Microsoft KB Archive/31302

History of Upgrades: Flight Simulator

PSS ID Number: Q31302 Article last modified on 11-11-1995

1.x 2.x 3.00 4.00

MS-DOS

Summary:

The following article gives a history of upgrades for Flight Simulator.

More Information:

  Version 1.05 (May 1983) Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL reboots the machine. The ILS, VOR functions work in the clouds. The outer markers range was increased by 1.5.   Version 2.10 (May 1984) Joystick, mouse support. PCjr support. RGB color support. Better graphics.   Version 2.10a (August 1984) AT support. Dynamic windspeeds corrected. Six missing airports added in Chicago.   Version 2.11 (internal update) Corrected no color problem on PCjr.   Version 2.12 (April 1985) Hercules Graphics Board, EGA (color and monochrome) support. (Please note you cannot use the mouse with these graphics cards.)   Version 2.13 (August 1986) IBM PC Convertible support. Enhanced keyboard support. Support of 3.5-inch disk drives. Support for DOS Version 3.20. Support for Liquid Crystal Display (LCD).   Version 2.14 (June 1987) Support IBM Personal System/2 computer.   Version 3.00 (June 1988) No copy protection. Can be run from hard disk. DOS compatible (no longer takes over the machine and forces reboot when finished). Resolution better on EGA/VGA machines. No longer different version for Tandy machines (Customer selects Tandy keyboard and/or graphics display drivers.) San Francisco (Bay Area) scenery added. Aircraft simulation enhanced. ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) capabilities added. Flight logbook and editor added. Computer Flight Path Display added. Flight Lessons. Demo recorder and playback system (also includes instant replay of last few maneuvers). Additional Entertainment (Crop Duster challenges accuracy skills; formation flying added to follow a lead plane). Multiple machines can be connected (direct or via modem) so players can fly together (and even see each other’s planes on the display). Added Learjet. Editor no longer exists (pull down menus control all functionality instead). Flight analysis (graphs and maneuvers and/or course plotting). Multiple windows (can have more than one view at a time on screen). You can have two display windows and one map window showing location on variable scale map. Two display windows can be different views out of the cockpit, view from a spot plane, from the control tower, from a tracking observer in any combination. Clouds, thunderstorms, winds, time of day, stars can be set from the Environment menu (prior functionality was only a subset of this) winds and clouds can be set at multiple levels to simulate wind sheer and more realistic meteorological effects. Crash analysis displays a graph of the approach pattern and speed of impact. Smoke system added. Sensitivities can be adjusted for keyboard/mouse/joystick. More control over removal and failure of instruments. Multiple scenery libraries can reside on the hard disk; program automatically selects the right one for the coordinate setting. Autopilot functionality added. </li>  Version 4.00 (September 1989) Design and fly your own airplane on screen. Sailplane simulator. Improved flight characteristics. Random weather patterns. More scenery, including planes, fuel trucks, and more 80386 optimization. </li></ol>

KBCategory: kbother KBSubcategory: ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1995.