Falcon 4.0 - 20th Anniversary Commemorate Flight

Since my channel was saturated lately with Ace Combat vids, to restore balance I present you this footage. I recorded it back in January 2018 and totally forgot about it. It's an old and very realistic flight sim that you may know and to this day in my regard is unsurpassed in terms of portraying fighter pilots perspective in modern day conflict.
As you may know, original Falcon 4.0 was released in December 1998, a bit prematurely I might add, but they fixed most game breaking bugs with their final official 1.08 patch. Let this video be a tribute for 20th anniversary of Falcon 4.
The game was constantly updated throughout the years. iBeta Realism patches along with eRazor and later eFalcon were merged into first SuperPak which evolved and in its 3rd iteration it gave birth to a bunch of forks: FreeFalcon, BMS, ViperOps (secret development of the SP code) to name a few. FreeFalcon didn't required the base game and after several iterations and additional patches (Cobra, Red Viper) it finally was discontinued. ViperOps became commercial Allied Force standalone release which added Balkans campaign and got a mod treatment as well with the Skunkworks patches. SuperPak4 along with BMS2 addon was developed further into OpenFalcon and finally transformed into BMS4 which is the last active branch of Falcon 4 modding left today.
#RetroFlightSims

[@spearPYN]

Mid-late 90s sims were the best! It was a magical era for PC gaming in general.

[@FitnessConnect]

Indeed. Also a time when using comms in multiplayer with ICQ had become the norm, virtual squadrons, online squadron vs squadron. It was a great time.

[@motormusique]

I don't know why fighter jet sims died after the 90s

[@FitnessConnect]

@@motormusique I suspect it was the influx of the game consoles and less complex games and plug and play that drew so many more newer consumers towards those, that gaming companies catered more towards those consumers. The serious flight sim community were still mainly using PCs, the preferred and really necessary platform for realism and system upgrading and game patches when it comes to flight sims and the various peripherals like like stick, throttle and rudder pedals, the constant upgrading of the PCs to accommodate the flight sims as they required more memory and speed was part of the work also. I spent many of days going to Frys Computer and Electronics in Burbank CA buying new graphics cards and refurbished motherboards and memory cards, when a new sim was released.

[@motormusique]

@@FitnessConnect yeah that's true..the console based games just did not satisfy a plane geek like me. Strangely the war in Ukraine is rekindling my interest in these sims

[@FitnessConnect]

@@motormusique Copy that 👍

[@CvBrony]

I remember getting this game back in the day. The box was a goddamn binder for the 600+ page instruction manual.

[@damsonn]

Good old times of big box games and beefy manuals. Great times indeed!

[@Forgetthehorrorhere1]

Yep, the days when you played all day then took the manual to bed with you to study.

[@nando03012009]

@@damsonn still have the original binder cd and all materials that came with this sim.

[@antred11]

Haha, yep. I bought this game a full 2 months before I bought my first PC. By the time I started playing I had read the manual front to back at least twice. :D

[@RohanGillett]

And don't forget keyboard overlays for many games! Loved those huge instruction manuals too. It really was a golden age of flight sims.

[@Turboy65]

Such a good sim, that it still lives today and has received 25 years of incremental upgrades to keep it technologically up to date. . BMS 4.37 today makes Falcon the most detailed authentic F-16 based sim you can get, same as it was back in 1998.

[@Krystalmyth]

I got this game as a kid and barely understood how to play the game but took that binder with me everywhere. Can't say I was able to absorb the information but it always looked like I was reading something important and it was really well written. The author was describing some really complex concepts in a way even, well, a child could at least want to understand. Not a simple feat. :)

[@curtismay3755]

One of the best game intros of all time. "HOLY!!! Copy Century One."

[@soumyajitsingha9614]

I am a BMS Falcon 4.36 Player and its feels that Falcon 4 for the time of launch was still so advance and so is BMS in present truly amazed by the transformation and long lasting legacy of falcon 4

[@stovic1442]

I remember the mild panic on the mission screen when all those other sorties were happening and me thinking there's no way my computer can handle this!

[@perplexedmoth]

This makes me nostalgic. Let me ramble to myself a bit. I remember the first flight sim I played on an 8-bit, it was called Fighter Pilot by Digital Integration, I used to wait tens of minutes to load it from the cassette tape. Long hours listening to the static noise coming from the speaker, looking intently at the screen to find the enemy fighter jet. Trying so hard to land the plane, etc. Then I came across the amazing F-18 Hornet 3.0 by Graphsim. That was the best flight sim I played until I came across Falcon 4.0 finally, that was basically the end of my seeking any other sims. Even to this day I play it sometimes. Although the older I get, the less enjoyable they feel, I guess my brain is rotting.

[@hiddendragon415]

Digital Integration if I recall had a Apache game that you could play co op pilot/gunner via LAN. Trouble is we kept loosing connection. Nice concept though. I know how you feel about getting older. I have a number of complex games that i'm not sure I have the mental stamina to learn.

[@Krystalmyth]

Your brain isn't rotting mate. It just needs new stimulation. You need to create those neurons. Play DCS with the Falcon module. It'll blow your mind :) There's no reason not to treat yourself at this point. Least watch some clips of the F-16 by "Growling Sidewinder" for me. Hope you're doing well.

[@Dee-Jay]

Congratulations from being able to fly your mission from takeoff to landing without a crash to desktop! ;-) ... Great vid sir!

[@tass9329]

This intro still gives me wood!!!

[@harry63100]

Super Vidéo^^ et supers souvenirs^^ Falcon 4 a été mon vrai premier simulateur de vol sur PC (après moult autres sur Amiga^^ lol^^)...une vraie claque de revoir tout ça en 2023...Aujourd hui, je vole toujours, sur DCS World, apres avoir testé presque tous les autre simus sur PC entre temps (flight sim ttes versions, Falcon BMS, Lock on, etc....) mais Falcon 4.0 a une place particulière pour moi, entre son manuel de 600 pages, sa complexité...et malgré tous les bugs de sa 1ère version^^...P..... 25 ans !!! merci encore^^

[@ryanwest2825]

As an 8 year old, the falcon 4.0 manual was insane. I spent two years mastering it, and truly felt that I could fly a real F16

[@petermitchell5580]

Me too bro. Archer inbound Archer inbound😂

[@eddiefury]

Kids these days with their DCS, they'll never know the struggle.

[@arcosiancosine1065]

Wow BMS has come a long way.

[@gordilloedwin]

This game changed my life... I got it out of the box when I came back from the States, I bought a Saitek X45 and started playing, I went through the whole handbook page by page, I fell in love right away. I ended up creating a full new operations theater called Chile/Peru, including all 3D new planes, I remember working tirelessly mapping the new models, creating tiles one by one, I then got into engineering because it was my dream to code a totally new graphics engine for this game. By the time I got out of school it was too late. I am now a lead engineer and have plenty of knowledge on how to create the new graphics engine... but I still hold on to my old computer that has FF2 installed. ... I get sad of just remembering this, but so happy at the same time.

[@CsaW4rri0r]

Still great even today. Played it frequently back in the day, along with F22:TAW and MiG Alley. Great on Voodoo3 Pentium III pc Windows 98.

[@LodewijkVrije]

the intro starts, instant goosebumps. also the dynamic campaign system in this game is still the fucking best.

[@HCShuffle]

this brings back such good memories

[@scotthulsey8763]

Loved the video integrated into the story line. I bought a computer for home printing ,burning cds and ended up gaming on it.I think it was a Pentium processor or something like that. I don't think I ever completed the campaign without getting shot down.

[@fatherangry8236]

Wow so beautiful music !

[@Eichward_SKV]

This is still the best Military flight simulator.

[@FitnessConnect]

Loved the Air to ground missions. It was the first sim where you were just a small part of everything else that was going on in the virtual war of many assets running seemingly autonomously with or without you.

[@harry63100]

Falcon 4.0 was the first real military Flight Sim^^ and has a great place in my heart...but today, he's unplayable on moden gamer PC...sorry for that...I think, as well as Lemmy Kilmister was the Godfather of Rock and Metal, Falcon 4.0 is the Godfather all all military simulations...but I can' t say, today, thats it's still the best...

[@nogeagor971]

@@harry63100 That's untrue, you absolutely can play the game now. What he means is that the evolutions of Falcon 4 are the best "Military Flight Sim" and he is right. You can play BMS which is just Falcon 4 with general improvements, and that is the best simulator for generating advanced wartime environments, and tactical usage of a Gen 4 fighter aircraft. The game allows you to use other aircraft such as tankers, AWACs, F-15s, F/A-18s, MiG-29s, and others.

[@rickrawlings6095]

F 16 starts turn on the tarmac: *want to head track sooooooo bad!*

[@racer927]

I looked at this video after hearing Michael Mancuso had voiced this game, not a second and I hear his voice right away.

[@MikeHalk100]

Thanks for posting this. I've been trying for months to get my Thrustmaster _Cougar_ to work correctly with old-school Falcon (i.e. pre-BMS), but the a lot of the controls will just not map correctly to the stick and throttle.

[@ViperPilot16]

Oh my Childhood

[@HaveGunWillTravel15285]

Oh how I remember that hope to get back into it!

[@csquared7759]

Brings back good memories, This sim needs a remake on today's cpu, last time I played it was A Pentium II slot package, with a 3dfx Voodoo card, before NVIDIA bought them, and promised to continue the line, SoundBlaster was the audio of choice. Falcon 4.0, Jane's Combat sims, F-19 Stealth Fighter , RAF Tornado, Red Storm Rising, Doom. those were the days.

[@damsonn]

It sort of has a remake - google Falcon BMS 4.35.

[@Sanctimonious007]

@@damsonn ubisoft should remake this awesome game all with scenery and equipment utilising the latest 11th gen intel and RTX cards this will be a sure hit!

[@Sanctimonious007]

throw in VR too!

[@486boy]

I love this intro!

[@mattfleming86]

War going on and all those Mi-24's just hanging out at angels 23.

[@GuMpAkC]

4.0 had a 3D cockpit but if I remember correctly, you needed a high end video card to actually utilize it.

[@miconn99]

omg lol soooo long ago since ive seen this

[@derekdavis2746]

Hi Damsonn, love this video! I noticed the 3DFX logo appear just as the mission was launching. Can you tell me which glide file you were using as I'm having trouble running the 'vanilla' version of Falcon 4.0 with nGlide. When I exit a flight, the sim crashes. Many thanks in advance!

[@damsonn]

When recording this video I was probably using nGlide 1.05 but it should work with the newest one. One thing to note though is that I used the "patch" available from the compatibility list on nGlide site, go here: www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide/compatibility and scroll down to Falcon 4.0 and follow the instructions -> rename the exe, download and run the patch.

[@derekdavis2746]

Hi Damsonn, Thanks for your quick reply. Yes, that's the patch I used. I first did a fresh install of Falcon 4.0, then updated that to f41.08us. Finally, I downloaded the nGlide patch from the compatibility list from the compatibility list you mentioned, renamed the Falcon4.exe to Falcon40, then double-clicked the PatchInstall batch file to apply the nGlide patch. So, presuming I've followed the instructions correctly, I'm not quite sure what's causing the crash when I press the 'Esc' key to end the mission. Many thanks again!

[@damsonn]

@@derekdavis2746 The only difference (excluding our hardware of course) is that I used GOG version of Falcon 4 - it's already patched to 1.08, don't know if it's identical to reatail version.

[@derekdavis2746]

Hi Damsonn, thanks for your help with this issue. You reminded me that I have the GOG version installed on my system, so I tried the patch on that, but unfortunately got the same results. I think I'll accept defeat. On reflection, the standard non-Glide version is not bad considering its age. Many thanks again! On another note, I watched your 'Running Blind' video today - brilliant with nice textual comments. Wasn't sure you were going to make it for a while there... (grin!) Cheers, Derek

[@iamfritz]

... and when some blessed person from Microprose leaked the code!

[@nando03012009]

I am a firm believer this version is still the best. Yes dcs has better graphics but the flight moder in falcon 4.0 unbeatable

[@Nialletto]

I used to tick off lessons at school, trying to get to the weekend again so I could play Falcon 4.0 on our 'mighty' 450mhz computer.

[@claudiodiaz9752]

I remember in vanilla I got scolded every time I landed, even after rrsquesting landing and following the tower's instructions, and wouldn't understand why. "- Next time get a clearance before landing... - Next time wait your turn..."

[@antred11]

"Expedite departure ... is there a problem?" Every time during taxiing / take-off. :D

[@claudiodiaz9752]

@@antred11 I know exactly what you mean.

[@tobjord]

Falcon 3.0 falcon 4.0 both benchmark sims

[@johnwiesen4440]

I have got this the manual is big. I run this on my Windows XP (32 bit) machine just for old games that Windows 10 hate.

[@damsonn]

This is actually running on Windows 10 just fine. I used nglide as 3dfx wrapper along with a patched exe available from compatibility list at nglide site here: www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide/compatibility

[@Perich29]

I've played this, flying around South Korea.

[@Flying_Acehole]

Buddy spike!

[@andrewa837]

Where did you get the image for the thumbnail? Great vid.

[@damsonn]

Probably found it somewhere on the internet, I did some editing on it though.

[@Andou_Rena324]

I have really old CD but I don't know where the update patch is any tips?

[@damsonn]

You can still get it from the web, latest official one was version 1.08. Here's one place you can get it: community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/814-falcon-40-patch/

[@ah0t3r49]

i still don't know how to pilot one of those, lol

[@damsonn]

Easy, just go through 700 pages of manual ;)

[@ah0t3r49]

@@damsonn oh god okay then xD

[@Sanctimonious007]

"very realistic flight sim that you may know and to this day in my regard is unsurpassed abso fkng lutely!

[@Sanctimonious007]

any idea where i could d/l the final version?

[@damsonn]

It's available on Steam and GOG. Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/429530/Falcon_40/ GOG: www.gog.com/game/falcon_collection Falcon BMS: www.benchmarksims.org/forum/content.php

[@Sanctimonious007]

@@damsonn got it thx!

[@MansteinPlan1940]

How did you get the intro to work?

[@damsonn]

I edited it in.

[@MansteinPlan1940]

@@damsonn can't get the intro to work huh, same

[@pinfox4117]

Still wondering that while F4 can be modded and its source code is around, no one has made a simple fan patch that just fixes the CTD problems on vanilla F4.

[@damsonn]

Oh yes, that's a good question. I myself would like to see that happen, I don't mind the dated graphics and I'm able to enjoy old classics in their initial form. When compared to most recent BMS 4.33 this one is not really that demanding on avionics knowledge, and by todays standards could be categorized as a mid-level complexity flight sim.

[@pinfox4117]

@@damsonn like for the time F4 didn't have a fit while playing it, I could definitely see that everyone working on the sim placed a lot of love and effort into it. Its just my guess that hasbro pushed for a holiday release and rushed it out the door. Which sucks bescuse with some more time vanilla F4 would have been even been even better/more stable

[@damsonn]

Yes, it's no secret it was rushed. The original team could've fix it even more, but they were layed off after putting that last 1.08 official patch out.

[@jfish83]

pin fox if I remember correct the developer had plans for other terrains and playable aircraft to be made for expansions

[@damsonn]

I remember they hinted F/A-18 or A-10. But after Microprose was closed in 1999 the hope was lost. Lead Pursuit (guys that brought us Aliied Force) had some cool stuff in the works as well. Unfortunately it wasn't implemented in the end. Here is a video from 2003 of what they worked on: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHzHeqStasd3fJI

[@95TBake]

This was made by the founder of In-q-tel original a CIA golden boi..

[@Buschwick]

this reminds me why I changed the F16 bug to an audio file with no sound.

[@Buschwick]

and i also remember being able to take this much time over the target

[@damsonn]

@@Buschwick It depends, sometimes I get waxed before getting to the IP. You have to be vigilant and hope that your wingman will warn you in time.

[@iamfritz]

I remember the Falcon 4 forum loaded with "Why the brown horizon? This isn't Iraq or Iran!" adn they said, "Cuz Korea's skies are always crown from desert sandstorms up north that blow down to them!" And the thread got carpet bombed with photos of Korea with blue skies and white horizons, even from Korea Air Lines planes.

[@muaazmughal3401]

Is falcon 4.0 free to download? Plzzz tell me anybody🙏🙏

[@damsonn]

You can get it dirt cheap on Steam or GOG: www.gog.com/game/falcon_collection store.steampowered.com/app/429530/Falcon_40/ On top of that you can install BMS which is free: www.benchmarksims.org/forum/content.php

[@evilzzzability]

Padlock View FTW

[@damsonn]

Yeah. Sadly no TIR support in vanilla version, since TIR was't a thing yet back then.