Official Feedback Issue 103

[slacey1070]

I don't know about their later output, but I much preferred the Microprose games on the 8 bits. Tomahawk didn't hold a candle to Gunship, but I guess there's a couple of years between them. Lenslok didn't help either so I couldn't get a hooky copy for the Speccy. I ended up with the C64 version from a bargain bin, but it was too slow to be playable.

They're perhaps more accurate simulations, but there's just not as much game in there.

NB: You only used two dots for your ellipsis and it should always be three.

I loved Stealth on the Amiga - It took over my Christmas that year... One more raid over libya before the family arrive...

I was friendly with someone who used to fly a light aircraft at the time... he SWORE by DI's output... he tried on a number of occasions to teach me to be a pilot. He failed. But it was fun anyway. I enjoyed the Hind, again on the Amiga.... if I remember it came with a freebie, landing a helicopter on an aircraft carrier, which was used in some training in the RAF if I remember rightly.

[AmigaJay]

Wow these months fly past, just put this down and the new one pops through the letterbox!
Anyway good issue, though I wasn't that impressed by the flight simulator feature, esp after looking forward to this feature after playing many a flight sim over the years. Sure it looked at some early sims, but the sims during the late 80s early 90s were the ones that took them from simple wireframe flying a horizon sim to full 3d worlds and accurate controls, this area was sadly missing from the feature, F18, Falcon, TFX, Gunship 2000 amongst many others didn't get a mention, with the writer concentrating on 8 bit versions and Flight Simultator alone then chucking in some console games I.e Pilotwings that have no reference on actually taking control of a plane...

[merman]

Wow these months fly past, just put this down and the new one pops through the letterbox!
Anyway good issue, though I wasn't that impressed by the flight simulator feature, esp after looking forward to this feature after playing many a flight sim over the years. Sure it looked at some early sims, but the sims during the late 80s early 90s were the ones that took them from simple wireframe flying a horizon sim to full 3d worlds and accurate controls, this area was sadly missing from the feature, F18, Falcon, TFX, Gunship 2000 amongst many others didn't get a mention, with the writer concentrating on 8 bit versions and Flight Simultator alone then chucking in some console games I.e Pilotwings that have no reference on actually taking control of a plane...

There is a biplane level in Pilotwings...

[The Laird]

Wow these months fly past, just put this down and the new one pops through the letterbox!
Anyway good issue, though I wasn't that impressed by the flight simulator feature, esp after looking forward to this feature after playing many a flight sim over the years. Sure it looked at some early sims, but the sims during the late 80s early 90s were the ones that took them from simple wireframe flying a horizon sim to full 3d worlds and accurate controls, this area was sadly missing from the feature, F18, Falcon, TFX, Gunship 2000 amongst many others didn't get a mention, with the writer concentrating on 8 bit versions and Flight Simultator alone then chucking in some console games I.e Pilotwings that have no reference on actually taking control of a plane...

I felt that if you are going to cover console games then at least cover ones that ARE flight sims like F29 on the Megadrive, Falcon on the PC Engine, F14 Tomcat on the 2600, Warbirds on the Lynx, F16 on the Master System or one of the 3 on the Atari 7800.

[AmigaJay]

Wow these months fly past, just put this down and the new one pops through the letterbox!
Anyway good issue, though I wasn't that impressed by the flight simulator feature, esp after looking forward to this feature after playing many a flight sim over the years. Sure it looked at some early sims, but the sims during the late 80s early 90s were the ones that took them from simple wireframe flying a horizon sim to full 3d worlds and accurate controls, this area was sadly missing from the feature, F18, Falcon, TFX, Gunship 2000 amongst many others didn't get a mention, with the writer concentrating on 8 bit versions and Flight Simultator alone then chucking in some console games I.e Pilotwings that have no reference on actually taking control of a plane...

There is a biplane level in Pilotwings...

Yes I know, but it's not a simulation...hence the term 'flight simulators' otherwise you might as well include any old arcade game that has a passing resemblance to a plane in it!

Pilotwings is a close to a flight simulator as the Simulator series by Codemasters in the 80s!

[merman]

Thing is, Pilotwings is a gateway drug, leading you on to harder simulations... It deserved a mention.

And I don't know why you are dismissing it as a flight simulation. Go too slow and you stall. To skilfully fly through the rings and land accurately, you have to understand the dynamics of climbing and turning. Same with the hang gliding, where you have to ride thermals and understand the constraints of the flimsy craft.

You can argue that other simulations could have been mentioned, but in such a broad overview choices have to be made and I feel Ian was right to include what was an important game at the time.

[AmigaJay]

Thing is, Pilotwings is a gateway drug, leading you on to harder simulations... It deserved a mention.

And I don't know why you are dismissing it as a flight simulation. Go too slow and you stall. To skilfully fly through the rings and land accurately, you have to understand the dynamics of climbing and turning. Same with the hang gliding, where you have to ride thermals and understand the constraints of the flimsy craft.

You can argue that other simulations could have been mentioned, but in such a broad overview choices have to be made and I feel Ian was right to include what was an important game at the time.

Only if they feel obliged at all to mention console games in every paragraph!

Yes it (Pilotwings) has very basic flying manoeuvres, but in context with the other flight simulators mentioned its not a 'flight simulator' its an arcade game with the odd feature thrown in...I'm not gonna argue the point anymore because I know it will fall on deaf ears which is a shame because I feel console games have to get a mention at every turn just to please some of the target audience...

[Antiriad2097]

I'd agree some of the game choices in the flight sim piece were a little 'out there', but it was just a bluffer's guide, little more than a brief overview of how they started and what span out from that. I'm looking forward to more in depth follow up articles now.

[webding]

Yeah, I'm over a month behind...

What I've read of it so far is really good. People moan about typos etc, but in the year or two I've been buying the mag, I think things have massively improved here; likewise the writing style of some articles/writers, which at times used to really grate with me, but have got so much better over recent months.

There's a few things on these lines that could be improved though - one of them was demonstrated in the Double Dragon piece, and that is assuming what the reader knows. Fair enough, people who read the mag are probably going to have an interest in and therefore knowledge of the subject matter, but it's not always the case. So saying "they thought about forced scrolling and free scrolling, but then came up with the excellent system used in the game" (paraphrased) is a bit poor. What system?

It's a minor point - and striking the balance must be hard - but that sort of thing does crop up fairly often.