This recently showed up on a MicroProse alumni page. This is actually a few years before I started (current estimates around '86-'87) and was actually in another building just a few doors down from the building my article talks about. They actually expanded back into that space for a while when MPS had a joined venture with Disney going called OverTime Sports.



Elf

Ahh,the good old days

I used to drive by there all of the time when I went to the Computer Shows at the Timonium Fairgrounds.

heh, Sid Meier working on Pirates!

The first Microprose game I ever bought was World Circuit.

Given the time frame, I believe what you're seeing at 7:20 is the birth of Microprose's "Stealth Fighter" (PSF/F-19/F-117).

Project Stealth Fighter 1987
Game Design: Jim Synoski and Arnold Hendrick

When you think F-19 the names Sid Meier and Andy Hollis might come to mind, but it was the team of Jim and Arnold who developed the original game (for the C64, I see a couple in his office).

It's amazing to me that the nerdy dude at 7:20 would create a game that would affect me (a mostly non-gamer) for 20 years, with another 20 surly to follow. Thanks, Jim.

And thank you Scott for posting this. I watched the video while referencing the Project Stealth Fighter credits, very interesting.

So many good memories! Really cool to see the team at work (and crazy office quarters I might add lol)

Thanks for posting

Cool video.


Wheels

I think Gunship might've been my first MPS game. I know it came before F-19 because F-19 looked like DX11 compared to Gunship.



The Jedi Master

I loved how Gunship had a midi version of "Ride of the Valkyries" during the opening splash screen.

Great video, those were the great games that turned many of us into 'simmers'.

IMO, what's lost in today's games is all the "pixel art". The graphics artists created all their own artwork (no photographs), drawing shadows and effects manually on a pixel level. Works of art that can sometimes trick the eye into seeing detail that's not really there (sometimes requiring a little imagination). Normally associated with 2D/isometric games, you see it in the old flight sim title screens, cut-scenes and 2D cockpit views. The artwork, along with MIDI music, helped give these sims personality IMO, something you can't do as well with real photographs and video (not saying I don't enjoy the opening footage and music in Jane's USAF/F-15/F/A-18). I just prefer the style and uniqueness of pixel art and rendered artwork with MIDI music.

I still get a kick from the animated cut-scenes in TFX, as well as the Russian newspaper clippings in F-19/F-117.

Ever do a walk-through of the Carrier in JetFighter III? Incredible, reading personal e-mails on your stateroom desktop, or visiting the ship's library and reading the newspaper lying on a table! The ships library reference (a viewing machine sitting on another table) is one of the best I've seen, comparable to Fighter's Anthology Disc 2.

++++++++++

Now to actual old-school in-flight game-play...

MicroProse's F-117A, I play this and F-19 daily (for various reasons). To hit a tank "NEXXON" (lol) in a tank farm with an AGM-65D Maverick...

1. ~20km from target, HUD mode to Ground [F2].
2. Target appears zoomed-in on right MFD. If not, point camera forward [Shift /] then cycle targets if necessary [B]).
3. Select FLIR [F6] for better visibility unless you want to stay on regular camera.
4. Select Maverick [Space].
5. When locked on, open bay doors [8].
6. Fire [Enter](JS trigger).

When the Maverick is launched, the MFD switches to missile's nose camera to watch the missile's view all the way to target. As soon as the missile hits, the MFD reverts to targeting view so you can watch the target explode.

AWESOME game-play mechanics, to watch all the action without ever leaving the cockpit! Heck, just to land you have to be nose down in the MFDs. Left MFD on Tactical View for look-down approach line-up, right MFD padlocked to airbase/carrier for aspect perspective (?). Having a FLIR option is really helpful with this view, especially on a really dark night (and using a CRT monitor).

They should have included the GBU-15 (Manual speculates it's probably too big), another nose mounted camera to watch on the free-fall.
++++++++++

Point being, the old flight sims were meant to be simple quick fun and with lots of personality. But not HAWX stupid.

I remember playing the F-19 demo and I own the original F-14 Fleet Defender and expansion. The simple clarity of both the mission and aircraft operation were really attractive to me. Yes, the manual to F-14 does go pretty in depth on getting the job done. But it's not something that is going to take me weeks to fully grasp. And the artwork in game, the cockpit representation itself seems to lend itself to a focus on what matters.

Anyway, I find those titles pretty enjoyable. Yes I've done the some much deeper civilian aircraft sims with the more detailed systems simulations and also enjoyed them. But I found my sketch play schedule often meant a long return to the documentation to refresh on just getting ready to taxi. Thus my plays became even less frequent on that aircraft, and I'd get in something lighter.

Also interesting seeing this thread here. Just got done reinstalling F-14 Fleet Defender and the expansion package. My last play through the campaigns was interrupted by a HDD failure, so I'm considering giving it another shot.

I was doing some research on the GBU-15 and came across this...



That does look cool!

++++++++++

I have a theory and plan to prove it (no matter how long it takes)...

The old DOS classics were usually 320x200 resolution. When they doubled to 640x480 (or 640x400 in some cases...my favorite VGA/SVGA rez for the wide-screen aspect), the pits started looking much more realistic and true-to-life, even including matching virtual pits (no more fudging on 2D pits if you wanted to match the 3D counterpart). But I don't think the higher-rez sims always looked better, there just wasn't enough screen resolution yet to be so realistic. 4X the pixels but it still wasn't enough IMO for what they were cramming into them.

Now what if you upgrade a 320x200 to 640x480/400 and keep the design unrealistically simple?

For a specific example (sorry, not enough time to post pics)...

Take the F-19 or F-117 pit and double resolution (quadrupling the number of pixels), but keeping the overall layout similar. First, you're able to have better proportions. No need to have a HUD that takes half the screen (extra-wide for displaying AWACS comms), you can size it in half while keeping HUD font style the same (text will appear half size). Not much you can do to smooth a minimum bit-mapped font (normally on a 5x1 to 5x5 grid, trying drawing the smallest alpha-numeric characters on graph paper), but still looks better being smaller. As a side-note, even minimal blocky characters can have different styles (I like F-117 and TFX, not so much Falcon 4 1.08 at 640x480). So keep the pit and displays as simple as the original, just at a higher rez.

And that's not all... Color makes a HUGE difference even at the same rez (compare F-19 [16 color] to F-117 [256 color], BIG difference)! And then to 8-bit palatalized (EF2000/TAW, 256 indexed selection of true color...or fake it like I'm doing). I'll leave 3D acceleration w/GPU tricks out for now.

I still feel EF2000 is the pentacle of DOS flight sim graphics (even the non-3Dfx version), even if the MFD screens remained at 320x200 and with a 3D pit so low-rez looking. But I guess you have to have a virtual pit with a bubble canopy fighter, not so with the F-117A (focusing instead on 2D cockpit art).

Oh, and these old sims could use a few more triangles. Not a LOT more, just enough to sharpen the look.

++++++++++

Doing some USENET research over the holiday and I think I found someone even wordier than I am! Name is Kurt Plummer and I don't understand most of what he types. But it is a lot!...

This thread needs this link!

The List of Flight Simulators (1983-2012)...
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Denei/1720/sim-list-e.html

Cool, comparison pics between F-19 and F-117...
http://www.tok2.com/home/avionics/f117/index.html

LMAO!

MPS had a joined venture?

Uh, you mean a joint venture?