Those of you who may not be familiar to this wonderful hobby, according to Wikipedia, Bruce Artwick developed the Flight Simulator program beginning in 1977 and his company, subLOGIC sold it for various personal computers. In 1981 Artwick was approached by Microsoft’s Alan M. Boyd who was interested in creating a ‘definitive game’ that would graphically demonstrate the difference between older 8-bit computers such as the Apple II and the new 16-bit computers like the (then unreleased) IBM PC still in development at Microsoft.
Even I wasn’t aware of that when I started the hobby. More importantly, Microsoft Flight Simulator allows users of the program to create flights from his/her computer, in a wide variety of aicraft right out of the box. Additional aircraft are allowed to be added through the program being open sourced – meaning that you can put “add-ons” into it. Belive me, some of those add-ons are quite impressive, and can bring even more enjoyment to the all ready fantastic flight simulator.
If I were to put one emphasis on Flight Simulator that I happen to enjoy the most out of, is the abillity to be able to explore the world. One of the add-ons that I use in combination with my flight simulator is called Tileproxy – what this little gem of a program does is bring in mapping server images and displays it as the main scenery where you are flying. That way you can literally see the “real” world instead of cartoony images of what the world is supposed to be. What does that mean? That means you can actually take off from your home towns airport, and actually fly over your own house if you wish! I know I have done so many times and NEVER get board with it.
The wonderful thing about Flight Simulator as well as it gives us a chance with the before mentioned program to visit those destinations we know we’ll never get a chance to visit in real life. Ever dream of going somewhere you’ll never get a chance to see? Program a flight from your home town’s airport from Point A to Point B and bingo, you’re there – use Tileproxy, and you’ll see your real life destination as it is in the real world.
Yes, the possibilities are endless. I’m only starting to really scratch the surfaces in my Flight Simulator as I’m truly only starting to explore it’s potential with the United States as I explore our great country.
On the pages in these blogs you’ll find my journies, and the history behind the cities and towns that accompany them. For knowledge is power, and we learn something knew every day. With Microsoft I learn two things – Flying – and history of our great United States of America. To me, it doesn’t get any better than that.
