OK, now I've gone through and read all the messages in this topic.
As I wrote earlier, I started in 1988 -- very briefly. Horn posted part of campaign 2, but he didn't go far enough down the list to find me (ranked 527th with 8 whole points!).
I remember that first time on a Mac SE, taking off in a P-51 with 100% fuel, knowing nothing about flaps or air combat and getting shot down again and again and again. I think it was Biggles who kept shooting me down. It didn't matter, though -- I loved it. I loved it so much that I quit after that first time because I was in grad school and knew I'd easily get hooked on the game and blow all my money (it was $6/hour or higher back then).
It was several years later when I was able to get back into it. I got a position as an assistant on GEnie in the writer's roundtable. I administered a writers' workshop, and they gave me some free time. I used it all on Air Warrior, and I got totally hooked.
I remember my transition from dweeb to good pilot. It was through lots and lots of fights with WildThing, who I also saw here in Aces High about a month back. I remember in the early days fighting Ghost Rider, Bushwacker, B-Man, DeathWish, and Airmigan a lot, and 715 once in a while. Airmigan was a wizard in the P-38, and I remember fighting him a lot one on one, P-38 to P-38 while he taught me his technique of using rudder and flaps in the P-38 at the top of steep high yo-yo reversals in angles fights back in the pre-SVGA Air Warrior days.
I remember lots of participation in the GEnie discussion areas with (in no particular order) Blue Baron (whom I remember from when he first joined), Eyeballs, Cookie, Quarters, DeadDuck, Rapier, Pangloss, Airmigan, DoK, Vossman, Moggy, Gypsy Baron, Gray Eagle, Rocketman, Black Hawk, Bug, Chick, and Volstag (who was hilarious and who sent me an e-mail a couple months ago), among many others. I remember annoying personalities like Slyman (although his annoying nature sort of wrapped around to endearing in some ways).
At one point, starting in 1991, we had a squad called the "Werepigeons," which consisted of me, DoK, Airmigan, J-Wolff, V, and Commander Merkin (and I think Anvil, but I'm not sure about that). It didn't last long, as most of the members moved on to focusing away from the main area (such as in scenarios or just drifting away from the game), but it was devoted to energy and B&Z fighting, sort of as a statement against Air Warrior becoming "Spit Warrior".
I remember when DoK invented scenarios and what it was like to play in my first one (Indian Ocean in 1992). I remember becoming a trainer in the start of the Air Warrior Training Academy (which Airmigan managed for a time) in 1993. I remember the start of the Scenario Masters' Guild in 1997, a group devoted to putting out more scenarios for Air Warrior. Others in the founding of it included Rocketman, Black Hawk, Cookie, and Quarters, among others. I remember meeting GMan, Acid Mentality, Rapier, Fencer, Velcro Fly, Gray Eagle, and Blue Baron at an Air Warrior convention in Los Angeles in the 1990's, going with some of them to the Planes of Fame air museum in Chino (which is excellent), and remember meeting Moggy (Moggy, that was you, right?) at an Air Warrior booth set up at the Reno air races in 2000 or 2001. He gave me an Air Warrior hat that still sits atop my computer monitor today.
Ah, the memories. To see old Air Warriors coming out of the woodwork and congregating here in Aces High is excellent. I'm working on getting DeadDuck and Blue Baron over here. Blue Baron probably won't, but I have hopes for DeadDuck. Looks like Moggy might be on the verge of getting back into virtual skies if he can get his setup worked out. That would be great. And Airmigan . . . holy crap! I haven't talked to him in over a decade.
Airmigan, do you remember me at all? Are you going to get back into some on-line flying, especially scenarios? You should!
