Hello all!

Falcon 4.0 is a teenager tomorrow and as an homage to the old girl how about posting about the first time you bought it.

Here's my story:

I was hanging out at the Janes F-15 forum at Combatsim when someone started a thread bragging that they just picked up their binder. I thought to myself "crap...thats right..Falcon comes out today" I had been so involved with F-15 and other stuff, I completly forgot. Within about 26 seconds I was in my truck, heading on down the road to find one. I didn't call anywhere to see if they had any first, I just left knowing I should be able to find one somewhere.

My first stop was going to be EB at the Hillsdale mall in San Mateo. I parked and did that kinda hurried walk that isn't really a jog but everyone knows you've got somewhere to go. As I approached the store, I came to the window where they usually put new releases on display and my heart sunk...no binders. As I banked left, in through the door, my eyes opened wide. There they were...about 7 shrink wrapped binders stacked up behind the counter. WooHoo! When I got home I fired in the CD and started the install and just flipped through the binder and just admired how awesome it was. My P2 266 with a 12meg voodoo card was going to get a serious workout for sure. Bubble at 1 for sure for those that remember.

Well, here it is 13 years later and with BMS, she's never looked better.

Happy Birthday Falcon 4.0!!

I think I actually have one of the most unusual stories how I got to the Falcon 4.0 binder.

I was of the Jane's Persuasion after Navy Fighters '97, then Apache Longbow and F-15. I thus only had a passing interest in Falcon, and went straight to JF-18 without ever buying it.

Then when I started a job at my first IT Company in 2001 (which is right about the time I was deep in IL-2), my boss promised me a payraise after three "evaluation" months. Which his management didn't grant.

So to make up for it - in one of the nicest things I've ever had a boss to do me - he decorated my workplace one morning with a collection of his preowned sims he wanted to give away. Turns out he used to be a Radar Controller at the Military Airspace Control Center before he became an IT Guy - and he had the Falcon 4.0 Binder fed-exed to him in Austria on release day as he was a flightsim nut (by then, no longer, but before I joined his company).

I realized at the time that this binder, for sheer production value, was the best thing ever done for flightsims.

But I NEVER INSTALLED it. Seeing that in 2001, I had 3d cockpits with clickable buttons to play, and with my ambiguity towards the Falcon as an aircraft, the ring binder remained on the shelf for ten years, trough three different apartments always on the same shelf above my computer.

Only now, with BMS 4.32, and with a distinct lack of other modern multirole sims, did I get to actually use the CD - if just to copy down the .exe file for the BMS installer.

Oh, and to add another most unusual part: I have since 2001 also a Cougar HOTAS, since 2008 even modified with FSSB sensors. But I don't use it anymore since Win7 drivers need a bit of dance to get it working.

So in some ways I guess I [I]really[/I}missed the Falcon 4.0 train.

But very glad to have such an awesome sim today.

Good story RS...thank you for sharing! You are certainly coming to Falcon when its the best it's ever been. With every other incarnation of this sim, I was always able to load it up and go blow some stuff up right away with my previous knowledge of the bird. Not so with BMS, I think all of us feel like fresh faced novice's after installing and trying this latest and greatest mod.

Happy Birthday Falcon!!

My story is nothing to crazy.... I believe it was 1998 or 1999 when I picked up falcon 4.0, which would of made me 11 or 12 years old lol. I bought it a few days after my birthday, with some money I got from my parents in a birthday card. I always loved fighter jets and when I seen the box I instantly had to pick it up n look at the pictures on the back and read about how awesome it was. I remember the box was VERY heavy for just "some computer game", as I thought at the time lol.

I ended up buying it and rushing my mom to drive home faster so I could try it out. I didn't even have a joystick or anything, and quickly gave up after realizing how difficult this SIM was going to be to figure out.

Came back to it a few years later. Now had some microsoft joystick, only had a trigger and 1 button, and the throttle wheel on the base of the stick. I now had some experience with online games, decided to search around and see what I could find on this sim. Found my way to FrugalsWorld and went looking for a virtual squadron to teach me the ropes and give me some real people to fly with. Found the FreeBirds VFW and really the rest is history. That was THE best wing I've ever been apart of and I learned just about everything I know from those IP's and there instructional material.

As I got into my upper teens/early twenties I kinda put down gaming for a while, only coming back n flying every now n then. Now this new BMS comes out and draws me back in lol. Gotta say it is truly amazing how far this sim has come over the years and I can only imagine where it's gonna be in the future. Looking forward to it

Same here, I was like 11 years old (I'm 19 today) when I went to a fleamarket (idk if its the right word, but its when people get on a road and sell the things they don't use anymore) and saw this CD (there was no box) with a fighterjet on it, I remember that when I was young I didn't really like the look of the F16 because it was a single engine, I only liked the F15, BUT there was something going on between me and this CD lol I told the guy that was selling it to hold on and don't sell it to anyone cuz I was going to buy it, then I ran back home to ask some money to my mother (the price of Falcon was 4€), she gave me, and I ran back to the seller of the CD, and i had it ! I was so happy, and couln't wait to be at home to try it !
There I became a Falcon4 nerd, and got my 1st joystick a few weeks ago.

Today I'm still wondering howcome I had so much love/patience to have read the whole manual (the .pdf one) several times when I was 11/12.
And today I'm still a Falcon (BMS) nerd and I hope I could join the Armée de l'air next year.

Happy Birthday Falcon !!

What kept me from earlier patches and mods was that some would offer A and B, others would offer C and D (clickable cockpit versus widescreen versus singlelcick installer... something like that the dance went).

Now with BMS finally a gang of guys has realized what I think everyone wanted alongside the "less deep" system LOMAC and others - a single click install, dynamic campaign Jetsim which ticks all boxes of modern technology (okay, the landscape needs work - but that's not a real issue for the simulation value).

In some ways I'm glad I waited for this version as it might be the easiest to "stick with".

I'd tried Falcon AT on the Atari ST and then Falcon 3, but I could'nt get into either. LB2 and Mig Alley were where it was at for me, so I never paid much attention to Falcon 4.

Then, I cant remember why, someone on the Mig Alley forum here on SimHQ wanted to swap their copy of F4 for MA, so I went for it. That was about 2001 and I have flown every iteration of F4 since. I actually saved up for nearly a year to buy an Abit BP6 motherboard with dual celeron 500mhz cpu's and a Voodoo 3 AGP card.

I dont fly much else now, maybe FSX with FS Passengers now and again. I tried to get into IL2, LOMAC, F18, DCS, but it doesnt work for me. Although I have high hopes for Take On Helicopters.

When I bought my first PC in 2002, a friend gave me several game disks, including F4.

As I realised I'd have to read several hundred pages to fire anything other than the gun, I ditched it until about 4 years ago when I found a mint binder edition on ebay cheap.

Still play F4:AF off and on, hard to find anything to replace that campaign, or that game packaging. Unless DCS brings out an F-18 with carrier ops, might still be flying F4 for years to come.

Hi All,

I bought my copy of Falcon 4.0 a couple of days before Christmas 1998 while on my way to hospital for an operation. I had cought the train to town and was mooching around a computer shop when I saw a copy on the shelf. I had been waiting literally years for it to be released, and thought what brilliant timing as it would sweaten the pill of going into hospital, so parted with, I think, 35 quid.

I duly had the op and distinctly remember being in what was known as the day room on the ward, avidly reading the manual. I was still in there that night when a nurse came in asking if I wanted painkillers to help me sleep and that I should really be going back to the ward, as I was literally sweating with pain after the op. " No thanks" I replied, "can you bring me a cup of tea because I want to read this manual". She looked at me with complete disbelief but duly came back with the cuppa. I had got to chapter 17 and was reading about the consoles thinking to myself " all these buttons to press, and all this detail, I'm going to have fun here"! Crazy.

I have still got the same copy on the shelf and am looking at the same page as I was all those years ago. Page 17-19 in case you're wondering. Can't believe it's been so long. So many memories......

I still fly FreeFalcon and have downloaded the latest BMS and seen it running on a mate's computer. It's hard to believe it's the same sim as I had in my sweaty palms all those years ago.

Brilliant.

And thanks to the OP for giving us the chance to take this trip down memory lane. Fantastic times.

Regards,

MTB

Happby Bday F4.

I bought the game in 1999. It was the "special edition" which came with a 3" loose-leaf binder. I have been playing on and off since then, never as much as I wanted to, but I was always putting it aside until a new version came out.

I re-bought it in 2005 when AF came out. I actually put in more time in AF since it actually worked and I was able to finish my 1st campaign.

Now with BMS, I am re-discovering F4 yet again. Just listening to the menu music brings back so many memories.

Great posts everybody!

@MikeTB: Really enjoyed that story!

I hope to see a few more before this thread drops off. I am defintely the nostalgic sort, and in addition to re-living my own sim memories, I really enjoy reading others! My fondest memories of simming were right in this timeframe(1998-2000), lots of good stuff for us pilots.

I started flying Spectrum Holobyte's first F-16 with the release of the original "F-16 Fighting Falcon" in the mid "80's and continued on with "Falcon AT", "Falcon 3.0" and "Operation Fighting Tiger" through the early '90's. I still have the books "Falcon 3.0 Air Combat and "Art of the Kill" written by F-16 pilot Pete Bonanni, who I believe is currently a Brigadier General and Assistant Adjutant General-Air of the VA ANG.

In 1998 the long delayed and awaited Falcon 4.0 was released by Microprose and I immediately purchased a copy and have flown it off and on ever since as it migrated through its many freeware iterations and the payware Falcon 4.0 Allied Force. Now I am transitioning to the freeware BMS 4.32 and having a lot of fun in the process.

Long live Falcon 4.0!

Mike

MikeTB, cool story!

Aren't we by definition all old farts if we bought F4 back then or similar sims

Anyone under 30 here?

*raises hand* 24

43 here. Pretty old, except when I'm hanging with some of my 50 year old friends!

Speaking of Falcon birthdays....anyone remember the loading pie baby? LOL

Hi All,

I'm 52 so definitely in the old fart brigade!

I bought my first PC in 1990 - 91. An AMD chip running at 40Mhz and I think 2 meg of ram, a 42 mbyte hard drive and a soundblaster card. Top specs in those days and I think it cost me something like £1300. God knows what that would equate to in today's money. Got it specifically to run Falcon 3. Obviously had more money than sense.

Slightly more on topic - I installed BMS 4.32 today and am having a blast. Beautiful flight model. AI seems more switched on. Lovely graphics after turning the bloom down. Smooth as silk. Hard to think this is based on something that is 13 years old now. And it cost - nothing. So many thanks to all the people involved in its development over the last 10 years and more.

Regards,

MTB

Well I gut sucked in almost immedietely but never got it working satisfactory on my 233mhz P1. I still have that old PC.. Well I shelfed after about a month of Frustration and didn't pick F4 back up till SP3 came out.. Well Since then I have been playing it ever since..

I am really excited in BMS and THNX to the guys that made it possible Snaps to ALL those Guys and Gals who made BMS possible..

Well since I upgraded my Rig to a Triple screen Setup I shelfed Allied force since it only had single screen capability then BMS happened with DX9 and Triple Screen Functionality My Prayers where answered see you all there is a God..

Well I burned out 2 bulbs and just waiting till after the holidays to get 2 new bulbs so I can go back to triple screen goodness and BMS..

here is to well at least 1 more good year LOL!!

My how time flys!

I got my Falcon 4.0 Binder at Target on my birthday 13 years ago. They had put the "TOPGUN" (Remember that game?. lol) price tag on it for $17.98

Of course, with the combination of bugs and my system it got shelved until I got a new computer, which is still the prime motivator for upgrades to this day. Then due to Delphi (remeber that forum) and Frugalsworld got back into Falcon.

Having beta tested for Thrustmaster in the mid 80's with the MK I hotas, I have stuck to the Falcon/Thrustmaster combo all these years up to the Cougar. The Warthog will have to wait until I win the lotto or that long lost Nigerian Prince finally sends my money.

I would like to thank Falcon 4.0 for the oppertunity it has given me to make the friends I have made throughout the years, being part of the FreeFalcon Team.

Time for another computer rebuild to get BMS4.32 running better.

I bought my day-of-release copy in some giganticus mall in Las Vegas while on a business trip. Made it very difficult to not open the box while sitting in the already pretty boring meetings, while sitting inches away from the package with the monster binder and associated goodies. I swear it was lighting up periodically, and occasionally emitting a #%&*$# Betty voiced, "Open Me now! command."

I'm trying desperately to get my hands on an original Falcon 4.0 but a number of the options at Amazon show various other segments to the title which don't really confirm that the item really is the original. The original is required so I can get it to associate with Benchmark Sims 4.32.
Can anyone tell me precisely what the title should consist of please?
i.e. FALCON 4.0 (WITH NO OTHER NAMES OR SUFFIXES FOLLOWING IT)

You are looking for this cover art:
http://www.amazon.com/Falcon-4-0-Binder-PC-CD/dp/1558845682

And yes, that means Falcon 4.0 (Microprose) either the ring binder edition or the boxed copy edition.

Didn't the video "Art of the Kill" come with Falcon 3? If so then I need to find my disk.

Better late then never. Yesterday I've bought Falcon 4.0 on Polish auction site. Full boxed copy with Korea map, printed manual and big box. Now I wait for package.

I bought my first copy (CD Only) in some bargin bin of a majour supermarket chain in Durban, South Africa in 2000 on impulse. Boy was I shocked when I ran that puppy! With no manual, it was almost impossible to figure out what the heck was going on.

Since then, I have bought two full-boxed copies of Falcon (I lost the first copy in my move from SA to the UK) and also various copies of Allied Force over the years from various stores.

Long live the mighty Falcon (in ALL it's forms)!

I've got a couple of original copies of Falcon 4.0, one in a boxed set and another in a binder. The name is simply Falcon 4.0 and it was released by Microprose. Both the binder/manual and CD have the saying, "The New Benchmark in Flight Sim Technology".

Mike

I bought my copy at WM about 1999. It had everything in it including the huge spiral manual. I think I paid about forty bucks for it.

I think I was the first person in the US to buy a retail copy. I was omw to work in Manhattan and glanced in the EB I passed everyday and they had a pyramid of binders setup... remember when EB cared about PC titles LOL?

I bought it, got to work, posted a msg in the SimHQ forums and it became a front page news item. I tried to dig it up but the Dec 98 archives are not available.

Not much of a story to tell, as I just purchased a copy this November. I did acquire the Commanders Binder Edition though. Have owned AF since its' release. Looking forward to installing the BMS mod.
For those looking for a copy, E-bay has several listings. Spotted a 3.0 also.

I got the original binder edition shortly after release, and I still have it.

Trivia time. Microprose had a public beta team. Gabe Turk ran that effort. Right around the time version 1.04 was out, I made it onto the team and was with it until MP ceased support. If you take a look at BSU-49 and BSU-50 bombs, you'll notice that they've got parachutes, as they should. Earlier versions of F4 were missing the drag chutes for these bombs. I'm the one who caught that bug. At that time, my thing was air-defense suppression, and my favorite tactic was to silence a SAM site's tracking radar with a HARM, then execute a low-level CCIP strike with high-drag ordinance to neutralize the launchers and support vehicles. I loved to watch the bombs fall onto target with the target-cam, and it drove me bananas that the bombs had no parachutes. I was a total grognard back then, and I whinged at Gabe like crazy on the board til the dev team made the fix

Later on I discovered the Combined Effect Munition and learned more about how to execute CCRP strikes, and CCRP-dropped CEMs became my weapon-of-choice for the neutralization phase. I was a Jane's F-15 junkie before F4, and I *loved* the ability to auto-loft bombs onto an HRM-mapped target from standoff distance. I never really got that down in F4, but I got fairly good at precision level bombing via CCRP.

Haven't flown F4 since a couple months after Allied Force came out. I had a lot of fun with the AF Balkans campaign, though.

Miao, Cat

Kudos Cat on that story! Are you saying you haven't tried BMS yet? I would have to insist implore recommend that you try it as soon as possible! It really has become the sim we always wanted (save for terrain textures) and looks great. It's been a slow journey learning it again, but it will be worth it IMO.

WOW! Falcon 4.0 still alive and kicking! I wouldn't even know where to start to get back into it. I put probably a good 800 or more hours between Falcon 4 and Allied Force. I packed it up about four years ago though when we had kids. Now kids are getting a little older and broke out Wings of prey and getting me back into flight simmingn again. But I love the detail and dynamic campaign of Falcon.

In any case I still have two copies of Falcon 4 binder editions in shrink wrap. Have been using the spiral bound version until I got Allied Force.

What is the best rendition of Falcon 4 these days if I wanted to get back into it?

I feel his need a replty.... :P

I was playing Jane's F15 (The Pig) and Jane's WW2 Fighters when Falcon 4.0 hit the streets. If we can all remember at that time the Montster Voodoo2 was the "silkiest" card on the market. And the Janes games had it in the bag.

My friend brought me over the new Falcon 4.0 the week it was released. My first impressions of the sim were amazement. I remember the first time I heard all that crazy pilot chatter when I was leaving my base in Falcon 4.0. No other sim had it like that if any. I mean... for me I thought ''''wow this shiot is REAL!''''

Years after that first sim experience I heard "a real life Libyan vs. F14" engagement and it brought the same feeling to me.here is a link to it and the way i felt many nights flying on MultiVipers server.... http://www.military-heat.com/64/gulf-sidra-incident-1989

Great Great Great I cant say enough.....

I just pulled my old p4 out of the basement and loaded up Falcon AF

Good times... happy birthday

I purchased it 2 weeks after release,


RJ

I had pre-ordered the game at Software Plus in St. Louis (The only store I had found back then to carry all the obscure flightsim add on for Microsoft without having to order online). I was about a year into my first real job out of the Navy and college (played Strike Eagle III whenever I wasn't deployed on the Kitty Hawk).

I was working on the Harpoon / SLAM-ER program at MDC (Boeing) at the time and told my boss I needed the day off to play Falcon 4.0. he thought I was nuts, but just rolled his eyes. I remember staying up most of that night playing through campaign missions. Met a few others at work that loved the game as well and we've been friends ever since. One went on to build a F16 pit.....well, he's been building ten years I should say, doubt he will ever really finish

I remember that Gamespot had a Falcon 4 demo for grabs, i think it was 2 files of 50 megs.

Now your grinning and thinking ohhh thats like 2 minutes download time.. well back then i was stuck with Dialup, 33k6 to be exact.

Also i had to pay for every minute my phone was on the internet (adsl in 2000 was a god`sent).

One sunday i decided i was gonna fork over the cash and d/l the demo, i was meeting my parents at a aunt, and we spent most of the day there while my pc was chugging away trying to d/l the demo.

I came home expecting the download to be done, and to my horror, the d/l had timed out about 5 megs into the d/l, So i had to fork over i dunno, something like 150 bucks for nothing.


At the end of the month i bought one of the magazines since it had the demo on a disk (i miss that, getting your demo`s from magazines).


Not long after that the game came out and i rushed to a nearby gameshop to buy it, was awesome.

Wow, ok.

I purchased Falcon 3.0 sometime in 90 or 91. Then followed with the Mig and F18 expansions. Then i purchased TacFalc. Anyone remember that? It was Awsome! Then i played it for years till i recieved (after much urgeing and hint droping) F4 for christmas in 99 when it was released. Heady days those. On the Delphi forums discussing how to use everything. All the problems, Atari abondoning the sim when Gilman left, Erazor, leaked code....and here we are. I love it all, the latest update is amazing and a big Thanks to the BMS team.

(i wonder if i can dig up my old sig from frugals...)

Dan

Hi all..i was wondering what is tacfalc?
I also bought F4 at around 1999 in Multimedia shop in Zagreb,Croatia, , and was so impressed with it so i got hooked to the sim and stayed hooked for almost 13 years now...I shelved it some 2 months ago, beacuse i have a little baby to take care of, but after reading all this posts i started to get that familiar itching again...itch to fly....

I also remember on some weekends i went out with my friends, stayed till 2 a.m. and after 3-4 beers, went home and started flying and trying to sneak past those pesky walls of mig

I don't recall TacFalc, but I do remember StratFalc -- Strategic Falcon. I think it was from Flying Muffin.

I don't remember where I bought Falcon 4. It may have been off of Amazon. I think I pre-ordered it and had it the day it was released. Unfortunately, it crashed on my old AMD machine to the point where it was un-playable until the first patch. Still have the original binder and maps.
I rememer anticipating that game for a LONG time. The guys at work would raz me about it occasionally.

I think I was flying with the F-22 Pro and TQS. Soon added Bob Church's digital upgrade and started using digital Foxy at that time.

We soon had kids and I found I had no time for study sims anymore. The last thing I did was to use the openfilemapping object to export data to a monochrome LCD that I was driving with an 8051. I dabled in it now and then, but nothing compared to life BC. When Allied Force came out, I picked it up again and was able to spend some pretty good time with it. Now that my oldest is 13 and youngest is 10, I've been able to spend a lot more time with it again in the form of BMS.

Absolutely right Goblin it was StratFalc, just let me reach over here to my copy of falcon3 gold (that i purchased again with all three sims in a release years later) Im sure i still have the floppy in there....Ah here it is, Wow look at all that dust on top!

Strategic Falcon by Flying Muffin Enterprises (copy right 94 by Bill White)

Man i almost want to load all this stuff up

I really miss the squadron management aspect that Sratfalc provided. I changed the names of all my pilots and assigned flights by experience level. 4 ship flights got newbies to bring up thier stats and when you lost a pilot is was very upsetting and personal.

*Sigh*

Dan

I bought my first computer, a 286, from a buddy and it had Falcon 3.0 on it. No sound and a B&W screen. I fell in love with Falcon on the spot. Bought all the F3 add-ons.

I followed the Falcon 4 development from day one until the release. Bought it the second it came out, still have my original huge Falcon 4 binder manual. I don't fly F4 these days, maybe I'll get back into it if I can figure out what version to use. (I did buy the updated version but even that must have a dozen patches out by now.) On the plus side, my rig should get me about 1000FPS with F4.

I hear ya man! That game got me in trouble while I was getting my undergrad -- everything turned out o.k., but there for a while...Can you say obsession? Those were good times. But F3 was far from perfect. Remember how the flight model would change when your speed dropped below some low threshold? (Can't remember the exact speed now -- 180 kts?) I would get so frustrated when I'd make the commitment for a guns kill and spend my energy nose high, just to have the flight model change and my firing solution totally wiped out. Good times. Good times. I can still hear that bass in the UI music...

Well i just upgraded to dual radeon 6970s' in crossfire mode and i get about 50 frames when tooling around, it drops near the flot by a bit. All this on an i5 running at 4ghz with 8gigs ram. It sure is a hog on resources, even today. I highly recommend 4.32, read the manuals and enjoy the ride. Sure is pretty.

Cass

I have not tried the current BMS, no. It's on my list of things to do. And yes, it would be back to flight school, I'm afraid. It's been years since I strapped on a virtual F-16.

Miao, Cat

my first encounter with the falcon series was also my first encounter with a simulator. its was falcon 3.0. i must have been 3 or 4 back then(or even 2 lol). still i got some memories on that.
my encounter with falcon 4.0 was a brief one. i was 8 or 9 back then, and as you can understand a simulator game which can be considered realistic even today was a bit too much for a kiddo, of course i never reached the point where i had to use the avionics because i could not even control the aircraft. so far thanks to games like the falcon 3.0, longbow, FS98 and CFS, i got used to using the arrow keys for control, but F4 did not have the arrow keys as default for conTROLLING the aircraft. back then i had no idea whatsoever about settings, control mappings and whatnot. i was frustrated and disappointed, i could not control the aircraft and i didnt know why. the only thing i could do is see my F16 fly in a straight line while i was pressing every button one by one on my keyboard in a desperate attempt to control my aircraft and go to the encyclopedia to see the aircraft and vehicles.
i cant remember how my dad got the copy of F4. shortly after acquiring the sim, he returned it somewhere as if it was rented or something.

and that's my experience with falcon 4.0

A search on google for F4.0 prices led to this post. I still have the falcon 4.0 binder version and the hint book and wanted to know if I should keep it or sell it. This inspired me to try loading the sim (actually AF version) on my new laptop. First time I have played the sim since 2001. I bought AF but never loaded it. Instant action put me over the target so I navigated the waypoints without paying close attention. Bombed the runway cleanly and quit the sim. Found out that I had navigated back to home base and bombed the nato runway.

I bought the binder version when it first came out and you needed the sim forums to hack thru the crashes to desktop. It was my upgrade from European Air War (EAW)simulator. I was Sgt_Jointstar in a EAW online squadron "The Mighty 8th". Then got promoted to Lt. Then shortened the name when the nickname wouldn't fit. I hated air to air in F4.0 but loved it in EAW. It just seemed that F4.0 was all pointing the nose and not energy management since the gun to wreck your systems with accurate shots out to 5,000 feet. I then focused on ground attack and online missions with fellow squadron pilots. Much fun after all the patches.

I ran into a Col. Bonanni during ground war games at an Air Force base in early December of that year. Thought I recognised him and asked if he was in any sims. The rank thru me off since the 4.0 hint guide was written by a Major. But it was him. We talked about how hard the great the sim was. I described just focusing on ground attack since it was so overwhelming to cover all missions. We talked about how poorly it was selling even though it was so detailed. I thought it had turned gaming into real work instead of fun to complete a mission. He then asked if I wanted to meet the developers. They were in one of the rooms on the AF base watching the war games play out on the screens. Nice guys. They were planning Falcon 5.0 and doing research. I didn't bother them with too many questions. We did have a laugh when an A-10 discovered a SAM sight in the war game and circled over it to identify it. Everyone figured it was dead since it would have been in the Falcon 4.0 sim. I tried to buy another copy of the game or hint book at the local store to have signed by Col. Bonanni or the developers but it was out of stock. Also, I wasn't into sims that much by that time and didn't feel like tracking the Colonel down again. Later that month, I read that the development team was let go. I hope it worked out ok for them in the end and they got to work with better companies.

Also, I read a book called "Vipers In The Storm" that same year about the experiences of a F-16 pilot in desert storm. F4.0 helped with the terminologies and giving me the "I was there" feeling. Very cool.

I still have my Binder Edition, I've contemplated selling it, but it's a nice piece of nostalgia.. especially in today's age of digital distribution.

I remember racing to the local game shop the morning it came out, and begging the clerk to sort through boxes to find me one. It wasn't cheap, around 70 or 80 bucks IIRC.

All I really remember were the insanely long load times (DCS A-10 has a done a good job of reminding me). Some of my favorite online multiplayer experiences were flying on persistant servers.

I've recently grabbed BMS, and am seriously thinking about getting back into it. It really holds up quite well, especially with the changes the BMS team has made.

Nice story Joint! If you haven't tried BMS yet, you should look into it. All you need is your original Falcon disc, or maybe just the Falcon 4 .exe.

Longish story... Got hooked on Falcon AT; thoroughly loved (and hated) Falcon 3.0, bought the MiG-29 Adversary add-on and the "Fighting Tiger" add-on; bought Falcon 4.0 as soon as it came out and got the big binder version (wife had a fit over how much it cost); messed with a few of the mods that eventually came out. Took my time getting around to buying Allied Force, but finally did. And now with Bench Mark Sims, Falcon is new all over again.

I never did fully learn the systems and never got to be any "good" at combat flying in any Falcon version. But I've always been in awe of the depth of simulation the Falcon series presented, which motivated me to keep coming back all these years. I currently have AF and BMS installed. 20 years after my first forays with the Falcon series, I still have two different installs active and in use.

All I have is some low powered laptops (i7 chip but no graphics). I am running AF to learn the systems again. BMS looks great but it will have to wait until I build a new desktop. I have the original F4.0 disk still so I will be good to go with BMS when the desktop is up to snuff.

All the posts about not learning all the systems makes me feel better about only learning Air to Ground missions. I also used to stay in the mission planning (prelaunch?) screen and talk on Roger Wilco as a ground controller watching the area map for my online squadronmates. Easier to tell them what was heading their way than the awacs. Lots of clean fun and time wasted that year.

My intro to Falcon was version 3. The head surveyor at work had it on a 386DX that was the fastest computer at my organisation and the only one with a math co-processor. We'd play at lunchtime. Years later he suicided, but Falcon brings back good memories of him.

I was blown away when I saw Falcon4 unexpectantly when it came out including the enormous ring binder manual. It's the only manual I've ever fondled and treated as extremely precious. But the sim ran very poorly on my then PC and was an utter bugfest. Unfortunately this and real life distractions meant I didn't look at it again until Allied Force/Open Falcon/Redviper, but I kept my original F4 manuals.

A online F4AF mission where I got a gun kill of a Mig-29 that was attempting to shoot another member of the flight is the most exciting and intense gaming experience I've ever had.

Over time I accumulated two other original F4 copies (one discovered deep in a secondhand/junk shop), all of which I covet more than Gollum coveted his ring. Good thing too because my original ring binder has rusty metal bits! I think that F4 is the greatest sim of all time and in the top 5 games of all time. I think the potential in BMS with the modern hardware support is absolutely astounding and I hope they get good versions of other planes like the F-18 or my favourite the F-111.

I'm extremely grateful to the fantastic people that have kept F4 alive particularly whoever leaked the source code and the original developers.

My new BMS Panel (planning to spend a lot of time on BMS!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-AFJJpTKkc

I bought my copy of F4 even though I had a lowly 486 and wasn't able to run it. It wasn't until 6 months later when I got a Duron o/c'd to 700mhz that I could finally fly.

LOL...I splurged and got the 486 DX...

I originally had Falcon on the Amiga when it first came out around 1989 and loved the 'realistic' graphics and sound. AS I remember it I had to buy the memory upgrade (half a meg?) for the Amiga just to get the thing to run.
Since then I've tried every incantation on Falcon and even though other programs come and go, I still love the blend of features from superb graphics to the incredible campaign that Falcon offers through the hard work of dedicated groups to keep it updated.

I got all the Falcons in a box in Storage, from i think Falcon AT through 4.0

I'm with Mike....cut my teeth on Falcon 3...Op Fighting Tiger, MiG-29 addon....F/A 18 addon....Art of the Kill....Falcon 4.
I remember D/L a demo of Falcon 4 back in around '97 using a Diamond Shotgun modem setup.
Then upon viewing the demo, I felt like a kid at Christmas.
Have tossed flight sims over the years, but I'll never part w/my Falcon 4 and its awesome 3-ringed binder...and the 400 some pages that define a real combat simulation work.

Hail Falcon 4

I'll add a much-belated story of how I came to own a copy of Falcon 4.0

It was my 16th birthday. I had been into flight sims since I was much younger - the first one I played was MicroProse's F117-A Stealth Fighter on my first ever PC which, if I remember correctly, had a Pentium 60mhz chip installed and ran Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 6?

Anyway, my Dad went shopping at a computer software store and asked the clerk which sim was one of the best and most difficult to play. I was obsessed at the time with Red Baron 3D but alas, I had no joystick and piloting Fokker Dr1's with a keyboard isn't the easiest thing on earth. So he picked up a Microsoft Sidewinder and the massive, three-ring binder version of Falcon 4.0 It was one of the most memorable birthdays I've ever had.

I remember heading upstairs to our upstairs loft (we lived out in the rural mountains of northeast Georgia) were our computer sat and quickly installed Falcon. I remember leafing through the binder and thinking how difficult of a sim this thing had to be. The first thing I did in the sim was head over to the Campaign and sat, stunned, and watched the Campaign engine just run. I kept hearing other pilots calling out targets and I remember how impressed I was to see my Dell XPS R400 Desktop computer simulate a full-scale war in Korea.

I can't say I played it much - sadly. Red Baron kept me firmly in its grips and Falcon was just too difficult for a 16 year old kid to really learn. Over the years the binder sat and computers came and went. You could say that I finally started playing Falcon 4.0 this year, at 30, when BMS released their latest edition of their Falcon 4.0 mods. It was, far and away, the easiest version to install and run and I am finally happily working my way through my binder and the BMS manuals learning the ins and outs of the F-16. Of course, I'm in a PhD program in History now - so I don't have the free time I had at 16. But what I do have is an appreciation for a remarkable sim and a remarkable community that has kept this amazing thing going for all these years.

Here's to Falcon 4.0 - the undisputed king of simulations.

Falcon 4 has cost me thousands of dollars
I had home computers since 1993,and any replacement computer before then only came when the machine broke down
From 98 onwards, computer upgrades happened min every two years, max four years- just out of need for more speed. I only recently scrapped the pentium 2 450mhz that I upgraded to in 98 to play Falcon 4.

I decided to get into flight sims in 2010 and bought AF in Game for only five pounds. I've since experienced BMS.

My mom bought the original Falcon as a present for my dad back in the late 80s. I was maybe 9-10 years old and played it more than him.

Years later I bought a used copy of Falcon 3.0 Gold with money from my first job. I remember naming the other people in my squadron after people I worked with.

I bought Falcon 4 probably 2 years after it released, for maybe $15-20 at a computer store in the mall. It was the binder version. It took 2 years to get a PC that could actually (barely) run the game. Never played much of it.

Tried again in 2005 with Allied Force. Bought it to play LAN missions with my brother. That didn't last long because it would always crash on one PC or the other.

So yeah, long history with the series, but never spent a lot of time with any of them.

This depresses me as it makes me realize how old I am.

Does anyone remember the birthday baby photo in the pie screen in the unpatched 4.0? I remember I thought I had a virus. LOL

Wow, so many "prehistoric boxes" in here.
Errr, mind you just send them over to me, I'm opening gold striping businesses soon.
... If you're not "sentimental" 'bout it anyway


... Now, I better hide until they realize that I'm the same

Long time ago in a galaxy..., when was it, hmm, '84?, I've got "Schneider CPC464" with tape and green monitor, "Quickshot II", of course, included.
First sim I've loaded into 64k of ram was, let's see huh, can't remember exactly, here is the possible list:

Digital Integration's - Fighter Pilot (F-15)
DI's Tomahawk (AH-64)
Top Gun (F-14)
ACE (Mirage III?)
Dambusters (Lancaster)

Aaaah, now those were the times. That CPC is still alive, "snort", now I've got sentimental too

Later, sometime around '90/'91, Got my 1st PC, AMD 386DX 40Mhz with builtin math Co-proc, 4MB of EDO ram, S3 VGA graph 1MB <- not sure about that, or was it later with the first Pentium 100 later in the '95/'96, which is still alive, with Win98 on it.
My father "spit" 1000 (Deutschmark) for that "beast"

Anyway, back then, the sims were just evolving: F-16 Combat Pilot, F-19, F-177A, 688 Attack Sub, Battle for Britain, AV-8b SVGA Harrier, Subwar 2050... the list was just getting bigger.

Someone remembers What was the name of an old F-16A arcade sim where you was "mercenary" dogfighting over jungle, earning cash for buyin' weapons? , Is someone old enough here to recall this game ?

Never played Falcon 3.0 back then, was thinking F-16 Combat Pilot was more better, well, today with evolved BMS, I would think twice.
Still have F16CP on Amiga emulator, hehe, it rocks .

Ten years after I've got into Jane's, oh well :), F-15, F-18, 688 Hunter Killer, the whole new world, form where I never flew out.
(still have this installed on "game" disk)

Again, ten years, aww drat, there goes another decade.
- 2005/'06. Downloaded Falcon AF, got infected, badly, bought Cougar (had TM Afterburner II till then), keep story short, never "landed" again.

See Ya'll up there sometime.

Cheers mates
White Fang

Oh, I remember well, since I was born in 1974.
That was Strike Commander, another ORIGIN developed story based sim masterpiece (like Wing Commander, Pacific Strike or Wings of Glory).
It was designed by Chris Roberts, surely a name we wont forget.
I still play these on dosbox if I have the time.

I started like you, on the c64, with ACE, Tomahawk, F-16 fighter Pilot, you name it.

Sorry for being off topic a bit, but I bought falcon4AF relatively late, a couple of years ago, so not much interesting I can tell about it, apart from the fact, that I feel too old to learn all the AG stuff completely, so I am only flying CAP and SEAD usually.

I have just found a complete boxed edition....woo hoo! Have been looking for a while so I can get into BMS but have been outbid on EBay for silly money so dipped out until now. However, we have a 'tat' corner at work where people bring in old books, DVDs and video games for others to use instead. Last night I had a look on the off chance and an immaculate boxed edition was just sitting there, well I just had to!

So 13 years late, here I come!

I have a boxed edition that I got for Christmas '98, in the cellar I have a box full of related "stuff", printed and bound SP4 manuals, kneepad checklists etc etc.
I flew with the FLCS and TQS until I built a pc with that new fangled AMD X64 processor and found that the FLCS/TQS didn't play nice together and I had to got to a USB Afterburner 2 joystick. About that time there was an anouncement that Thrustmaster were making a new "FLCS/TQS" called the HOTAS Cougar. RC Simulations had been advertising the new Cougar so I decided to pay RC Simulations a visit at Bristol Airport where I had been to their shop before when I was next passing Bristol and it was gone and I didn't have enough time to hunt them down. I managed to find the time a month or so later and tracked them down at their new shop and bought a shiny new Cougar which I am still using today.
Wayyyy back then I first joined Sim HQ but lost my login and for a long time I was "off air" also found this incredible site called Frugalsworld and joined in there, made a few friends online there and met up with a few at events etc.
At the 2003 Flight Sim show at the Hilton in Birmingham I got to meet Mark (Frugal) and a few others from the forums, the show started at 8am and I didn't get to bed until 06:30 Ahh those were the days
it is most memeroable for me as my mother past away a few days after I got back home from the show.
I flew with the Freebirds VFW and had a great time online with them, I still have a copy of the Freebirds Movie

This week I downloaded FF6 and it runs well on my PC with a Nvidia GT580 graphics card, so I'm having a look at FF now after years of not being able to get it to run on my PCs

for me it Started with c64 version of f15 strike eagle when i was 8, falcon arrived almost 15 years after as Christmas present from my sister, still got the box with all the paperwork and a cd (not sure if is still readable) with all the downloadable documentation and config files.