I Played Every Microsoft Flight Simulator EVER

[@SpongeDidTheMath]

Wow this video blew up! Thanks for all the love! If you guys enjoyed this video, check out my latest one where I test EVERY "Game of the Year" winner to see if they're still good: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bn_GnIZqhctobNksi=dDdTDibt-ckAM9yU

[@MrHercules222]

The first version I had was Flight Simulator 4 circa 1990. I remember being really excited to show it to my grandpa (an actual pilot) and he just said something rude and walked out of the room (very normal for him). I wish he was alive today to strap on a VR headset. He would probably have a stroke and die (again).

[@valrond]

That was my first one too, on my first PC, a 486-33 back in 1992.

[@PS3addict15]

That last sentence is crazy ☠️

[@mondexponent2126]

You made me laugh so hard my naighbour checked on me to see if i was alright xD

[@zyxwv]

@@PS3addict15 no need to add his picture

[@DBProductions12345-m]

@@mondexponent2126 walls must be paper thin then

[@iamjesper]

Not having crash physics is one of the terms from the aircraft manufacturers for allowing Microsoft to use their models

[@Zircuitz]

Yeah, I've read about this. Ridiculous imho. Do they actually think people will think less of their products because people crash them in video games? The level of censorship is just getting ridiculous. It's out of control. I crash my car in BeamNG all the time. I still drive my actual car of the same make and model, in the real world. And in no way do I think less of my car. In-fact: I don't even think about BeamNG while driving at all. If I we're Asobo/Microsoft: I would ask so many questions to the people who come up with this bs.

[@windowsxpdude]

well in beamng you can do it since it's a fictional car, and if it's an irl car, it's not licenced 💀

[@Zircuitz]

@@windowsxpdude Licensed or not, my point still stands.

[@elevatorcentral]

The cars in beam are not real licenced cars Modders make unofficial versions as modsi have yet to see a t series even tho i know its a international 9800

[@Zircuitz]

@@elevatorcentral I know that. I'm not stupid. That is not the point I'm making. Licensed or not: It's a ridiculous thing to to think that people who crash vehicles in video games will think less of the real thing. The license has nothing to do with my point. This is why I added: "If I we're Asobo/Microsoft: I would ask so many questions to the people who come up with this bs." (The people who license it). I'm sure if BeamNG would license the real cars: They'd face the same bs.

[@johnpooky84]

Things I did in Flight Simulator 98 as a kid: 1. Downloaded tons of add-ons, and got the official "Airport 2000" expansion pack. 2. Flew across America routinely. 3. Tied up the phone lines for hours in multiplayer. 4. Downloaded a London double-decker bus with wings. 5. Added GPS98 to the game, making flying long distances much easier. 6. Kept the manual at my side at all times, because of all the airport charts and VOR maps. 7. Started at the top of Japan in a Pan Am 707, and navigated by VOR all the way down to the bottom of Japan (I kept looking at the manual, and all the frequencies, to figure out where I was). 8. Added Area 51, and a Janet Airlines 737-200. 9. Sit and watch the traffic moving at O'Hare (my favorite spot, because that's the only place I remember seeing traffic that moved, other than Meigs). 10. Flew from Hawaii to California in multiplayer once, with a bunch of other guys. I was in a C-5 Galaxy, and we were just cruising along, when my engines just stopped, and I started sinking. I was frantically searching for the problem, and asking the guys for help. One of them said "Maybe you're out of fuel?" I had forgotten that I had Unlimited Fuel turned off (I'd gotten comfortable enough to not use it anymore). I quickly switched it back on, and put a tiny amount of fuel in my plane. The engines started back up, and I made it to LAX. All that fun (and much more) in a game that took up a whopping 100MB.

[@leerynek]

Where you heading buddy? 1:16

[@fishlickmustaches8088]

Depending on when that video was taken, it could possibly have been before the big event in 2001

[@CamcorderHomeVideos]

3:55 and 2:15...

[@Anirossa]

Later on players would get banned in Microsoft flight sim for flying into them, the addon of twin towers in the MSFS 2020 store is very popular though

[@RSCB]

@@Anirossa I tried it I didnt get banned but maybe in public servers

[@Jaxymann]

I’ll never forget my first Flight Simulator experience. My parents got me FS 2002 for my birthday in 2003 and it took me 3 whole hours for our old Pentium desktop to install it. I was so excited to try it out, but me being 7 years old & having no idea how flying worked, tried to make a 747 take off from Meigs Field and promptly drove it into Lake Michigan 😂

[@SoldierPayne]

Nice recap of all the versions, but when are you going to play them all as the title says?

[@BrownTRP]

@@SoldierPayne fucking, THANK YOU He's not playing shit lol

[@458italiap]

My grandpa and my dad, when he was growing up, played MSFS. My grandpa came over and I showed him the newest one. “YOU CAN FLY ANYWHERE AND IT LOOKS REAL?!” he screams. He’s back in California, but I can’t wait to show him the newest one, MSFS 2024, and I’m hyped!

[@JehanKateli]

So, we're just pretending Microsoft Flight (2012) didn't exist?

[@Elit3Nick]

I mean, do you see Simulator in the title?

[@9HighFlyer9]

The community pretty much has

[@johnnyricoMC]

Sure it offered good performance with amazing graphics, but that was all it had going for it. The world was limited to Hawaii, plane choices were limited and addon content was only available through the Xbox Live/GFWL marketplace at extortionate prices. You could get far better paywares for better prices for FSX. It wasn't a proper Flight Simulator, it was a game that let you fly planes around Hawaii. MS just screwed up by closing ACES Studio following the 2007 economic crisis.

[@ksp-crafter5907]

😎YES! It never happened!! PERIOD.

[@10Exahertz]

SHHHHH

[@ClaytonCoffman]

I still have my Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 A Century of Flight! I marvelled when I saw TREES as compared to the previous versions that didn't have them. I've been simming since Microsoft Flight Simulator 98!

[@AlanpittsS2a]

I started as a kid on flight sim 95 and 98. They were great fun. The 2004 edition was awesome. I played fsx for over ten years and still do sometimes as well as the new one. I am a private pilot and fly a Pitts special and the one in the new flight sim is fairly good.

[@10Exahertz]

skipping from 2006 to 2020 missed a lot imo. FSX was modded to oblivion, then got upgraded to P3D. By the time 2019 rolled around P3D with mods like REX, PMDG, custom airports and ORBx ground textures...it was a pretty damn good game. Ofc 2020 still blew that version out of the water but FSX 2006 was very different from FSX/P3D 2019

[@assuredaviation9116]

@@10Exahertz isn’t P3D/Prepa3d developed by another company?

[@10Exahertz]

@@assuredaviation9116 Yeah, Lockheed Martin IRRC, but same code base as FSX

[@assuredaviation9116]

@@10Exahertz thought so, but putting P3D would be weird then because it isn't "FSX"(even tho it basically is)

[@paulthurston2883]

Bruce Artwick is a legend. The father of flight simulation.

[@iankphone]

Evans and Sutherland have entered the chat.... 😜

[@seanys]

I’ve still got my Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro. Countless hours of FS98 enjoyment.

[@Aadilf1]

Likewise, I still have my Microsoft Side Winder FFB2 Joystick

[@dirkwink9470]

You've forgotten MS Combat Flightsim 1 and 2 (we don't talk about 3) They we're fully compatible with the version of MSFS at the time, had all the avionics systems from their parent sims integrated, and in CFS2's case was a better sim than MSFS2002. It came with the benefit that any aircraft made for CFS2 could be dropped into MSFS2004 without issue.

[@blackhawks81H]

Wait, what was wrong with 3? I'm pretty sure I played all of them, and I don't remember one of them being super terrible.

[@dirkwink9470]

@@blackhawks81H A lot of stuff got automated and simplified to make it easier for casual players, but you lost a lot of control over things like the fuel system and trim settings. Which was an issue in the P-51D. You couldn't drain the reserve tank before getting into a fight. The flight models weren't as good as the ones from FS2004. It was far less moddable. There was no cross compatibility between it and FS2004. I also remember ugly rings on the ground centered on the aircraft location at the distances where terrain detail would go up. The dynamic campaign was also wonky as hell. better game, worse sim.

[@blackhawks81H]

@@dirkwink9470 Hmm. That's interesting that I apparently didn't notice most of this stuff at the time. To be fair, I was in high school back then. Which means I likely would have been impressed with the level of missions and campaign and stuff to pay too much attention to the sim being crappier. I'd definitely notice it these days though. Which probably means they should release CFS4 and have it cover WW2-Modern day. 😂

[@cjmillsnun]

As someone who regularly flew with FS2000, it was nowhere near as bad as you make out. Also there's one man who made this video possible. Bruce Artwick. Without him, flight simming on home equipment would not be a thing. Your patrons, meh... Bruce is the man.

[@iankphone]

Also: modern FS exists as a showcase for MSFT cloud and AI capabilities. Without that it would never have been made. Asobo had a great "heres the entire world" demo built on Azure and MSFT saw FS as a way to showcase and flex.

[@ghulammohiuddin3347]

Excellent piece of history. Noglistic. I purchased instrument training software, just able to do tracking VORs, doing ILS, etc... it was advertised in a flying magazine, well before SubLogic was launched....

[@tellyjoossens4186]

Ah fs4 was why I always wanted to be a pilot as a kid. Played all versions from then on and, without ever been in a real aircraft for all my life, started my PPL class in 2013. My first practical lesson was the first time sitting in a real aircraft lol (A Cessna 152 aerobat which is still flying in the club with +20000 hours on the frame!) In 2014 I got my license. Flying flight simulator really helped getting it faster! Since 99% of my flying hours are made in either a Cessna 172N from 1978(ish) or a Cessna 172SP with a Garmin 1000 from 2006, I do hope the 2024 version brings even more realism to the flight model of this type of aircraft!

[@DogeMaster-u7h]

The 2001 intro was crazy💀

[@MStreppelhoff]

...and i cant wait until MSFS2024 is out next week ! :D

[@Dreadpirateflappy]

one day to go. I cannot wait...

[@bosslad1724]

Just to let you know it has issues right now

[@NoobCaseoh]

@@bosslad1724 the xbox servers broke💀

[@Kolinski_s21]

@@bosslad1724 my 1080 ti suck at running the game, gonna wait for the 5090 Ig

[@Worldwar1944]

The new one is garbage it doesn’t even work.

[@annonymat]

you skipped microsoft flight. It came out some time after FSX, had a much smaller map but much better graphics. It was free on Steam with a bunch of DLC. Microsoft did it's best to whipe all the traces from the web, but it's no match for the memmory of the internet.

[@SpongeDidTheMath]

Yeah a few people have said that. My bad. Any idea why it was killed off? It sounds like a pretty decent improvement

[@Mega747400]

@@SpongeDidTheMath it sucked they tried to make it a DLC thing like truck sim you had to purchase every new area and aircraft separately it flopped big time i was a beta tester and saw no hope for it at all day 1

[@zgolkar]

it felt too arcadey and uninspired. They tried to super simplify it. And it lost the magic along the way. Then Microsoft dismantled the studio years later. The sad end of MSFS. Either way, it was too far behind other games of the era in terms of graphics. The surprise came in 2020 when MS and Asobo revealed what had they been up to… and you know the rest

[@annonymat]

@@SpongeDidTheMath all cool, most people overlook flight 2012. The map was very limited. It had an earth sized globe but man’s was limited do port au prince and the surroundings. It was meant for smaller sports aircraft and so was the selection. You could buy more aircraft and map extensions. It was still comparable with FSX aircraft so you could lust port them over. It came with the: - Icon A5 (pretty much a flying sports car that gives you that Arcady feeling) -Boeing Stream Model 75 (Slow biplane) - Maule M-7-260C (again, rugged and slow) And - Van’s Aircraft RV-6A (Again a slow DIY plane that feels Arcady) The models fell somewhere between FSX and FS 2012, in quality, so pretty solid when you import them to the latest flightsim. Over all a pretty solid choice for a free flightsim. Good graphics and good backlog of mods but limited map. C-tear

[@Dreadpirateflappy]

@@SpongeDidTheMath it was horrible. It was just an arcade flying game. not a flight sim.

[@tone_bone]

I finished this video before flight sim 2024 loaded.

[@seanjacobs4723]

@@tone_bone you may still be waiting. 🤣

[@cultofpersonalit1888]

Not even 2 minutes in I'm already on my second unskipable 40s ad. I think I will totally enjoy that video. 🙂

[@Wadethewallaby2001]

My dad has some copies of old software a flight since he really wanted to be a a pilot so he decided to go to St. Louis downtown airport used to be parks. However, he realized it was freaking expensive so he had to stop the funding. However, because it’s experience with the 173 Skyhawk. My favorite flight simulator is flight simulator X.

[@FPS_Wingo]

The flight simulator 95 box art brings back so many good memories

[@cafe_mim]

B thanks foe usuing Iran footage. i haven’t visited home for a while now and i felt good after watching this

[@bloodgoat]

The only thing missing from the DOS MSFS is my father screaming that I “wasn’t playing it right”. Ah, memories.

[@michaelbalty2750]

When I was ten and for every Christmas after, my uncle would buy me every Flight Simulator from 95 and up until Flight Simulator Century of Flight. I remember being so excited when a new version came out. I loved MFS. Strangely enough, I haven’t played the newer versions. But I will. I do remember as a kid thinking when we flew on trips, “If someone needs me to fly a plane because the Captain is sick, I could do it!!” 😂

[@NecroPhil85]

I remember starting to play MSFS when 5.1 came out and bought every installment since then. I remember flying into the highest buildings out of boredom sometimes and then 2001 happened and it was like an "ohhh....." moment. Never did my innocent mind think somebody would actually do that in rl on purpose. Well...let's just say, I see the world a little different now.

[@semperumbra10]

Didn’t really show much gameplay, more of a history of flight simulator than a play through of them all

[@Dispariabooks]

I remember playing the absolute crud out of 1998. I couldn't have been more excited for 2000... Only to realize it ran like a slideshow when I tried playing it at home.

[@qwertyuiop3455]

I go all the way back to Flight Simulator II for the C64. It's come a long way since. FSFW95, FS98, and FSX are my favourites.

[@joshuabray37]

Same here (well, on the C64, I was watching my friends' dad use it). I spent most of my early days, playing it on an Apple 2c. I was so proud when I could land the Cessna at Meigs Field, with a mouse and keyboard. This was on either an amber or green monitor (I can't remember, that was almost 40 years ago)... My, how things have changed!

[@stephenbull2026]

Let's not forget the other flight Sims in the market such as the Flight Unlimited series, Fly! etc. Nothing compared to MSFS, but they provided healthy competition.

[@johnny5805]

I saw the expensive lcd/neon logo in the background and assumed this was a channel with 10 million subs !

[@cool3865]

for MS3.0 a simple IBM XT with the EGA video card upgrade could run MS3.0 at full details with no problems, they made MS3 and 4 really well optimized

[@RobnDob]

I don’t play it but when I saw one of the flight sims had realtime weather and time. I was impressed.

[@mike8610]

When I was a freshman in high school, the PCs in the "engineering lab" all had MSFS on them. I believe we had version 5.0 back in 1995. I'm pretty sure the computers were all running Windows 3.1. My teacher knew we were playing it during class at times but he never took the game off :)

[@Kaipeternicolas]

Great video! My dad used to sell flight sims in the 80s in Germany. My first flight sim I can really remember playing was FS98 and from then on I had every version and every add on haha. Great times. Helped me to be a good pilot and made my first type-rating a walk in the park. Even the DPE said it was the easiest checkride he'd ever given.

[@keigezellig]

Back in 1988 my neighbor was a ATC controller who also happen to like flight simming (and real life flying as well). Then one time he showed me Flight Simulator 3.0 and my 10 year old self was sold :) Since then i had all the versions until 2004 and now also 2020. I bought numerous books about the magic of flying and now i have a VR Headset. If real life flying was not so expensive i probably would have got a license by now :)

[@caljucotcas]

looks like this video really pops your channel, congrats! love the video!

[@ac_junior72]

Remember it well! My dad bought a Commodore 64 off his co worker , which came with 100+ floppy discs. MSFS was one of them and I was hooked! SOMETIMES the floppy disc just cranked and cranked....endlessly and sometimes just failed to load. But when it did load successfully...which still took a LONG time, it was pretty amazing at the time. Just sticks, pixels, but it was darn cool! I'm pretty sure I have the original box in my attic! I guess it was Windows 95 when I had the next version, I recall that gradient sky , the moon over Chicago and was blown away.., didnt take much back then LOL. FS 98 was a must buy, so was 2000 (Don't recall many issues with that release.), then yeah...2002 - the removal of WTC. I do recall a pretty big website back then were you could download a boatload of scenery for free...if you wanted the WTC back in '02, that was a download. I STILL have those CDs and I should try to load them up on my old PC laptop. Didn't get MSFS after that..until 2020. My jaw dropped, literally speechless after first flying that title. I STILL log hours and hours on that. Now 2024 comes out in 3 days and I am psyched! It really is amazing how far this has come...far as in light years!

[@Okurka.]

MSFS was never released on the Commodore 64.

[@SkylineTTurbo]

My dad used Lotus 1 2 3 for his spreadsheets until he started getting sick. I tried to get him to use Excel, but he wouldn't budge. He was always a fan of MSFS, too. I'm sure if he was still here, he would've loved MSFS 2024.

[@Tht1guy63]

i remember msfs 2002 and 2004 back in 8th grade we had a kind of career class and that was one module you could do. learning basic flight things

[@tehhamstah]

I appreciate how you didn't even acknowledge the existence of the travesty known as "Microsoft Flight". May it burn in hell.

[@russoft]

I remember the 1988 version, Flight Sim 95 (actually 93?), and then I remember setting up long haul flights on 1998 on my computer in the bedroom. We had couch cushions that us kids set up as seats and pretended to be passengers on the flight. The 90s were great. I want to go back.

[@michaelcolletti790]

Same here. I flew EVERY version. I had every subLogic add on as well. Just about every time a new version was released, my computer would fall short of the minimum requirements to run the software. So it was an endless game of leapfrog. New version, new computer. A few years ago, I got tired of the MSFS version with it’s instabilities, stutters, just a horrible continual cycle. I switched to a Mac, to this day I simply can’t deal with any Microsoft OS. I had a Mac overbuilt to run X Plane 11. With my past experiences with not having a powerful enough computer to run the next version, my plan worked perfectly. Now that X Plane 12 is available, my over built Mac runs it flawlessly. It was a fun journey for sure. Now I’m also taking actual flying lessons. The sims were a great resource to get me prepared for actual flight.

[@psivewri]

I remember the first time I played flight simulator! It was on an ancient 286 desktop I got for $2 from an op shop. So much fun :)

[@MightyMurloc]

Sitting with a huge-ass CRT monitor, chugging along with a budget joystick was honestly so fun even if the experience would suck by modern standards. X threatened to immolate my computer every time I tried to raise settings above minimum, but damned if that didn't stop me trying.

[@swoop1352]

Point of order: 'These guys' did not take a 14 year break. 'These guys' are not the same guys who coded the glory years of flight simulation. In fact 'these monsieurs' don't even speak the same language. The simple fact is a mobile games dev firm in France had the bright idea of using AI to autogenerate accurate terrain from bing/google maps data, took the idea to someone with some money (Microsoft) and were then given the source code for FSX to mess around with until it looked like a new sim.

[@robintyson591]

I didn't hear you mention ATP. I think it was a breakaway by SubLogic. It was very civil aviation oriented and had something that only now has returned - a career mode. You had to work your way up the civil aviation 'ladder' (737, 757, 747) and do various routes in various weather conditions.

[@freddielaker02]

I too did the same. Sublogics version was being getting around the different backers and I was given a copy to play with by an economist. I cant say what we eventually did but I was hooked on the game/sim because of my background in the British Royal Air Force. I've been with them and their iterations ever since.

[@leokimvideo]

Combat Flight Simulator was where it was at

[@shannonlinquist2649]

1984 - My first computer. A Tandy Color Computer, 16kb of memory, a 5.25 floppy, a small cheap joystick and a copy of Sublogic's Flight Simulator. Flying around that small "grid" of a valley with 2 dimensional mountains was pretty cool. Back then it was ahead of it's time. We just never knew what today would bring!

[@marcseclecticstuff9497]

Lotus 123 weren't used to test speed, they were used to test the compatibility of the BIOS and DOS if it wasn't MS DOS. It was common for programmers not to enter DOS calls at the correct points, jumping in the the middle of a call might offer a huge speed advantage for instance. Since you couldn't copy the BIOS directly without violating IBM's copyright, it had to be reverse engineered and they made sure all the legitimate entry points worked, and probably some of the 'shortcut' points and assured compatibility but missed others for instance. Radio Scrap computers suffered a lot of compatibility issues in the early days for instance. Because both FS and 123 leveraged a lot of these shortcuts, only the best BIOS alternatives would work with them so they became the defacto standard test for compatibility back in the day. Of course, FS was indeed used to test system speeds back in the day as well, I think it was a common spec in the early PC Mag days. From pretty much day 1, even the highest spec machines would struggle with the latest release of MSFS becoming much more complex once graphic cards became common. Now we have the added drag of VR which, as far as I'm concerned is a requirement, we need more CPU and GPU power than ever.

[@2guysandaplane]

This is one of the most professional and entertaining videos I have ever seen!

[@jdkgcp]

I remember telling an actual GA pilot I love flight sim and the guy just started going off about it.....then proceeded to go off about other random crap about his life. First and last time I ever told an actual licensed pilot I enjoyed MSFS.

[@roderick9018]

I remember getting flight simulator 98 for Christmas when I was younger. Oh the times

[@AXL-101]

Sublogic Flight Simulator II on the Amiga 500 was my first flight sim. Did my PPL in 1988 and use the sim to practice my NDB/VOR intercepts.

[@theyoutubeguy1]

Where we have come from FSX to MSFS 2020 is crazy alone.

[@karmabasedj8184]

Nice choice of background music that matches the eras haha

[@stormykeep9213]

So I still have Sub Logic Flight Simulator 2 (not Microsoft) for the Apple IIe sitting on my shelf. Still got the box and docs! There was a "fighter sim" scenario on it where I think you flew in a sopwith camel and battled enemy planes while bombing factories or something...that was my favorite as a kid and got me into all the flight combat sims later on.

[@BernardoSOUSAstudent]

Not the same guys at all. MSFS 2020 and 2024 are developed by Asobo, a French studio. It's not a break taken by the one team.

[@newYorkStories]

I was in high school when I was looking forward to "go flying" with SubLogic FS on my C64 - nice memories

[@jaromirandel543]

You missed the Mircrosoft Flight (without simulator). Which was free to play product, but it was abandoned.

[@Savannah_Media]

@@jaromirandel543 this!

[@FlyerOneZero]

Nice video! Brings back good memories... Various people have pointed out that you missed Microsoft Flight, but there's another Microsoft flight simulator that you haven't played (and probably won't be able to play) which is Microsoft ESP. This was an attempt by Microsoft to get into the commercial flight simulation market by making a version of FSX intended to be used to build flight training devices. It was not super-successful. When Microsoft decided to exit the flight simulation market they licensed the ESP code to Lockheed Martin, who used it to create Prepar3d (P3D), a flight sim platform intended for lower-cost civilian and military projects. P3D 1.0 was basically a re-branded ESP which itself was basically an extended FSX, so add-ons made for FSX could be used in Prepar3d. It was, and continues to be, a descendant of that original Sublogic product from 1978. There was also Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator, of which multiple versions were released, based on the core FS code but with air-to-air combat as its focus. Others have mentioned it, but there were later versions of the Sublogic-branded Flight Simulator II (which shared code with the Microsoft versions) for non-PC platforms including Apple II, Amiga and Atari ST. My first Flight Simulator family experience was with the ST version, which was graphically better than the PC versions available at the time. I remember that it shipped with replica sectional charts in the box. That's what kick-started my love of flight simulation and set me on my crazy journey to build a home cockpit that continues with MSFS 2020 and soon, 2024.

[@SpongeDidTheMath]

All very valid points! My only beef with P3D is being made by Lockheed-Martin using Microsoft's tech seems almost disingenuous to Microsoft. It's like saying Hexen: Beyond Heretic is Doom because it uses the Doom engine. I may be wrong, however! The Combat Flight Sims seemed deserving of their own video at first, but I'm learning now that may have been a mistake. As for not including Sublogic's sequels, that was more of a creative choice I suppose. I wanted to include the roots of the flight sim industry so I threw FS1 in there, but glossed over FS2 and so on since they weren't produced/backed by Microsoft. Oh well. Lesson learned! Thank you again for the detailed (and polite) feedback :)

[@MattMcIrvin]

There was one other *Microsoft* Flight Simulator version he missed: there was actually a Microsoft-branded release of it for the original Macintosh. I think it was the only one that wasn't for MS-DOS or Windows computers. I'm pretty sure the new features that showed up in the Amiga and Atari ST versions of FSII were ported from MSFS for Mac: that was where support for multiple windows and mouse control, the Learjet and the spot plane feature first appeared, all of which eventually made it into MSFS 3.0. Sadly, Microsoft never put out another Mac version as far as I know. I spent hours and hours playing FSII for the Atari ST in college. SubLogic had earlier released a more primitive version for Atari's 8-bit computers, and when Atari put out the XE Game System (a belated attempt to repackage their aging 8-bit computer platform as a game console), they distributed Flight Simulator II as a pack-in for the bundle that included a keyboard.

[@michaelkaliski7651]

Having lived and flown all these versions since it first came out, I have to say that the graphics on the early versions weren’t quite that jerky. Of course you needed to tune your computer to get the best performance and that drove the constant upgrade cycle amongst home enthusiasts. The latest version (2024) is almost too polished and shiny. Real aircraft have dirt and scratches all over the screens and visibility outside is usually pretty horrible, especially towards the sun. Deservedly enshrined in the hall of fame though.

[@robertoates7452]

I've played all of the early generation of Flight Simulator from 1979 - 1989. There was a progression of improvements basically every 2 to 3 years whenever the software was released on a new system. Beginning with initial B&W graphics in 1979 (Apple II, TRS-80), to color graphics 1982 (Dos), to support for scenery disks in 1984 (C64), to independent views and menu UI in 1986 (Atari, Mac, Amiga), and finally custom mods by 1989 (Dos). As impressive modern Flight Sims are it's fun to go back and play these old games to see how far along we have come.

[@holobolo1661]

7:30 I thought you made an editing mistake until I did a web search haha

[@vocalfunhouse]

@@holobolo1661 I still don’t get it, what’s the joke? Is it a particularly bad version?

[@MaTtRoSiTy]

I am old enough to have remembered the first MS Flight Sim (though was too young to play it) and it is just amazing how far we have come, with a really big leap after around 2000 - 2010 where games started to reach a whole new level.

[@MaybeFX]

I love the part where he actually played the game..

[@michaelkenny4124]

Been playing since the start of the flight sim franchise! My dad was really into aviation and sat me down in front of it as a small child. Crazy how far we've come.

[@dpc111]

What an excellent video. Wayback machine stuff. I have had every version you coverd in this video.

[@cdjonesus]

I played every version of the Flight Simulator, since it was released. Started with Sublogics simulator (Bruce Artwick) on a Radio Shack TRS-80. Each release of the flight simulator came with a mandatory upgrade of a graphics card or new PC based on the FPS I was seeing using that version. Final version was Flight Simulator X in 2006. Since then I played with the airplane simulator in Google Earth, and have found a couple of other web based flight simulators. Was surprised when MS announced the 2020 version. Downloaded it the first day it came out. Have spent 1000's of hours playing with it, and cant wait until 2024 release on Tuesday 19th November.

[@dbvetter7485]

I started with Bruce Atrwick’s SubLogic Flight Simulator on the Commodore 64 in 1984 and flew every MS flight simulator since, but for serious flying I’ve been using X-Plane since 2007.

[@ytzpilot]

MS Flight Simulator 2020 wasn’t developed because of the pandemic, it was in development prior to the pandemic, it’s release is merely coincidental

[@HappyScamper]

Dude! That was my first flight simulator too! FS 2004 was amazing in its time

[@seanjacobs4723]

Dropping the Concord files into Microsoft combat flight simulator yielded some interesting results.

[@GerbenHoekstraGoogle]

Me too, but you don't hear me braggin' about it

[@SpongeDidTheMath]

This made me snort dude that was good 🤣

[@blinkachu5275]

You forgot one Microsoft COMBAT Flight Simulator It was SO good

[@mdhazeldine]

My first time playing the game was FS98. The first one I owned was 2000. I spent countless hours on 2002 and 2004 and then had to quit and go cold turkey to get my degree finished. I came back to the game last year with 2020 and have enjoyed it a fair bit, but I think 2024 is going to be "the one", as we now have a ton of content out there and basically ready to go for it (with a few updates).

[@Acula33RC]

I have owned every single MSFS game. Played them all for uncountable hours. Can't wait for the new one tomorrow!

[@luzspitifire]

My first was MFS1998, my dad was a pilot so he was playing Flight Simulators for years. I grew up playing them to become a commercial pilot, and I still do. 2004 Century of Flight is still my favourite.

[@FarmerDrew]

The experimental aircraft mode was awesome. I designed so many different things. I wish they would bring that back.

[@HumanoidBoogie]

Floppy disks were notoriously unreliable. The first thing you would do when buying a new game, was make at least 2 backups of each disk and lock them away in a cupboard that was nowhere near any magnets.

[@Linuxpunk81]

Not even remotely true

[@yangw3049]

Imagine forgetting the entire combat flight simulator franchise ☠️

[@GBOAC]

I’m not the youngest but even for me it feels weird to call 5 inch floppies the ‘save button’. That was only the case in the earliest graphical environments. The 3.5inch is the one that was used virtually everywhere and became the associated image for saving / storing.

[@FlightSimMuseum]

That was a great overview of the series, thanks for making and sharing!

[@regwatson2017]

I played that first Sublogic wire frame flight sim on the Amiga. It looks ridiculous now but at the time I was absolutely stoked.

[@coriscotupi]

I vividly recall reading the punch line in Microsoft's ad that said, *_"IF FLYING YOUR IBM PC GOT ANY MORE REALISTIC, YOU'D NEED A LICENSE"._* At the time I was playing with MSFS and thought that the assertion was of course a bit of a stretch, but found the game very entertaining nonetheless. And shortly after, when I was getting my RL airplane license, I actually already had a pretty god idea of the workings of VOR. Just days after receiving my (then) private pilot license, I could comfortably fly using VOR navigation thanks to MSFS. I suspect the same will hold true for the newer generation. New student pilots will be totally at home with their Garmin G1000s even on the first time they step into their Cessnas, thanks to what they learned in the more recent sim versions like X-Plane and FS2020/2024.

[@mizzyroro]

This month marks 30 years since I copied (without his knowledge) FS 4.0 from my first gf's father's pc using 10 3.5 inch 1.44 mb discs. I have since owned versions 4.1, 5.0, 5.1 FS95 (didn't really get it to work), FS98,FSX, MSFS2020. FS2000, FS2002, FS2004 I owned briefly and retroactively as I was at college during those years. I've had the most hours on FS98 and FSX. The best aircraft IMO is Flightsim Labs Concorde for FSX. I have a copy of the 5 hour BBC (or was it ITV) documentary on flying the concorde and everything they mentioned is simulated. Flying the concorde across the Atlantic is one of my greatest achievements in the franchise. The most thrilling experience was in FS98 hand flying an IFR flight with a 300 foot ceiling and 1/4 mile visibility from take off to a 30nm cross country and shooting an ILS approach. Seeing the approach and runway lights dead ahead where they should when you broke out of the clouds at around 250 ft almost brought me to tears. Lol. I have contributed to the community with aircraft repaints and ATC IFR flights for FS5 back in the day on flightsim.com. The irony is my SSD is full and while I've dabbled in adding ram, sound cards, CD ROM drives and extra HDDs to my PC's in the past, this rig I now have is so compact I can't see where the SDD slots are or if it can take another one. The easiest way is to take it in to the shop to install a 3TB SSD but meh couldn't really be bothered. So I might not own MSFS2024 on November 19 to celebrate 30 years of flightsimming.

[@Viper_Playz]

I did NOT know that MSFS2020 was the first in 14 years! Great video!

[@theworldisyours360]

FSX's npc was way much better than FS2020's!

[@marinadela1361]

I had no idea that the pandemic was what triggered the comeback of the iconic Flight Simulator.

[@xjay1234]

My first ever FLIGHT SIM experience was *Flight Unlimited 2 by Looking Glass Studios* playing on the old school Windows ME . But then when XBOX said they will have Flight Simulator 2020 - jumped from PlayStation and never looked back!

[@PurpleHelix]

And this days, Microsoft cant deliver one single update without DESTRYOING your pc with the craziest bugs. GG

[@Swissspookie]

Great video! I feel soaked up by this particular sponge

[@jonathanfielder2967]

2024 has the potential to be the best game ever, it just needs time to develop

[@SpongeDidTheMath]

I agree, sadly that seems to be the theme for most games/sims today. Release a semi-broken product to get the money (just my suspicion) and fix it later. Payday 3 is a good example. They're still clawing their way back after a year of floundering. But then there's examples like Helldivers 2 where the game was insane on release, then the publisher nuked it (classic Sony) AND the devs had trouble with stale gameplay and bland weapon releases. They're coming back strong though. It's a shame we're in such a weird era for games. I miss the competition of the early 2000s, everyone was trying new things and working to make the best COMPLETE product on release

[@Wayne.Hannah]

I have been flying this sim since 1992, Iremember being a kid saying one day it will feel real and well........ it feels real now and expensive.... but worth it

[@RappinPicard]

FS2002 did have improved crash damage models but Microsoft disabled it in their game that came out in late 2002 for SOME reason, but it was possible to reenable it with console commands.

[@neilfb08]

Actually the first flight simulator was `FLIGHT' on the Spectrum 48k and yes I was there. About 2 frames a second

[@LegendaryNuggets]

I first read your channel name as 'SpongeDidTheMeth'

[@SpongeDidTheMath]

Both are accurate.

[@mikegood25]

@@SpongeDidTheMath lmao