subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for C64, 4-hour cruise
(Flight starts at 2:30)
This is four hours of calm cruising in subLOGIC's Flight Simulator II for Commodore 64. It was among the first serious flight simulators (i.e. not arcade stuff) available to mortals, back then when it got released in 1984. Compared to modern games, and even the games from back then, it doesn't look THAT entertaining with its crude graphics, slow frame rate (the video is not edited in any way, the game really updates the view at about 1 frame per second on average) and an obviously complex cockpit with tons of keyboard controls and combinations.
But it did spark interest in serious flying for untold numbers of home gamers. Many of those, myself included, enjoyed simple but tranquil views, cruising for hours around USA, perhaps changing the course or doing some minor adjustments every ten minutes or so, nearly hypnotized by the synth sawtooth propeller sound. Anyway, completely contrary to the regular computer gaming, "action" is something one avoids in civilian flight, both in simulations and in real life. Everything should be planned long time in advance, and executed calmly when the right moment comes. Among all the arcade boom-crash-crunch games from the 80's, FS2 is therefore kind of an anti-game, rewarding patience and attention to detail - and perhaps that was one of the reasons for its success. It was nothing unusual for a session to last several hours, with long stretches of not doing anything, just keeping an eye on the instruments and checking the maps for the suitable airports and approaches. With the slow frame rate and even slower input response time, landing was extremely difficult unless carefully planned dozens of miles ahead; and that is actually what good flying should be like. And as funny as it sounds, it was immersive.
This simulator contains several patches with concentrated detail, such as the one where the simulation starts from - central Chicago. One can see the John Hancock Center and the Sears, pardon me, Willis Tower, along with several other smaller objects. FS2 automatically loads the correct area from the diskette drive when necessary, which explains occasional pauses for several seconds. One can, of course, fly beyond these patches but there is very little to see there, if at all - just an occasional airport and some main roads which are actually just lines. It is possible to set the aeroplane location manually and visit any area instantaneously as well as set the time of day and weather. Night flight seems to just change the colors, but is a nice touch.
The Flight Simulator series was taken over by Microsoft later and, year after year, progressed to unbelievably detailed games in the 21st century. But the FS2 remains the glorious grandfather - not the first Flight Simulator (the first generation FS was for Apple II and TRS-80), but the first one accessible to nearly every household, yet detailed enough to let its lucky owners learn about the joys and hypnotic beauty of flying.
Played on VICE emulator.
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Other Statistics
Flight Simulator II Statistics For Oton Ribic
At present, Oton Ribic has 14,706 views spread across 2 videos for Flight Simulator II, with the game making up 4 hours of published video on his channel. This is 10.77% of the total watchable video for Flight Simulator II on Oton Ribic's YouTube channel.