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From: binder@fizbin.DEC.COM (Sold - but we have others)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Flight Simulator II
Message-ID: <8701051351.AA25941@decwrl.dec.com>
Date: Mon, 5-Jan-87 11:37:00 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.8701051351.AA25941
Posted: Mon Jan  5 11:37:00 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 5-Jan-87 21:39:36 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 45

My mailer barked at Jerry Wolf's address, so I'm posting this.  What follows 
is a subjective and highly personal view of the Apple // Flight Simulator II.  
If your opinion doesn't agree with mine, that's fine, just don't tear me apart 
for it, please.

I have the Apple // version of Flight Sim, and I don't recommend it unless 
you're a masochist.  Sure, it flies, and it's got all the places to go, extra 
scenery disks and all, but its flying characteristics and visual presentation 
aren't good at all.

The graphics are barely adequate - if you have a monochrome monitor, you can 
read the instruments; if a color monitor, the instruments are difficult to 
read due to the // series funny video.  The instruments are all there, though, 
and they do "work" properly.  Looking out the cabin window is difficult to 
handle, because the view shifts in very jerky 1/2-second snapshots.  Three-
dimensional objects like the World Trade Center are reasonably well defined, 
but they take on some truly weird and wonderful shapes as you bank around 
them.  Flat surface features, such as runways, are *very* difficult to see - 
they are white lines on a green ground, and they fade in and out depending on 
viewing angle.  I flew over O'Hare half a dozen times before I was sure that 
it was an airport and not some road pattern.  I never could find Logan as I
flew in from Martha's Vineyard. 

Flying with a joystick is difficult - any change in aircraft pitch seems to 
have a marked effect on roll - I'd pull the nose up a little and the plane
would fall off to the left.  This behavior may be due to my having had
auto-coordination set on, but it should *not* happen anyway - it's not an
accurate representation.  I didn't experiment with it set off.  I have not
tried flying with the keys alone. 

There is no realistic sound - just a slow and irregular "ticking" to let you
know the engine is running.  There is *one* aircraft type. 

My disk appears to have problems with its scenery - when I placed the aircraft 
at Martha's Vineyard, there were certain headings I could choose that would 
cause half of the screen to disappear.  Whether this is a universasl problem I 
don't know, and frankly don't care.  My copy of Flight Sim sits on a shelf 
unused.

Cheers,
Dick Binder   (The Stainless Steel Rat)

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