History of Aces High?

[Vudak]

I've only flown a few tours and was wondering if there is a site that has the history of Aces High?  I gather it was started in 1999 and HiTech worked on Warbirds before it, but some questions I'm really curious as to are:

* Initial price
* How many people flew in the early days?
* When did the amount of people online increase?
* What were the original planes you could fly?
* When and why were other ones added?  Were they added in groups or one at a time?
* Basically, what did the game "look" like back in the early days.  I'm not talking graphics so much as what was available, ie, was there always a range channel, were drop tanks always available, etc.

Brooke Anderson wrote a pretty interesting historical account of Air Warrior.  I was just wondering if there was something similar out there for Aces High.  If not, are there any old-timers who feel like taking a stroll down memory lane?

Thanks,

[TequilaChaser]

I remember when I first flew, you took off from the hangar and had to taxi to the runway.was no auto take off I believe.and once you cleared the field it dropped off much like the DA arena does today....... ( this was either 98 or 99 I think ) my memory escapes me

planes were very limited.only a handful

P51-D   think  1  109 model  a spit  I don't recall much more though

oh yeah was not alot of people on, those that were on / in game just about knew everyone from past Online flight Sims........

and hitech and Pyro  flew alot as welll...

which nowadays I guess they don't have as much time to fly in the Arenas

[Edbert]

Originally posted by Vudak

* Initial price

$29.99/month IIRC. This was seen as a good deal after the per hour charges of other brands.

Originally posted by Vudak

* How many people flew in the early days?

I flew in the first open beta tours, there were sometimes 50+ in the arena but often it was around 30.

Originally posted by Vudak

* When did the amount of people online increase?

Steadilly since inception. There was of course an explosion of new accounts when AW finally went room temperature. Until then the AH arena was more than 50% ex-Warbirders. Then there was another explosion of subscribers when the commercials started running.

Originally posted by Vudak

* What were the original planes you could fly?

I recall the Spit9, the 51D, the F4U-1A, and the 109G10 being there since inception. The FW190A and the N1K came soon after as did the B17 and the F4U-1C .

Originally posted by Vudak

* When and why were other ones added?  Were they added in groups or one at a time?

They usually came out in 2s or 3s, usually spaced out a bit, but sometimes there were flurries of new rides too.

Originally posted by Vudak

* Basically, what did the game "look" like back in the early days.  I'm not talking graphics so much as what was available, ie, was there always a range channel, were drop tanks always available, etc.
 

The early days had purely fictional terrains that sought to neutralize geography as an element of 'the war'. There were always 4 default text channles, vox was non existent when AH went public. We all used Roger Wilco back then anyhow.

[Westy]

Oh the old days. Why they were just dandy.....


We all saluted each other very chivalrously after performing valiant mano-e-mano aircombat together.   No one vulched... no one HO'd... everyone flew early war aircraft as they were released by HTC to make the arena more diverse and fun.... we took turns fighting each other in 1-on-1's or at most 2-on-1's. BUT! only if we had permission.  
 We all got white flight scarves from HTC when we opened our accounts. Truly! Remember, this is back in the day when we spent an astronomical thirty bills a month to play online!

And I ruled the skies for years!

[Westy]

Oh yeah. And I shot down each of the HTC crew at least once back then.  Try THAT these days

[JB73]

Originally posted by TequilaChaser
and hitech and Pyro  flew alot as welll...

which nowadays I guess they don't have as much time to fly in the Arenas

they use shades accounts to fly now for fun...

imagine what it would be like to try and fly with their real handle?

they get bombed with questions non-stop when there are there now.

[Soulyss]

As I recall the original planeset when I joined (mid Beta tour 1) was P51D, 109G10, SpitIX, N1k, La5, and B17.

Beta was open to the public (free) the beta terrain was divided into three geographic areas, with mountains between them.  I few bases were on hills but other than the central ountain ranges the terrain was flat.  Low numbers meant the knights were non-exsistant as a country.  I remember when my squad went knight later in the beta, we had a horde going if we had 10 people on.  Was great fun though because bish/rook ignored the knights so we could just kinda cause mischief and generallu annoy the other countries, was good fun.  People in general were more well behaved towards each other, smaller group of players meant there was more accountability for your actions I think.  As more and more "features" were added the numbers steadily increase, I vaguely remember the first time I saw the MA had 100 people in it.  You would see the HTC crew in the arenas frequently, when they typed in blue/white text it was Q & A time, but otherwise it was expected that you would leave them alone and let them fly.  One of my fondest memories of the beta was the time I swooped in and stole a kill on HT from my 'ol buddy Mathman, who still hasn't let me forget it.  

[Octavius]

I *loved* the beta map and the one right after it (A1 10k map with canyons).  sfterr?  I wish we could see that one back in the rotation  Tour 3 I joined.  Anyone remember those 'massive' furballs between, what was it, A13 and A15 just northwest of A1?  Man that map rocked.  I want it bcak!

[moot]

someone link the Loose Rivets archive..

and you can see the plane introduction order with the .plane command.

[DoKGonZo]

Originally posted by JB73
they use shades accounts to fly now for fun...

imagine what it would be like to try and fly with their real handle?

they get bombed with questions non-stop when there are there now.

I'm not surprised ... that's one of the first lessons I learned when I started doing scenarios. If I wanted to be able to fly and enjoy it I had to use a more obscure handle to do it with.

    -DoK

[Roscoroo]

Originally posted by moot
someone link the Loose Rivets archive..

and you can see the plane introduction order with the .plane command.

http://www.jtsystems.demon.co.uk/duma/images/cartoons/looserivets/

[Waffle]

Actauly a good look at the history is to go to the "news/announcement" forums and select 'from the beginning' for date range...theres about 15 or more pages full of post from the beginning of aces high.


It's a good read

[RTSigma]

Those cartoons are hilarious!

I love the carrier one!

[Purzel]

I remember too the two first maps. Very fun...

IIRC when I joined, and for quite some time onwards EVERY single kill was send through the Textbuffer. Not only for you but for everyone in the Arena.

70 ppl online was very well filled and one just couldnt resist to log on

[Blue Mako]

In the beginning AH was like cheers.  Everybody knew your name.



Forgot who said that but I think it was DMF.

I started AH in 2000 and stayed till earlier this year.  Initially 15 ppl online during Oceana peak time (ie. off-peak in US) was good, 70 or so during US peak.  Started at US$30/month (I miss the "$1 per day is great value" threads ).  Plane numbers and graphic detail increased gradually, at one point the Spit 9 got a new paint job and everyone went ga-ga (except for us pony drivers who wanted a new paint scheme too!).  Then came carriers, LVTs, field guns etc, giving us total war.

Somewhere along the line though people forgot to each other and they had to monitor channel 1.  Oh well, it was a fun ride...

BTW Hiya Westy.