Flight Simulators

[tombo@mail.on-line.co.uk (Richard King)]

Whilst is might be possible to patch the 'time-codes' of the various
Apple // 8-bit flight simulators, even going so far as to adjust them
correctly for the speed of the CPU, this would, IMHO, be very much a
stopgap solution.

There's much to be said for FS1, JET, Yeager, and the others, but there's
also rather a lot to be said against them - at least as far as their
usefulness in flight-simulation goes. I won't bother to detail all their
shortcomings, but the main one is their heavy dependance on the HiRes
display - I know I'm spoiled, but the colours are *horrid* and the
resolution's not much better.

In addition, most are somewhat fixated on 5.25" disks - the Flight
Simulator might be 'unglueable' and run from a 3.5 or hard disk, but the
Scenery disks are less easy to convert. And only FS1 and JET can use
eternal scenery, anyway. Another shortcoming is the limited choice of
aircraft-types.

All in all, I wouldn't be sorry to see these 8-bit programs made more
accepting of the Apple IIgs, but I'd much rather see a completely new
program, with all the features anyone sensible could want.

Specifically, a 'class' flight simulator should provide all the features
of FS1 (Scenery disks, Time-of-day, Wind & Weather, Aircraft reliability,
Radio navigation, etc.) but with 16-colour graphics with a refresh rate
of at least 5 frames per second (anything less makes proper flying
impossibly difficult) and User-definable or Library-defined aircraft.

This is pretty much what the Phoenix Project is planning to do, so
interested people should get in contact so they can put in their two
penn'orth. It's a *HUGE* project, so we can use all the help and advice
that anyone cares to offer.

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The Phoenix Project   - Helping the Apple IIgs come alive again.
Coordinator   - Richard King (tombo@mail.on-line.co.uk)
Coordinateur   - Lionel Saugrain (saugrain@archipel.fr)
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