had arrived jammed packed onto a single 1.44 Mbyte 3.5" floppy disk. Perhaps it was due to a fan community (that now measured over a hundred thousand) asking for more, or maybe it was Microsoft still digesting their now total acquisition of subLOGIC. In retrospect, maybe it was just another facet of the dead-zone that was the world of PC gaming during the early 1990's, but for flight sim fans the master caution alarm was now quietly blinking. Father's were now showing their ten year old sons a piece of software magic, that while visually stunning for some strange reason, couldn't quite measure up to the original that they remembered. + 1995 to 1997: FS 5 becomes FS 95 Along with the mega-buck marketing splash that was the arrival of Windows 95, the year 1995 also saw the arrival of FS Version 5, a.k.a. Flight Simulator 95. Unfortunately, there was little rejoicing. The bugs, stodgy performance, and inaccurate flight models that FS 4 introduced six years earlier turned out to be even more extreme in the new world of Pentium computing. Fan's flooded the emerging forums of the Internet and blasted the Usenet Flight Sim groups with fear that 15 years of immersive enjoyment had one wing on fire and was about to go down in flames. To compound the conspiracy theories even further, the close of 1995 saw Microsoft absorb BAO and subLOGIC consumed by Sierra who was ready to create the next crash and burn flight sim product--Pro Pilot. Three years later Sierra would give up subLOGIC's last legacy stating the title "did not meet its success criteria." + 1998: FS98 and the dynasty gets a few nephews Artwick got busy as a consultant to Microsoft. Microsoft got busy with people and cash and suddenly, thanks in no small part to the explosion of the visual power the new 3D video hardware delivered to your PC, the world of flight simulation went ballistic. FS version 6 hit the streets under the trade name of Flight Simulator 98 and, as the first true cousin of a bit of demo code whipped up by Artwick 20 years earlier, we got guns and the Battle of Britain with Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator version 1. There was much rejoicing... The Lear Jet was better. The Cessna 182 got retractable landing gear, and for those yearning to fly more of the big iron that the Boeing 747 of FS 95 delivered, a highly detailed Boeing 737 was soon performing controlled circular navigational patterns around the outer marker of a busy Chicago's O'Hare airport inside our PCs. While FS 98's introduction of rotating wing aircraft in the form of the Bell 206B Jet Ranger helicopter at first confused the fans of fixed wing flight, the writing on the wall soon began to become clear. Not only wasn't Flight Simulator about to crash and burn, it had recovered. With flaps dropped to their max and our one surviving engine throttled to 110% we were at least limping towards something wonderful. Supersonic flight, 3D-mesh based terrain, real-time weather, and leading edge graphics. + 2000: FS 2000 Earlier this year the seventh generation of the Flight Simulator legacy arrived with the release of FS 2000 along with major upgrades to its two cousins: Combat Flight Simulator and the online world of Microsoft's Fighter Ace title. Crimson Skies, the second cousin to what was once just black and white lines etched on the monitor of an Apple II+ arrived and layered in fun to the family. + Conclusion Behind the scenes what had begun as a development team of three had since grown to over 130 developers, artists, and testers that now envelop the flight simulation division at Microsoft. One that was happy to not only share the coolest bits of codes between flight simulation based titles, but also aggressively continue the support for third party mods via SDKs that has turned Artwick's original idea into an industry unto its own. All of this has made FS into what is becoming a totally modular, snap-on flight simulation environment. ___________________________________________________________ WANTED! Here are some messages from visitors of the site. They are looking for a particular game or they have a problem. Maybe you can help them? If so, please contact them. By the way, if you are looking for a game and you still can't find it, post a message in our message board: http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/msgboard > "I want to get a game called Dave (NOT Dangerous Dave) > where you must get all gems to enter next level. Each > time you complete a level, in screen appears "Only X > more to go!" , where X is the number of levels remaining > Please if someone owns it, tell me how to get it. Thanx" http://pub14.ezboard.com/fdosgamesarchivegamerequests.show Message?topicID=46.topic > "I'm looking for an old DOS game. All I remember about > it is that you play as a girl and when you press the > spacebar you turn into a wolf. It was an adventure/action > type of game. You could use the wolf to attack enemies, > and change back to the girl to climb ropes & ladders, > etc... > Anyone knows the name of the game I'm talking about?" http://pub14.ezboard.com/fdosgamesarchivegamerequests.show Message?topicID=22.topic > "Hi, I've found an old copy of Captain Comic II, but I > have lost that dumb code sheet for the code you need to > enter at the beginning. I was wondering if anybody > happened to have one that I could see. Thanks." http://pub14.ezboard.com/fdosgamesarchivegamerequests.show Message?topicID=16.topic > "Just wondering, are there any walkthroughs for the game > Blackstar: Episode One? I can't seem to get into the > locker room, there are always that guys walking by all > the time. > Tried everything (I think). Maybe I have to go to that > tribal meeting first? Have gotten the message, and the > Chief at the bar tells me all the time that "it's real > soon now > PS: anyone know where to get episode two?" http://pub14.ezboard.com/fdosgamesarchivegamerequests.show Message?topicID=6.topic ___________________________________________________________ THANKS If you've any ideas for future content, we would like to hear from you! Contact us at webmaster@dosgamesarchive.com That's it for this issue of our newsletter. See you next time and thanks for reading! DOS Games Archive Team http://www.dosgamesarchive.com