The Stunning Evolution of Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982-2024)

[@sky173]

I've been playing Flight Sim since the mid 80's. I never thought I would see it develop into what we have today. Glad I lived long enough to see it happen.

[@superkendall1003]

I have too. I thought those Chicago stik building were great. I have MSFS 2020 but haven't pulled the trigger in 24 yet. I'm also a Private Pilot and the program helped a lot.

[@pete614]

its simply incredible

[@georgelevin6134]

As a private pilot back in the late 80’s I used MSFS and learned to fly instruments and how to fly about every approach available. I aced the flight test even made a 100% on the written test. Years later as a flight instructor I had a simulator using MSFS set up in my office which I used with students. We could fly every lesion together before we got into the actual aircraft. It was great being able to pause a scenario to discuss things if needed. I could also have students plan their cross countries and fly them on the sim before taking the actual flight. Just wonderful!

[@mylesoffgrid]

Better than my instructor that said not to use the mfsm

[@Encourageable]

I never like flying lesions

[@Andy_Hikes]

Yes! I had the hardest time with sectional charts and NAVAIDs so my instructor had me study with MSFS at home. It took a while but I finally got it.

[@JimWeintraub]

My dad brought home an IBM computer and color monitor in 1982/83. The only game we had was Flight Simulator 2.0. I thought it was so cool at the time.

[@msb3235]

I started with MSFS 95 and every time a new version came out, I thought, 'I don't think they can improve anymore over that!'. Boy, I've never been so wrong!

[@maverick627uk]

My thoughts exactly. The concorde looked stunning even back in 2000. Crazy realistic. There was an excellent fighter pilot game call "Air Dominance Fighter by Digital image Design. It had the F22 Raptor and was very addictive with realistic bombs/stealth/?missions etc. Good times! 😊

[@rylanrussell9595]

That was my thought after 2020, and it really is my thought now.

[@thomjanson9644]

I think that about the latest 2024!! It’s like real life now, how do you improve in that? But they will!

[@TravG-x8z]

That was my favorite too. The gameplay was so realistic and graphics topnotch. I thought it was awesome flight simulator. I even had the push and pull flight steering wheel that they use on real aircraft. Wish I had furthered this interest into a real life career was pretty good at flying.

[@cheesesteakjimmy2076]

My 24 flight sim on Xbox series x looks like the 1998 version .

[@paulgerrard9227]

Miss Meigs. It was home for so long

[@Fetidaf]

I love that they’re like “yknow what? Let’s make this the only non-realistic thing” and keep it in the game lol Still remember the day Daley tore it up…

[@superhakujin]

@@Fetidaf How the hell does a mayor get to just unilaterally destroy infrastructure?

[@Fetidaf]

@@superhakujin I mean, it was a pretty big deal when he did it. I was like 8 and I remember it blowing up the local news for days while they showed barges showing up to get the airplanes off and stuff. I looked it up while I made this comment (just to make sure it was Daley) and apparently he was only fined like $30k by the FAA for not giving a 30 day notice lol Seems very light and I can’t say I really blame him. Having an airport that close to a city center post 9/11 is a bit nuts and it’s a fantastic park nowadays… still wish meigs field was a thing but I think it turned out alright for everyone involved. And the fact that MSFS kept it in, it’s like we never lost it.

[@microdesigns2000]

​@@superhakujinliberal mayor in a liberal city wanted to strike a blow on the rich to earn some credence in his party. It's called the windy city not for its weather, but for the blow hard politicians. When my children were young, we used to dress them up and drive to Chicago and go to Meigs Field. If you were dressed well, you could walk in the place and no one would question you. We watched the planes for a while, had a picnic in the car and went home. Before 2001, we used to go to O'Hare, but some miscreants destroyed airport freedom.

[@videodistro]

superhakujin.... His dad was mayor before him. Theu tried to be a patriarchy. There's a reason the call the party a "machine". They were dictators. Welcome to Chicago/Crook County/Illinois.

[@Dave_B33]

I had 2.0 for my Atari 800xl...my dad didn't touch a computer back in the 80's, but he use to love sitting with me and doing this...brings back memories.

[@digitalQ33]

And just before that was a simulation just called "Jet" It was a green/brown field and a blue sky, you literally just flew the horizon. It was the early days of flight sim that introduced me into programming. In order to get any sort of flight simulator to load, remember this was the DOS days, no Windows, you had to write batch files to load different portions of the program into specific memory, such as load into high mem sys. Learning to write those batch files kicked off a career in software, all due to early versions of flight simulator.

[@TaxPayingContributor]

Enjoyed 98. I would take off fine, but landings were so difficult I crashed creatively as the point of the game. Playing with my kids, it became a game of which buildings to hit. 2001 came, and we never speak about it again.

[@webdbbt]

I've owned every edition since 1.0 that I ran on an IBM PC with the CGA card to a Sony TV. I still marvel at the incredible improvement over these 40 years.

[@TouchingClothProd]

My favorite thing to do on MSFS 1.0 was to just keep flying one direction until I flew off the "world", which was just a big square. The instructions even warned that "weird" things would happen if you did that, and they did: The program would glitch slightly for a few moments before you wrapped around back to the other side. The other thing you could do was just keep gaining elevation, and watch the square of the "world" beneath you get smaller and smaller. I always wondered if there was a way to max that out, but I always ended up just getting bored so I never tried.

[@chicagorandy]

I've been enjoying the thrill of flight I could never afford in real life with Microsoft since '82. Now I've begun the next learning curve challenge with MSfS 20-24 and have NO regrets on being an early adopter, bugs and all. A solid improvement on the 2020 offering IMHO, worth the $100 it cost me for the Deluxe package. One thing is for certain in life - haters gonna hate and many KZbin negative review vids are proof positive.

[@user-os1sg9ku6r]

I remember all of these versions, great video, thank you!

[@keezeeroots5997]

It has taken 40+ years to get to where we are at today. The level of realism in 2020 and 2024 is simply mind boggling. I never thought that one day, i could start MSFS up and fly over my house. Just insane...i absolutely love it. Been an MSFS user since 5.1(early 1990s). Currently im using FSX, but i plan to get a badass gaming computer in about 2 months and purchase 2020. Going to wait about a year maybe longer before purchasing 2024.

[@superskullmaster]

You might be surprised at how low the reqs are in reality with 2020. I have a I5 7600k and a normal 1080 card and I can run PMDG products.

[@hardcopydk3001]

Born in 1979. i grew up with this.

[@SpaceCowboy-u7j]

What’s more impressive: 1. Where we are currently with aviation/aircraft since the Wright Brothers first powered flight? or 2. Where computer technology is today compared to the release of _Flight Simulator?_

[@matthewlee4193]

More gaming but aviation could be way more ahead to be honest.

[@Jimmywillliams]

New computer technology built in as part of the new aircraft and potentially allowing the aircraft to do better things

[@colinc4974]

That brought back a lot o,f great memories, thanks Happy msfs 2024 day btw 🎉

[@jrfreeagent3179]

IBM XT, 286, 386, 386 w/Math Coprocessor Chip, 486, 586 to i9-13900. Flew this simulation on all of them. Every version they put out. I love this sim and appreciate all that has been done to make it as good as it is today. Good memories and looking forward to the newest version, which I have now. Let the adventure begin.

[@CategoricalImperative]

The 2.0 to Win95 was the most dramatic evolution within one game that I have ever seen. I remember my parents refused to get me MFS 1995 because it was expensive.... and they thought our computer wasn't good enough.

[@Sturzi]

Anyone remembers the "Designer" for Flight Simulator 4? The tool to create cities, airports and mountains to fly around? Viewing back, it was so horribly limited to 16 colours and a few kB per scenery. But then, it was like building the world and explore it with the plane (that you could modify as well!). I also bought many of the Mallard add-on sceneries, like Hawaii, they were so cool. Mallard also sold the "Aircraft & Adventure Factory" to design own aircraft designs for FS4. But that tool was too complicated for me back then, 14 years old. SEE4, also from Mallard, was the ultimate tool to place new objects and change colours of the Designer-Sceneries for night/day and seasons. That was command-line based and very time consuming. A shame that it was not possible to share selfmade stuff then, as it would be today!

[@rgbii3224]

I started with MS Flight Sim and a Tandy 1000 in 1989.

[@drumhaver223]

Started with FS in '83 on a Commodore 64 and thought it was fascinating. I'm still messing with it today (FS 2020).

[@thegallantsaint2034]

It was 1984. I was a 9 year old boy with an Apple IIe. Starting off at Merrill C. Meigs in the trusty Piper Cherokee. Looking at Sears Tower shortly after takeoff. Flying to Champaign Illinois…. The sound effects were click…click…click…

[@birdapotamus937]

great video yetty

[@jarelsuckrajh5932]

This is what I called improving of flight simulator technology from time to time

[@inglewoodwhb]

When I started on Flight Sim1.0, eight year old me didn't know that the ATIS statement "advise on initial contact that you have information... " was a standard phrasing. I thought there was a way to talk to ATC in the game and I just couldn't figure out why I couldn't. It was maddening. I had a love/hate relationship with flight sim until I learned the truth.

[@XOTICXPATRIATE]

man 1995 takes me back! There was something always nostalgic about the textures even if the models were not exactly hd.

[@videodistro]

My first Sim was on the C64. It had no graphics out the window, only data display showing speed, direction, alt, ILS and VOR data.... it was "flying" by instruments only!! It was real fun even without graphics. I don't know the name of the software, but it started me out on instrument flying before I ever looked out a window! It was cool.

[@cyrix_1]

i remember playing that.

[@chuckbatson595]

There was something like this published in Ahoy Magazine in the 80s.

[@Pyrrho_]

Flight Simulator 1.0 from Microsoft in 1982 was a licensed port from Sublogic's Flight Simulator originally released for the Apple II (and later the TRS-80) in 1980.

[@Marklovesfamily]

11:30 2024 looks amazing.

[@JedRothwell]

Wow! It is remarkable to see how much it improved. The scenery in the latest versions is breathtaking. Let me offer a suggestion. I finally purchased hardware to control the airplane. A flight stick with many buttons and the rudder controls that go on the floor. A big improvement! They make it much easier to fly.

[@jlvandat69]

The year was 1999, I think, and I was flying out of Paine Field in Everett, WA. Typical recreational pilot, paying about $100 per hour for a wet C172. Sitting in the FBO shop one day, 6 Microsoft geeks walk in for their weekly flight instructions, as each was after a License . Talking to one, it turned out they were software engineers working on Flight Simulator, so had their entire license program paid for by the company and a couple were getting instrument rated also. I almost cried. It was at that moment the brutal truth was crushing.....life is not fair, unless you're a geek.

[@DasTubemeister]

I started with Flight Simulator on Sinclair ZX81.

[@thefrog2009]

So did I! I really miss that sim

[@the_omg3242]

I still remember typing programs in on that stupid little keyboard. (and half the time they wouldn't work due to some minor misspelling)

[@thefrog2009]

I seem to remember it took 15 minutes to load the program from an audio cassette!

[@MatMat-oq9yd]

It was only 5min cca :)

[@thefrog2009]

@@MatMat-oq9yd it was 15 minutes

[@Gypsy2057]

I remember MS FS for the Commadore 64. The plans for just a t and mountains were triangles. I wish I still had it but the floppy disks got worn out and it wouldn't load. The next version I got was 98.

[@craigelliott4338]

You can tell the pre 9/11 games... trailer has planes barrel rolling next buildings...

[@renegadejagd758]

someone is cutting onions over here

[@fedupdomer5654]

holy crap that brings back memories

[@nickcaci7238]

Amazing progress. Sort of like the progress of the Wright Flyer to present day. The Wright Flyer could only progress forward with the speed of a slide ruler as history repeats itself with the early semiconductors. …. With the Micro Soft 2000 seeing the stunt flying around skyscrapers, who knew. Gives me the creeps!

[@hdufort]

I still open FS2 from time to time. I own a Tandy Color Computer 3 with 512kb. The simulator runs with a low framerate (I'd say no more than 4 frames per second) but is still usable. Back in the days (late 1980s), it was impressive.

[@LouLope]

Owed and played pretty much all of them...yes starting in the DOS 2.1(?) days. For me one of the biggest leaps forward was playing MSFS 2020 and now 2024 in VR on a Quest 3. Will never go back to a flat monitor again.

[@the_omg3242]

It's ironic because I have a VR headset and a computer than can handle FS2020 in VR with pretty good graphics, but I still do most of my flying on a flat screen using TrackIR. With VR I lose stuff like my Stream Deck and the indicators on my HC Bravo. Not to mention the assorted switches on that and the Alpha that I have a hard time remembering without looking at the labels. I also can't play for multiple hours in VR like I can with the monitor. It is impressive for short flights though.

[@LouLope]

@@the_omg3242 Yes, flying in VR is definitely not perfect with many back draws I was willing to trade away.

[@fingerhorn4]

There was also "airline transport pilot" which was probably a variation on FS. It a had a huge manual which contained many scenarios and primers on ATC and navigation. I was hooked on it for a couple of years. I thought FS4 was one of the most ground breaking iterations but FSX was pretty revolutionary too.

[@pi.actual]

I started with Sublogic on an Apple II in 1980 but I was already an actual pilot so never paid much serious attention to it until 2020 came out but it wouldn't run on my computer until in 2022 I built one that could handle it. That was certainly a quantum leap but now that 2024 is out I'm holding back. I'm not so much into the gamey aspects of it but if the tech and world views are greatly improved I'll probably get it.

[@FinalMyle]

I have played everyone of these. lol. I'm not sure if I should be proud of that. I do have one question; why doe sit look like this video was rendered using a potato? lol. I mean the older stuff is hard to find but I could give some better quality cuts of it than that. :D Great stuff though, this brings back a lot of memories of my brother and I sitting in our room when were kids trying to figure out how to play MSFS 82' on a dinosaur of a computer.

[@kenjgsc]

Omg this image brings me back 😂 consoles only had arcade/action style flight games ✈️ this was a big change in genre for flight sims

[@alonzovillarreal4666]

That first version led me to getting my PPL in 85 and then further. Loved it.

[@GeoffreyPatterson-t8t]

Yep it's stunning how much MS download simulator has come.😉

[@charly4594]

Started on an Apple II with a Bruce Artwick floppy. 2 Lines for the runway and a vertical line for the tower. Used on Mac and PC right through FS10 and now I want to go to 2024. What an evolution and certainly amazing. Wonder if that floppy is worth something now:)

[@wisdomSP]

Played this in 1983 on our IBM PCjr with 16Kb of ram and an RGB monitor. It came with a cool book that contained fold out charts and if I remember correctly, it took up like ten floppy disks.

[@Mark-oy9lw]

It’s so good now you can hear the passengers scream

[@lincruste]

Flight Simulator 5 was my very first PC game. I had a brand new 486 DX 33 with MS-DOS 5 and the two disks. I insterted the first disk and just waited for it to load. As an Amiga 500 user, having to type a command to install a game was very inconfortable. Anyway, I learnt to type 'install' and finally had the time of my life with that view of Chicago Meigs, all textured.

[@Gdub33]

Century of flight 2004 was the best and most stable version I was able to play until 2024. And yes it might be buggy, but I'm 30 hours into playing and I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface. This is my ultimate video game experience.

[@caoimhin7122]

I had the original for Commodore 64. Flight Simulator II was put out by a company called subLOGIC, not Microsoft. The plane it simulated was a Piper Cherokee Archer II. I now play around with X-Plane. It took FOREVER to load the full program. And scenery disk changes were insanely slow! Manc what a difference 42 years makes!

[@TonyFromSyracuse101]

and someday when they perfect VR in tandem with really great resolution, its going to be insane, you will literally be there

[@DroneTroll]

I had Sublogic's Flight Simulator II running on an Atari 800XL. Still have it along with 80's games from Microprose and Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI)

[@Honest-sy6ys]

I bought an 8088 pc in '86. I expanded the memory to 1 Megabyte. Put a hercules graphics card in it and went flying with Microsoft. I am on my way to Iceland in MSFS 2020 as we speak. Still Lovin' it.

[@BrianBeauchamp]

Amazing!

[@patrickvanrinsvelt4466]

Had the original on my Apple II. Hours I spent on this as a teen hoping to get into the Navy as a pilot. Poor eyesight let me down.

[@ThisPartIsAndrew]

I started playing on Windows 95. It was the whole family playing, and my USAF Flight Instructor Uncle could land the Learjet on the Aircraft Carrier. Now I'm getting my kids into it.

[@absolutmauser]

Flight sim 95 choked my 486 so bad 😅

[@916chevyboy]

I remember the x2 3.5 that the original FS cam on. As a kid I was hooked; simmed ever since(age42)!❤🎉😊

[@iAPX432]

The first version is Sublogic Flight Simulator, sublogic being the editor, and Microsoft bought it and renamed it Microsft Flight Simulator.

[@talldrummer1]

Microprose if I remember correctly. They were located in Champaign Illinois. The Frasca flight simulator was also born in Champaign.

[@walley2637]

i played FS 95 back in the day. it was a novelty at best. I then moved on until FS 2004 which i played with friends quite a bit. when FS X came out my pc wouldn't handle it so i skipped that one. in 2021 i started FS 2020 and slowly upgraded my pc so that i play in VR now. But I will be in FS 2024 tomorrow!

[@rossbremner5125]

I started with 95 and went through 98, 2000, 2004, FSX and 2020. I binned FSX pretty quick due to instability with addons. 2020 didnt work out for me so I'm back to a heavily modified 2004

[@kevinchestnut9056]

I've played this game for a long time. I got to the point where I could land the Concorde on an aircraft carrier...provided the realism settings weren't set too high!

[@wrongmark]

Ah the Sidewinder! Remember desperately wanting the force feedback version. 😂

[@Keith80027]

I now see why I didn't get hooked in flight simulator back in the early 80's.

[@GIZALARF]

I am not a user of MSFS, but looking at how it started off, it's mind blowing how far we have come with graphics. I'm more a DCS and GeoFS user

[@Coccoluto]

missing Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 (1988)

[@sigdata5835]

4 and 5 are missing too.

[@ipaul70]

I started with 2.0 for the original Macintosh in '84 or 85, still doing it in 2025 but haven't bought FS2024 yet, waiting for it to get a little more refined.

[@peters972]

Very nostalgic thank you. So the logic goes, if things improved that fast in a few decades, how can we not consider that we may be living in a simulation, and not base reality.

[@PN_48]

Started with FS2.. oh man, Chicago in the Learjet was awesome

[@PBRStreetgang-x6h]

I remember shooting hair-raising approaches on the Timex-Sinclair 2000.

[@templeton3504]

I sure feel like there were others from 82 to 95 hahaha either that or I have some one offs. Somewhere I still have all the boxes from FS 5, 95, 98, 2000, 2002, 2004. I remember when I was 8yo and my dad showed me FS 4.....been hooked ever since.

[@Banliath]

I remember when they first added 3d flight decks, I hated them. Now I fly around in VR! Great trip down memory lane

[@kevine8736]

I've been heavily debating buying this myself cause I want the real life experience and just a joystick regular contor type of setup but man this looks so beautiful and amazing I want it

[@Shiva666-t5b]

I still have my original Microsoft flight simulator program on 5 1/4 inch floppy. My favorite version is 2002, after that I don’t think they supported multiple screens which I really enjoy.

[@CapitaineBrochet]

I feel old...

[@iainhunneybell]

Sad to say, I recognise that v1 copy and those graphics. I used to fly JFK- MVY (Marthas Vineyard) or sometimes BOS-MVY for a shorter flight - so as to take advantage of the ILS FS offered at MVY, one of the very few airports with an ILS in those early days of FS

[@Acetheskyhook]

Flight sim from the 2000s: it looks so real!

[@bTusler]

It was a simpler time but it was great fun, the programs ran without CTD and had nowhere as many bugs as they do today.

[@BenAnderson-l9h]

We not gonna talk about 0:10 with the towers💀💀💀

[@j2d2Tube]

The early versions of fs were not Microsoft products. They just came along and bought it later. They have done an amazing job taking it forward. No doubt about that.

[@Andy-df5fj]

It looks like as the graphics improved, the program shifted from a 1st person simulation to 3rd person movie.

[@Rob-x7n]

Had them all. Anyone remember us navy fighters? That was the jam.

[@AviatorLegend]

What happened between FSX and MSFS 2020? Why such a large gap?

[@ShivamSPatel-is-on-fire]

Microsoft decided to abandon the FS franchise for a bit. in 2012, they built this super weird gamified version called “Microsoft Flight” which looked beautiful but was limited to Alaska and Hawaii. then in 2015, Asobo decided to pick the flight sim back up again due to massive advancements in server power, GPUs, and satellite data.

[@AviatorLegend]

@ that’s pretty cool. Is there anywhere I can read about this?

[@ShivamSPatel-is-on-fire]

@@AviatorLegend just google the history of microsoft flight sim and look at the wiki page. it’s a good overview of the franchise.

[@mhobin12]

We don’t talk about flight. It never existed. It was best too forget it existed

[@cutepuppy9585]

Maybe because of the backlash that the 9/11 terrorists used it for training?

[@entendiendonegociosyfinanzas]

random question: can msfm be played using a standard controller, or does it have to be played with a special controller?

[@nigel900]

I was there in the beginning… I could write a book.

[@MrBobkeenan]

I spend many many hours playing that original MS flight sim

[@kylemay6043]

Wasn't there an IFR version that came out before 1.0?

[@StealthParrot]

LOL, the Golden Gate Bridge in FS2.0. Sadly I remember this on my C64.

[@craig7083]

I actually played the first version of MFS on a cassette tape drive on an IBM in the mid 1980’s. Fly for 30 seconds then wait for the drive to reload. I thought it was great at the time!!

[@ThisCrazyLifeOfFive]

What PC can I buy of the shelf that can actually play the new sim?

[@tommy2buttz668]

Sinclair 1000

[@Harrison-hg2vs]

Irember waking up in the morning and starting up MSFS 95😢

[@gsansoucie]

Should start with the version for the TRS-80 Model III.

[@MrPereivap]

Rod Machado was a Nice Guy!

[@abpob6052]

Wow. 2006 was a major upgrade.

[@Stormrider-Flight]

Evolution stopped with FSX. Since then we just got better graphics but less and less content in many simulation aspects.

[@johndemerse9172]

Have all of them!

[@franzcrack]

Weren't any versions between 1984 and 1995?

[@JusttoTalk-o7j]

Wow! I remember when Flight Simulator was the "da bomb" in the 80s...LOL!

[@the_omg3242]

I tried one of the really early ones either on my Mac Classic, Atari ST, or Amiga. Don't remember which machine, but I had all 3 about the same time and found civil aviation boring compared to combat games. FSX was the one that really got me into it and the oil rig mission with the chopper was one of my favorites. Really liked 2020 but was so disappointed they took out the missions and was looking forward to the career mode in 2024. Turns out most of those flights are boring and repetitive and I just do free flights in 2024 anyways. lol. They've sure come a long ways.