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#3495693 - 01/16/12 03:00 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Cold_Flying]  
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 93
cass Offline
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cass  Offline
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Posts: 93
Originally Posted By: Cold_Flying
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.


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

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#3496001 - 01/16/12 06:31 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
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Cat Offline
Egyptian Mau
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Egyptian Mau
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Somewhere....over the Rainbow
Originally Posted By: Force10
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.


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


Miao, Cat
#3506223 - 01/29/12 10:54 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
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FlightJunkie Offline
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 53
Bottom of the sea
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

#3506869 - 01/30/12 04:55 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
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Lt_Joint Offline
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 7
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.


Just getting back into sims
#3512660 - 02/06/12 04:08 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 115
El-Producto Offline
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El-Producto  Offline
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Posts: 115
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.

#3514049 - 02/08/12 07:10 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: El-Producto]  
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 4,183
Force10 Offline
I'm just a
Force10  Offline
I'm just a
Senior Member

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Posts: 4,183
CA
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.


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#3514861 - 02/09/12 12:13 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 2,290
WWSandMan Offline
WW: Online Since 1992
WWSandMan  Offline
WW: Online Since 1992
Member

Joined: May 2002
Posts: 2,290
Mankato, Minnesota, U.S.A.
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.

#3515427 - 02/10/12 03:46 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 7
Lt_Joint Offline
Junior Member
Lt_Joint  Offline
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 7
Originally Posted By: Force10
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.


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.

Last edited by Lt_Joint; 02/10/12 03:52 AM.

Just getting back into sims
#3515530 - 02/10/12 09:24 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 55
Thommo Offline
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Thommo  Offline
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 55
Australia
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

Last edited by Thommo; 02/10/12 10:34 AM.
#3516024 - 02/10/12 10:30 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 449
DayGlow Offline
Member
DayGlow  Offline
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 449
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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.


"It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong...I'm not a big man." Chevy Chase, Fletch Lives
#3516415 - 02/11/12 02:28 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 597
Boomer Offline
(v) Viper Driver
Boomer  Offline
(v) Viper Driver
Member

Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 597
LOL...I splurged and got the 486 DX... wink


"Learning to fly the Falcon is just your ticket to the dance" - Pete 'Boomer' Bonanni.
#3518331 - 02/14/12 01:11 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 2,148
Georgio Offline
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Georgio  Offline
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 2,148
Hockley, UK
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.

#3519973 - 02/16/12 06:45 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 17,632
SkateZilla Offline
Skate Zilla Graphics
SkateZilla  Offline
Skate Zilla Graphics
Veteran

Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 17,632
Virginia Beach, VA
I got all the Falcons in a box in Storage, from i think Falcon AT through 4.0


HAF922, Corsair RM850, ASRock Fata1ity 990FX Pro,
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#3526220 - 02/26/12 01:46 AM I started w/Falcon 3 [Re: mikewmac]  
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 177
CuMelter Offline
W-W Super 220 Swift
CuMelter  Offline
W-W Super 220 Swift
Member

Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 177
Twin States, USA
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

#3575573 - 05/19/12 05:11 PM Re: I started w/Falcon 3 [Re: Force10]  
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 823
CaptSopwith Offline
Barmy WingNut
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Barmy WingNut
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United States
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.

#3575826 - 05/20/12 01:05 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 26
frog Offline
Junior Member
frog  Offline
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 26
Sydney Australia
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.

#3576019 - 05/20/12 12:58 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 190
Rusty_M Offline
Member
Rusty_M  Offline
Member

Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 190
Edinburgh UK
I decided to get into flight sims in 2010 and bought AF in Game for only five pounds. I've since experienced BMS.


The world is going mad. Me? I'm doing fine!

Asus Sabertooth X58, i7 950 @4GHz, 6GB corsair Dominator 1600 MHz, EVGA GTX 570, Samsung 1Tb, 60 Gb OCZ Vertex 2E SSD
#3577306 - 05/22/12 01:43 PM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,231
HogDriver Offline
Retired Flight Simmer
HogDriver  Offline
Retired Flight Simmer
Member

Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,231
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.


I refuse to buy a flight sim that I have no interest in playing, on the off chance that MAYBE someday they'll make the one I really want to play.

#3598020 - 06/27/12 09:13 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: Force10]  
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 174
white_fang Offline
Member
white_fang  Offline
Member

Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 174
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
biggrin

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

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 smile

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" smile

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 biggrin ?

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 smile.

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

#3598025 - 06/27/12 09:37 AM Re: Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase [Re: white_fang]  
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 796
Staniol Offline
Member
Staniol  Offline
Member

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 796
Hungary
Originally Posted By: white_fang

...
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 biggrin ?
...


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. smile
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. smile


Freedom of speech is our birth right, but the privilege of being heard needs to be gained.
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