[net.micro.mac] Microsoft Flight Simulator

upp@uicbert.UUCP (Steve Upp) (05/21/86)

Does anyone in netland know when Microsoft's Flight Simulator is going to 
be available on a Macintosh?  I recently saw an advertisement for it-therefore
Microsoft wants the world to know about it.

Just curious!

Steve Upp
...!ihnp4!uicbert!upp
 

-- 

Steve Upp
...!ihnp4!uicbert!upp

jac@osu-eddie.UUCP (James Clausing) (05/23/86)

In article <112@uicbert.UUCP> upp@uicbert.UUCP (Steve Upp) writes:
>Does anyone in netland know when Microsoft's Flight Simulator is going to 
>be available on a Macintosh?  I recently saw an advertisement for it-therefore
>Microsoft wants the world to know about it.
>
>Just curious!
>
>Steve Upp
>...!ihnp4!uicbert!upp
> 

It exists already, I tried it out last week and it looks like lots of
fun.

Jim Clausing
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Clausing

CIS Department	               jac@ohio-state.CSNET 
Ohio State University          jac@ohio-state.ARPA 
Columbus, OH 43210             jac@osu-eddie.UUCP 

(Disclaimer:  Ohio State doesn't have opinions on anything that I
 have opinions on and if they did I wouldn't claim theirs so why 
 should they claim mine?)

padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) (05/23/86)

In article <112@uicbert.UUCP>, upp@uicbert.UUCP (Steve Upp) writes:
> Does anyone in netland know when Microsoft's Flight Simulator is going to 
> be available on a Macintosh?  I recently saw an advertisement for it-therefore
> Microsoft wants the world to know about it.
> 

I got a copy for my mac direct from them a month ago. Give them your visa #
over the phone and they will mail it to you in about a week.

Padraig Houlahan

donch@tekirl.UUCP (05/23/86)

In case the Summary Part of this header got clipped, I'll repeat it here.

I have a copy of MS Flight Simulator, bought two weeks ago for $29.99
at a local software shop.

The program has much detail, the manual details a lot of information 
about navigation, etc.  I spend a lot of time with it, in spite of
its slow operation (2-3 screen updates/second) when running.

The program is pretty buggy and you soon discover that the dynamic
realism has some fixed limits:  such as stall occurring at a given
elevator setting at any speed, rather than being interdependent.

ron@isieng.UUCP (05/23/86)

[ Eat me! ]

Microsoft Flight Simulator is available now for the Mac.
I got mine a week ago from a local retailer for about $44.
It seems to run perfectly on my single-drive Mac Plus.
It is VERY IMPRESSIVE.  I highly recommend it.  Try flying
under the Bay Bridge.

hobbit@ecsvax.UUCP (Derrell Piper) (05/24/86)

  Microsoft Flight Simulator for the Mac (and Mac+) does exist.  At
least two stores locally have had it, although they keep selling out
of their copies as fast as they can get them.


Derrell Piper
120 Rosenau Hall (201H)
School of Public Health
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514          (919) 966-5106

Bitnet:     derrell@uncsphvx.BITNET
Usenet:     ...decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!hobbit 

stevo@ucrmath.UUCP (Steve Groom) (05/28/86)

> In case the Summary Part of this header got clipped, I'll repeat it here.
> 
> I have a copy of MS Flight Simulator, bought two weeks ago for $29.99
> at a local software shop.
> 
> The program has much detail, the manual details a lot of information 
> about navigation, etc.  I spend a lot of time with it, in spite of
> its slow operation (2-3 screen updates/second) when running.
> 
> The program is pretty buggy and you soon discover that the dynamic
> realism has some fixed limits:  such as stall occurring at a given
> elevator setting at any speed, rather than being interdependent.

I've had my copy for about a month and a half, and have been generally pleased.
I do have a few gripes about the manual, though.

- Some of the information is wrong, i.e. radio frequencies for certain airports,
navigational beacons, etc. I don't remember which ones, but I do remember that
several around the Bay Area had frequencies that were out of range, like
NAV beacons in the COM range and/or vice versa, so that it is impossible to
tune the right radio to that frequency. I suppose an exhaustive search is in
my future, some night when Letterman isn't on...
- Also, the locations/elevations of different airports aren't always right.
For instance, if you try using "set position" to go directly to Riverside
Municipal airport using the coordinates in the manual, you will find yourself 
a few hundred (thousand?) feet in the air! If you were not in flight when you
blinked in, you're in for your own physics experiment to measure g (for you 
non-physical-science people, I mean you are in the air, but not moving... 
gravity takes over!).  Again, the problem is that the elevation listed in the
manual is not quite right. The solution to this appears to be to turn
"crash detect" off before teleporting, then when you hit the ground you
only bounce a few times instead of crashing. Not exactly an award-winning
landing style, but it works.

  One other thing about crashing. After a crash, the simulator insists on 
starting you off back at Oakland again. What happens if I crash in New York?
I'm back in Oakland. I don't want to be in Oakland! Maybe in a future 
version the author could see fit to leave me in New York? Or Riverside?
Or wherever it was I crashed. I do that a lot (I'm getting better) and I
like to pick up where I left off, and try again instead of starting from
scratch.  It wouldn't be so bad if the coordinates were right so I could 
teleport back again without crashing... that gets to be a pain.

A note about copy protection... 
Flight Simulator uses the "you get to make one and only one backup copy"
scheme. I don't trust things I can't back up! So, I tried Copy II, but
no go. (I did this before making my one allowed copy) Eventually, I became
impatient and made the one copy. Then later, I tried to make a copy of
my one authorized copy, and it worked! Maybe its not a copy of the master
disk, but its a copy of one that works, so I'm happy.

-steve

/* Steve Groom
 * Graduate Computer Science, Univ. of California, Riverside
 * {ucbvax!ucdavis, ihnp4!ucla-cs} !ucrmath!stevo
 *
 * "Whaddaya want for nothin' ?!" 
 */

mkr@mmm.UUCP (MKR) (05/28/86)

In article <112@uicbert.UUCP> upp@uicbert.UUCP (Steve Upp) writes:
>Does anyone in netland know when Microsoft's Flight Simulator is going to 
>be available on a Macintosh?  I recently saw an advertisement for it-therefore
>Microsoft wants the world to know about it.
>
>Steve Upp


	It's available now. I have a copy at home.
	--MKR

espen@well.UUCP (Peter Espen) (05/31/86)

In article <164@ucrmath.UUCP>, stevo@ucrmath.UUCP (Steve Groom) writes:
> 
> A note about copy protection... 
> Flight Simulator uses the "you get to make one and only one backup copy"
> scheme. I don't trust things I can't back up! So, I tried Copy II, but
> no go. (I did this before making my one allowed copy) Eventually, I became
> impatient and made the one copy. Then later, I tried to make a copy of
> my one authorized copy, and it worked! Maybe its not a copy of the master
> disk, but its a copy of one that works, so I'm happy.
> 
> -steve
> 

	I made a working Copy of my Flight Simulator original disk with
Copy II Mac using Bit copy mode with both the track length and Syncronize
tracks options set.

sam@cci632.UUCP (Sam Mantel) (06/02/86)

> Does anyone in netland know when Microsoft's Flight Simulator is going to 
> be available on a Macintosh?  I recently saw an advertisement for it-therefore
> Microsoft wants the world to know about it.
> 
> Just curious!
> 
> Steve Upp
> ...!ihnp4!uicbert!upp

The MS Flight Sim has been in my hot little hands for about 3 weeks now.  It
is an excellent simulation, seems to work as advertised, and provides great fun.
Very much worth checking out.  I purchased it at a regular ol' computer store.
It is the only flight simulator I have seen that comes close to providing 
something close to instrument flying.  If anyone would like a review of same,
please let me know thru the net.  i have been in software quality assurance
for the last 8 years. (honk, honk).

Sam Mantel -- Roch, NY