JUST LIKE THE REAL THING
Do you believe in magic? If you're a flying
enthusiast like me and don't have £2000 to spend on getting your
private pilot's licence, then Sublogic's Flight Simulator II (FS2)
is like a wish come true. For the price of one flying lesson you can
have unlimited flying time in a well equipped, modern light
aircraft. Agreed, it's only a simulation, but it's just like the
real thing.
EXCELLENT DOCUMENTATION
For around £45 you get a well presented package
containing two disks, two manuals, maps and a reference card. One
disk holds program code, while the other contains scenery data. This
is loaded as required by the program, depending on the area over
which you're flying. More about this later.
As with all complex programs, the documentation
supplied can make or break the whole package. In this case the
documentation is excellent. The Pilot's Operating Handbook explains
the many controls needed to fly the aircraft
in its 90 pages. It also describes how to position the aircraft at
any point and time within the simulated "world" of FS2,
which covers an area of some 100 million square miles. The 92 page
Flight Physics manual covers the theory of flight, gives eight step
by step flying lessons, and explains how to perform many acrobatic
manoeuvres. Both manuals include many diagrams and illustrations
which are generally quite easy to follow.
The four maps cover the geographical areas
included in the basic package, namely, New York, Chicago, Seattle
and Los Angeles. These are aerial navigation maps, showing airports
and radio navigation aids available to the FS2 pilot. They
correspond to the four areas on the scenery disk. Note that all
scenery details, including airfields, are based on real life, and
are not hypothetical items dreamed up by the programmer. "This
applies to the radio navigation aids too.
Sublogic have at last begun releasing additional
scenery disks. In the USA there are now 12 more disks available,
covering the whole of the continental USA. As usual, the Atari
enthusiast has been left out, with currently only Commodore and
other machines covered. However, I phoned Sublogic and they tell me
the Atari version may be available "sometime this summer".
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
What does it do, you ask? Well, it accurately
simulates all aspects of flying a light aircraft - not just
landings, as with some other simulators. You can taxi along the
ground to the end of a runway, take off, climb, turn, do acrobatics
(including stalls and spins, very unusual on a simulator), descend,
and land. Also, the simulation isn't just of any old aircraft. It's
based on a Piper Archer II, and uses 47 of the flight
characteristics of that aircraft to reproduce the illusion of
flight.
The program requires a minimum of 48K, although
it's better with 64K. With 48K you lose certain features, such as
the ADF radio navigation aid, some graphics features, and
communication with air traffic control. Also "reality
mode" is missing, which allows aircraft behaviour to be
simulated even more accurately (such as random failure of vital
aircraft systems, like the fuel system). Even so, the 48K version is
still very complex, and satisfyingly realistic.
Booting up the program disk puts you on the end of
the runway at Meigs Field, Chicago, with the engine running ready
for take off. The screen shows an excellent representation of your
instrument panel, and above it you see a three dimensional view
through the windscreen - just like the real thing.
All controls may be operated through the keyboard,
requiring you to know about 60 different key combinations! In
addition, the main flying controls (ailerons/rudder, elevators and
brakes) are available through joystick 1 and throttle and flaps
through joystick 2. Personally, I find keyboard and one joystick the
best combination for ease of use. Space does not permit me to list
all of the controls. Let's just say that if you can find it on a
real aircraft, you'll probably find it here,
including a generous array of radio communication and navigation
aids (which all work). The sheer quantity of controls seems daunting
at first, but don't worry - it's surprising how soon you get the
hang of them. The manuals explain most things fairly lucidly anyway.
READ THE MANUAL
Don't be tempted to use this simulator without
first reading the documentation - you'll get nowhere without it.
Even with it, you'll need lots of patience before that magical
moment arrives when you complete your first flight successfully,
including take off, circuit of an airfield, and landing.
From the moment you begin operating the controls,
you start to appreciate the detail that's gone into this program.
Let's go through part of a flight, and I'll describe how FS2 reacts
to give you an idea of the realism. Imagine we are sitting in the
aircraft on the end of the runway at Meigs Field, Chicago, waiting
to
take off. As we open the throttle, the noise of the engine increases
and the digital rev counter reading builds up to show we are at full
power. The aircraft begins to accelerate down the runway, and the
air speed indicator needle moves round its dial as the speed builds
up. Unlike certain other simulators, these dials have numbers round
them, so you get realistic quantitative information from them. The
view through the windscreen changes as you accelerate down the
runway. You see the runway centreline zipping under you as you
gather speed. On reaching flying speed, a few notches of "up
elevator" causes the aircraft to leave the ground and begin
climbing. At this point the needle on the vertical speed indicator
moves round its dial to tell you how fast you are climbing, the
altimeter needles begin to move slowly round their dial registering
height, and the artificial horizon line drops down showing your
aircraft is in a nose high attitude.
Now, look out of the window. You have a true 3D
view and are flying "into" the scenery you see. Details on
the ground slide past you as you fly over them. You can use the view
selector to view this 3D motion. One interesting view is to look
directly backwards at the airfield you take off from, and watch the
perspective change as you climb away from it. Be careful, though. I
don't recommend this until you've got the hang of take offs!
LANDMARKS
Ground detail is generally better than that in
many other simulators. There are certain "interesting
topographical features", as the manual calls them. These are
famous landmarks in the areas concerned, usually represented in the
form of "wire frame" graphics. Before you dismiss this as
boring and unworthy of the Atari's capabilities, please note that
these graphics are fully three dimensional, and fairly true to life
- even recognisable, if you know the originals. For instance, New
York has the Empire State Building, the twin towers of the World
Trade Centre, the Statue of Liberty, and Manhattan Bridge. All are
shown in their correct locations and correct scale. As they are
three dimensional you can fly round them, between them (in the case
of the World Trade Centre towers) and, if you're daring enough,
under them (in the case of Manhattan Bridge). As you fly near them,
you can view them through the windscreen, or through the side
windows, backwards, or at any 45 degree angle, and still get the
correct 3D view.
Other major features include the John Hancock
Building and Sears Tower in Chicago, and the Space Needle in
Seattle. Also near Seattle is the magnificent snow capped Mt. Ranier.
The Los Angeles area does not seem to have major architectural
features, but it does have a realistic road system, coastline
details, and mountain ranges.
Airports, too, are presented in detail. Rather
than seeing a simple "inverted V" as the visual
representation of a runway from the air, you are given a realistic
picture of all the main runways. On the larger airfields you see the
taxiways as well. You can land or take off from either end of any
runway, and while on the ground you can taxi from any point of the
airfield to any other point. One of the airfields has a terminal
building (shown in 3D colour filled graphics). You can taxi from
here, along various taxiways to the runway of your choice. Major
airports even have the runway heading numbers painted on their
thresholds, again, just like the real thing. When you take off, you
even get an inverted view of this number as you approach it from the
opposite end of the runway.
Some airfields, usually the smaller ones, are
depicted as black runways with white markings, i.e. colour filled
graphics. The larger airfields (such as New York's JFK airport) have
a "line drawing" appearance. Presumably, you need a lot
more power than an 8 bit computer can deliver to handle 3D
manipulation and colour filling something of this complexity. (I
wonder how the ST handles it?)
Certain airfields have refuelling facilities. If
you land at one of these, and taxi to the refuelling area your fuel
tanks get refilled. That's another touch of realism - as you fly you
use fuel, and this fact is registered on your fuel gauges. It is
possible to run out of fuel after several hours of flying, so you
have to keep an eye on those gauges.
SET YOUR OWN PARAMETERS
Yet another great feature of FS2 is its Editor.
This gives you access to two screens full of control parameters
governing your flight. You can set wind speed and direction at three
different heights, also specifying the heights at which the changes
in direction occur. You can also set cloud cover and thickness at
two different levels. My only minor grouse here is that you can't
set partial cloud cover - the sky has to be completely overcast or
completely clear. If you're a masochist, these features let you set
up difficult weather conditions to fly in. Versions of FS2 on other
machines also implement air turbulence, which can toss your aircraft
around in realistic manner. I was disappointed to find that Sublogic
haven't included this feature in the Atari version. Season of the
year and time of day (or night) can also be set. Dusk and dawn occur
at different times, depending on the season of the year. When flying
at night, you'll find ground detail is replaced by lights, including
the rotating beacons found at most airports in the USA.
DIFFERENT SCENARIOS
You can set the aircraft's location based on its
world coordinates, height, airspeed, heading, and the position of
all relevant controls. The co-ordinates are used to determine which
scenery and navigation data to load from the scenery disk. Using
these features you can set up virtually any flight
scenario. What's more, you can store them, so they're available at
any time at the push of a key. For instance, if you want to practice
a landing approach into Meigs Field, Chicago without having to take
off and fly the circuit first, you simply key in the appropriate
values in edit mode, and specify you want them saving. When you exit
edit mode, you find yourself in the requested position. If you
crash, the system will reset to your parameters. Or, if you want to
abort the approach and start again, a simple keystroke will do this
for you. You can enter edit mode at any time by pressing the ESC
key, so you can check parameter values for use on other occasions
whenever you want. There is also a feature called
"slewing", which enables you to slide your aircraft around
in three dimensions (at high speed, if required) to position it
visually at any point.
FS2 comes with starter sets of parameters, called
User Modes, which set up 10 different scenarios for you. The default
mode sets up the Meigs Field scenario mentioned earlier. You may set
up another 15 modes using your own parameters and save them to disk
for use anytime. One of the supplied modes is, in fact, a game,
known as the World War I Ace game. This involves you flying your WWI
biplane to bomb enemy airfields and dogfight with enemy fighters.
This is a feature I don't personally like too much, but may be
useful for light relief after a tense, serious session with the
simulator.
The radio equipment reflects that you'd find in
many light aircraft today, covering voice communications and radio
navigation aids. If you know what VOR, ADF, DME, and ILS are, you'll
be pleased to know they're all here. If not, you'll soon learn what
they do and how to use them. Any budding pilot can learn the
concepts of radio navigation aids from FS2. It doesn't take long to
learn how to fix your position using VOR and ADF, or to navigate
from A to B using only your radio aids.
JUST LIKE THE REAL THING
The Instrument Landing System (ILS) is one of the
jewels of this simulator. The first time I tried an ILS approach
through thick cloud I was amazed. The instruments behaved yes, you
guessed it just like the real thing. The localiser and glide slope
needles desperately pointed the way back to the right approach path,
the marker beacons bleeped as the aircraft passed over them, and the
Distance Measuring Equipment readout slowly counted down the
distance to the airfield as I wobbled my way towards it. Then, on
breaking through the cloud layer, seeing the airfield runway ahead
gave me a thrill I've experienced from no other computer simulation.
One final word - because this is a simulation, not
a game, it works in real time. If your flight would take 90 minutes
in real life, then this is how long your simulated flight takes. To
some people, this would quickly bring on boredom. However, if like
me, you've a lot of Biggles in you, then you'll find a use for that
time as a real pilot would, doing instrument checks, getting
navigation fixes, and looking at the scenery. You really can
"live" the flight. I can think of no greater compliment
for a flight simulation program.
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