Is Flight Unlimited the first true modern flight sim... and should I have run it on a 486 DX2?
Ойындар
Any question can be answered "yes" if you get to define your own parameters. Nevertheless, I would like to tell you about Flight Unlimited, why I think it does indeed deserve consideration for pioneering two vital tenets of the modern flight sim, and what it was like to play it on a 486 DX2/66, barely above the minimum spec. And what were we doing with a 486 that late in 1995 anyway?
Plus, while it may be an interesting diversion into the past to play Flight Unlimited on an emulation of suitably underpowered vintage hardware, there's also a case that when given more resources it's a better game than its immediate successor, the unique flight model and crisp software-rendered graphics eclipsing generic '90s GA sim techniques and blurry early 3D. At the very least, it was less of a pain to get running.
Navigational aids:
0:00 What is the modern flight sim?
1:12 Where everyone comments a different flight sim
1:32 The 286 era and upsetting Amiga or ST owners
3:00 Pushing boundaries
3:38 I spend too much time in Blender
4:06 The clock-doubled 486
4:54 It's how Wikipedia claims you say Meigs
5:49 Ultima Underworld takes to the skies
6:54 Careless CD (mis)management
7:40 Alpine Shepherd Boy
8:21 That 486 thing again
9:30 s'good though, innit?
10:36 The blackboard returns
11:55 No continents
13:02 A fluid situation
14:20 Inevitable compromises
15:05 Gliding over the complicated bits
15:40 The notional 486/1000
16:47 Well actually the foreground is polygons actually
17:18 I guess we have to play Flight Unlimited II. Sigh.
17:56 The great jelly wars of 2024
Photo of Seamus Blackley (and Charles!) by Seamus Blackley, CC-BY-SA 4.0. Photo unmodified except for the background behind it. The CC-BY-SA 4.0 larger work exemption applies to this video as a whole, but the section 6:07-6:12 may be adapted under CC-BY-SA 4.0 terms (both myself and Seamus Blackley as original author must be attributed and a compatible licence must be used).
Additional sound effects CC0 from Freesound.
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Music: Lucky Rubber Ducky by Quincas Moreira, from the KZread audio library.
Yes, I did indeed spend a lot of time making those stupid rendered bits work. I'm still far too proud of that "virtual world" one even if it doesn't line up exactly right.
Bonus fact: that is indeed my original 286 in its original configuration as a 286 sitting on the floor of a very chaotic bedroom. I'm not sure why it's on the floor as it was definitely on some sort of desk most of the time, but the mess surrounding it and possibly my need to take a photo suggests some kind of transitional state for bedroom layout, computer, or both.
Пікірлер: 18
I’m so glad I found your channel during my research of Midtown Madness. Your content is so entertaining and underrated. Thank you for not giving up like many people!
ah, fond memories over doing maneuvers at much too high a speed, overstressing the pitts and causing it to break up in midair… the scream of the instructor as that happens still haunts me to this day
Jelly bunny! This was a great discussion of a game I looked at longingly as a kid, but never thought to play once I had a more powerful machine. The look of this running in 486-o-vision brings back a lot of fond memories. Thanks for this!
That was lovely that was. And the virtual world was VERY smoothly done!
The evolution of flight sim games is amazing. I got the latest flight sim and its amazing to fly across the world. But it can't beat the classics. And we owend a 486 back when I was young. And at the time they were the best computers. How we miss the old days!
@TimberwolfK
10 ай бұрын
When I finally built my own, based around a DX4 chip (the DX2/66 was my dad's), it felt like I'd reached the pinnacle of computers. 100MHz! Surely you couldn't make anything faster!
@Lee01Mr
10 ай бұрын
@@TimberwolfK And then to remember the first Pentium computer came out. How jealous we were for the people who owned these beasts and could play Quake on it or Duke Nukem 3D without lag :)
Was always curious about this and we definitely had the hardware to run it at the time, but my Dad was a hardcore Microsoft Flight Simulator loyalist, and so was hesitant to jump on board with it! Will have to give it a go myself now I'm in control of my own PC gaming library.
Yeah that feels familiar - my family couldn't afford to keep up with new computers so I was using a Cyrix 486 66 up through 1999 until, thankfully, I managed to score a Pentium 166 while dumpster diving. For reference, at the time one of my friends had just built a new system around an AMD K7 500 MHz.
Fantastic review of this important sim. Thanks for your effort!
Seamus Blackley, what an absolute legend!
@TimberwolfK
10 ай бұрын
Yeah, there is a *ton* of stuff he's done since that I didn't mention, if I had we'd have been here hours...
I haven't played this game yet, but I ended up getting big box copies of all 3 of the FU games as I was curious about them, and had fond memories of FU2! I naturally got that one, but also the third one because you can combine it with the second game to have a larger map. I got the first one because I had a Classic Mac version as part of a games compilation, and wanted a copy for a PC, as well as also to see where it all began!
Terra Nova is a fantastic game, though, and very innovative and technically impressive for the time.
I could never run the shareware demo of this on my 486DX/66. Still have never played it.
Thanks, interesting history lesson! Alas, my family didn't have a computer until 1998, so I guess the first proper 3D flight simulator for me was Pilotwings 64. Well, not really a sim, but a good game anyway. But judging from your videos, I take it you were never a "Nintendo kid"?
@TimberwolfK
10 ай бұрын
One of my stepsisters had a NES for a bit so I have nostalgia for some of the late '80s titles on that machine but yeah, it was pretty much just PCs with the occasional sprinkling of Sega up until the late '90s.
It's 26 years. Sorry.