Posted by Tim Stone on October 18th, 2009.
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We flight simmers are gaming’s reluctant hermits. We often go hours without seeing another polygonal personage. Sometimes we don’t even have our own arms and legs for company. It’s tough. Lonely. Thank heavens someone has finally sought to end the solitude. Not only is A2A Simulations‘ latest FSX adjunct – a Piper J-3 Cub – one of the most convincingly modelled sim steeds I’ve ever had the pleasure to pilot, it also comes with its own responsive cockpit companion, Heidi.
Posted by Tim Stone on July 19th, 2009.
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Two weeks ago I didn’t have the faintest idea where Great Inagua was. Now, thanks to Air Hauler, a rather splendid Flight Simulator add-on that transforms FSX into a globe-spanning courier sim, I know every crinkly mile of its dragon’s head-shaped coastline.
Posted by Tim Stone on June 28th, 2009.
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Mathijs Kok has balls the size of Catalina blisters. The head of internal development at Aerosoft is talking about taking-on undoubtedly simulation’s scariest task: building from scratch a Microsoft Flight Simulator successor. If you’ve got a feature suggestion that doesn’t involve blue ice, ornithopters, or lawn chairs and helium balloons (already included in my petition) Aerosoft want to hear about it.
Posted by Tim Stone on January 24th, 2009.
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Some staggering news from Redmond via Gamasutra. Microsoft have just euthanised the most successful sim studio of all time. ACES, the team behind the Flight Simulator and Combat Flight Simulator franchises, are effectively no more. A skeleton staff of six will be kept on to service existing ESP contracts but it’s curtains for everyone else. Blimey.
Read on for ill-informed speculation.
Posted by Tim Stone on April 10th, 2008.
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A couple of years ago Kieron and Jim were asked to put together a collection of the best games writing on the planet. Some of this material already existed, while other things had to be commissioned. Sadly, due to internal problems at the publisher, and a rather recalcitrant contract, the book never saw the light of day. Many of the articles contained therein have now been published elsewhere. One that hasn’t so far been unveiled was this piece by Tim Stone. We asked him to write something about playing a flight sim. He, like other brave simmers, chose to undertake his journey in real time.
In June 1919 pilot John Alcock and navigator Arthur Whitten Brown flew a converted WWI bomber from St John’s, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland. It was the first time anyone had flown non-stop across the Atlantic. In June 2005, inspired by a real-life recreation of the flight and an interest in long-distance simulation I attempted the same feat in Microsoft Flight Simulator. What follows are extracts from the log of that trip.
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