Since the dawn of PC gaming, flight sims have pushed the envelope, defining many fundamentals we now accept as core to the entire spectrum of gaming. Above any other genre, they have always demanded the fastest hardware. Reproducing the complex dynamics of flight and replicating sophisticated avionics is a huge design challenge even for NASA and aerospace companies. That a convincing sim can exist on PC hardware today is a wonder, but words can’t describe what a miracle it was on a 8Mhz 286 in 1982. Flight sims rock because we love the taste of knowing something is the very best it can be.

Graphics were crude and focused where it mattered. We needed crisp displays to show detailed instruments. Rendering the first 3D worlds with horizon-spanning draw distances was limited to a few perspective lines. Indeed, the jump to SVGA in the late 90s was a momentous step for flight sims, not so much because the terrain looked better, but because the avionics were more detailed and readable. Flight simmers look down more than up.

Hand in hand with the early technology wins, flight sims helped define the culture and meaning of what it is to be a PC gamer. A good sim’s complexity demanded weeks to master, dozens or even hundreds of keys to remember, 300 page manuals, and with all that, a sense held by the virtual pilot that they really were more sophisticated, more serious, more skilled than a mushroom hopping console gamer. We played sims because, forgive me for stating the obvious — they were simulations of things we could never do in our real lives. One felt that one really could fly, say, a real F-16, as long as it had a 101 keyboard in the cockpit… This was serious stuff, for serious gamers.

Indisputable credit is owed to Microsoft’s Flight Simulator. This single piece of software can rightly be credited with playing a key part in the success, and more importantly, perception of the PC and what it is capable of. It is as much engineering art as it is a thing to be enjoyed.

The very first iteration of Flight Sim was unveiled in 1975(!), as a thesis project for the Apple II, followed up with the commercial release of Flight Simulator 1.0 in 1980, again for the Apple II. Microsoft, then all about software, cannily saw the dazzle value and commissioned Flight Simulator 1 for the PC, which was released in 1982. It was a move that attracted a lot of attention for the fledgling PC, ramming its technological and leisure potential home to punters who previously only thought of the PC as a utilitarian spreadsheet box. Suddenly the PC was sexy and sophisticated in a way the average person could relate to.

FS1, of course, looked nothing like the sims we enjoy today, but it, and the subsequent still-basic versions that followed through to 5.0 in 1993 which was the first to look good , all turned that weakness to an advantage. For, while the world outside the window was a stark grid of textureless vectors, the cockpit was an impressive array of accurate functional avionics. Just like a real plane, in 16-colour EGA. It was flying by instruments alone, a mental challenge, not visual, and this cemented what flight simming is all about, which holds true today as flight model realism plus avionics and cockpit reproduction are still more important than pretty graphics.

Not long after FS1, addon map-packs began to appear, soon representing all of North America in its vector splendor, allowing pilots to plan and fly long distance trips, refuelling at real-world airports. This thinking was another shift for how PC gaming would evolve, which has reached overwhelming maturity today, with the whole world now virtualized in high res.

Microsoft bought the Flight Simulator license in 1988 kick-starting Mircosoft’s commendable commitment to the series, and setting the standard for staying true to a design ethos which would last 20 years.

Since then, every new version has lifted the bar higher – not just for the series, but PC gaming and its maximum exploitation of hardware and software. As each new version had a shelf-life of 2-3 years, a huge degree of performance headroom was built-in, anticipating Moore’s Law and playing to it. No PC can ever run a version of Flight Sim at max detail upon release, but you can just do it after a couple of years of upgrades – by which time a new version will appear. This cycle helped define PC gaming’s relationship with the hardware. It acknowledged that a simmer would go through multiple system upgrades through the life of a version, lifting the game experience each time. It allowed the development team to make each new version a spectacular leap forwards . Flight Sim has always been one of the most sophisticated thing you could ever run on your PC.

Ironically and tragically, this exponential evolution was to become a fatal bind that crushed the series, squeezing it to a sad death when Microsoft shut down its internal ACES development team, laying off the staff in the dark depths of the GFC in January 2009. Player expectations and development complexity had exploded costs and the team size. To exponentially improve upon the outstanding FSX, the last release in 2006, was untenable without a huge team and years of development, all serving a shrinking relative niche.

FSX will live on for many years yet, it’s still unplayable on max settings with even the meatiest rig, and has the support of vast 3rd party commercial and community activity.
Flight Simulator flew high, taking the PC with it, and countless grateful gamers who were able to live the fantasy of flight. We salute it. It is one of the greatest triumphs of technology, gaming culture and enthusiast passion.

Ben Mansill

This article originally published in Atomic.