Hello SimHQers. I'd appreciate if anyone could list any low system spec flight sims/flight combat games that have gone freeware and/or are independent freeware games. I know I've seen some odd ball indie stuff in the past but I can't remember what they were.

I'm trying to find something that will run on an old Pentium4 1gig ram pc with onboard chipset that wasn't made for gaming so that my nephew has a computer he can get onto and play a flight simulator. He's enjoyed playing ROF on my pc but he needs something he can access on another computer.

Thanks for any help.

You could try FS:WW1 - see install options 2 or 3:

http://www.fsww1.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqncy15Dvr4

...or there's the base WW2 game ('Fighter Squadron - Screamin' Demons Over Europe') complete with mods available here:

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/download/30874/fighter-squadron-screamin-demons-over-europe-dvd-iso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfruLAQg8B8

While not free-ware have you looked at the legacy stuff on GOG?

They have some of the classics from the Microprose stable, like B17, F117, and others like Hind/Apache Longbow or Red Baron. They seem reasonable prices to me too, though I didn't re-buy any of these as I already had them, or had more modern equivalents and for some reason had skipped them first go around... I tend to set my limited gaming budget to expanding the range of titles and genres I have available.

http://www.gog.com/games/sim##sort=title

Thanks for the responses. I do have Fighter Squadron Screamin' Demons and was tempted to see if it worked. I'd be interested in those WW1 mods though as he liked playing ROF.

I got Fighters Anthology installed and it works fine. Showed him the cool info/video section of the other CD as well.

Of all things I actually installed SimCopter onto this computer. Man I loved that game. Looks so dated but I had tons of fun with that.

So I have as yet to try any game that actually uses hardware acceleration. As mentioned above the pc has only onboard chip set so not sure how that will play out.

While not trying to blow my own horn here, but if your nephew likes WW1 you might have a look at Canvas Knights WW1 game, its easy to play, stand alone game and current as its still being worked on and things are being made for it, there are add-on's of planes, ground vehicles, skins, off line missions and it has a online MP, here is the minimum requirements;

Minimum Requirements to run Canvas Knights game.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, Intel Core 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 2000 or better
RAM: 1GB or better
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro or better
VRAM: 128MB of Graphics Memory or better
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c or DX10 Compatible
OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista or Windows 7
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10

There is a thread here at SimHQ on it;
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3948513/Canvas_Knights_WW1_Game#Post3948513

And here is the forum where it all happens;
http://allaircraftsimulations.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=112

And its all free ;-)
Deutschmark

There is YSFlight if you are looking for really low spec...

Thanks folks. v.Deutschmark, that looks really good but I fall short on the video card. I don't think this thing's mother board will have a PCI-E slot. I'd have to check.

I'm tempted to find an off the shelf el cheapo pc for this stuff. My last and current pc is an ibuypower and I'll never go back to what I used to do buying premade systems from dell. This puppy has lasted me five years with only one upgrade and still going strong. Might be able to find a basic system.

A little off topic but does anyone know of anyone else like ibuypower that makes custom pcs?

Hi Coot,

I run CK game on two PCs a high and low end, my high end is just about what you have in your sig other then my GTX is a 760 and I get on the high end PC 90 to 120 FPS at full game setting and the vid card don't even wake up ;-) on my low end PC its XP 2 gigs RAM 1 core AMD 3.5 and a MSI GeForce NX7600 GS with 512 VRAM and I get 35 to 45 FPS on that one.
The thing is this CK game engine is not like most game engines, this was built to run real good on low end PCs and run smooth at a very low FPS, its been tested and found that you can go all the way down to 7 / 8 FPS and still run smooth it don't become a slid show till you get down to 5 / 6 or lower FPS.

Deutschmark

I'm going to have to at least try that out then. Sounds good.

YSFlight is pretty low spec. Too bad all planes in it fly almost exactly the same.

Venus Patrol is pretty cool. Original theme and decent physics, and it has been designed to be flown with the mouse:
http://venuspatrol.nfshost.com/

And I've just remembered another one... Sky Rogue --> http://nihilocrat.itch.io/sky-rogue
I really like the retro feel, but it's a bit more arcade.

Maybe .... TAW