Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!think!ephraim
From: ephraim@think.COM (ephraim vishniac)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Mac games [Was: Crystal Quest]
Message-ID: <25950@think.UUCP>
Date: 17 Aug 88 16:11:44 GMT
References: <1838@hodge.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@think.UUCP
Reply-To: ephraim@vidar.think.com.UUCP (ephraim vishniac)
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 68

In article <1838@hodge.UUCP> bldflame@pnet06.cts.com (Stuart Burden) writes:
>chow@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Christopher Chow) writes:
>>  Microsoft has indicated that they don't intend to update Flight Simulator
>>  for the II/SE. (They lied -- at one time they had said that they would
>>  update ALL their programs to work on the II/SE)

>Hmm, I'd really like to know your source of information.  I have never seen a
>press release to indicate that Microsoft had no intention of releasing an
>upgrade to Flight Simulator.  I'd really appreciate knowing where you found
>out this information.  Or is this another case of vendor bashing?

>While it is true that Microsoft have not released an upgrade, I do not recall
>them ever saying exactly WHEN they would.  It could be tomorrow, it could be
>next year.  But I believe they will be true to thier word, not necesarily true
>to your demands.

I believe you're an incurable optimist, Stu.  The day the Mac II was
announced, Microsoft's press release said they would update *all*
their products to run on the Mac II and SE.  They specifically named
Flight Simulator.  That was a year and a half ago.

Much more recently, I called Microsoft to find out what the latest
version of FlightSim was, and whether it worked on the Mac II.  The
folks that answer questions at MS told me that the current version
worked on the SE, but not on the Mac II.  They knew of no plans or
commitment for producing a Mac II version.

So, I bought Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer (Electronic Arts)
from MacConnection at the Expo.  It's a very different thing from
FlightSim.

FS is rigidly realistic in many ways.  Navaids, instruments, charts,
elevations, all that stuff.  And it's also terribly brain-damaged in
some ways.  That's all been discussed here before, so I won't go into
it.

AFT is very unrealistic, but exciting.  The manual is thin.  No
charts, many fewer instruments.  But, many more airplanes, including
X-1, X-3, Mustang, Blackbird, and stuff I'd never heard of.  You can
just fly around, or you can take lessons, race, and do stunts.  It
works on a Mac II, using all of the main screen.  It runs in 16 colors
if you've got'em, otherwise just two.  The animation (on a Mac II) is
much better than FlightSim's (on a Mac Plus).

The most unrealistic aspect of AFT (to my mind) is that the plane's
are so easy to fly.  I managed a reasonably stable inverted flight in
the X-1 on my first try.  This can't be true!

The scenery is much more abstract than in FlightSim, but it's solid
instead of wire-frame.

FS is obnoxiously copy-protected.  It *must* be the start-up disk.  It
cannot be installed on a hard disk.

AFT is not copy-protected and will run off a hard disk.  When the
program starts up, it shows you the silhouette of a plane described in
the manual and asks a question about it (e.g., What's this plane's
length in feet?).  Answer correctly, and you're all set.  Answer
wrongly, and you're dumped out.

I like FlightSim.  I like AFT.  I'd like FlightSim for the Mac II in
addition to AFT, because they're so different.

Ephraim Vishniac					  ephraim@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214

     On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put
     into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"