How did you discover online flight sims?

[Gman]

Was that a US Robotics 14.4 modem back then HT?  I remember coveting one of those badly in that time period, but couldn't afford the astronomical cost at the time.

[TequilaChaser]

Having always been a fighter and bomber type planes nut and  old "nose picker" the nickname given to AD's (aviation machinist mate's rating in the Navy ).... I would read up on everything I could... and with the Navy Aviation training in the mid 80's I was able to learn how to use computers along with schematic / parts viewers... cannot for the life of me remember what we called those, but it beat the Hell out of using those big arse naval repair manual binders ... NamTra this & that...
I heard about this flight sim game Air Warrior through some of the maintenance control chiefs... Well I would have to wait a couple of years, I just couldn't afford the cost...
I settled on several(several many) offline and lan to lan flight sim type games... a lot were from micropose - like Toronado featuring modem to modem 2 way action... Then tryed AW for first time in '92/'93, the young wife said Hell no... Yo're not paying that much just to fly for 1 hour, which came close to $15.00  at that time, with the hourly cost, isp cost and long distance phone charges... I did sneak in a few months of some $500+ charges... damn near got divorced over it... Think it was Delphi/Genie and then earthlink and compuserve came along... I tryed again in '94... Still wife was non too happy... Then kesmai cut a deal with AOL and I was so happy, who cared you still had to pay $2 or $2.99 per hour ( yes, I know at one time before I left aol for gamestorm, that the cost of aw went from hrly to FREE to I think monthly ).... I've had monthly total charges range from $500+ upwards pushing $1,200.... Talk about being hooked like an addict, rofl....

It has been one long exciting rollercoaster up and down and up ride, that I would not change from all the wonderful friends, some as close as family these days and never forgetting about the squaddies we have lost or have gotten their last checkride to the heavens...

That's how I've gotten here from there... Oh and learning how to take 2 300 baud modems and tie/wire them together to get better than 600 baud internet speed.... LOL, going from 900 to 1200 baud , thought I was really kicking some arse...

TC

[waystin2]

Ahhhh May 2007.  The month that will forever live in infamy in the Mrs. mind.  I saw a commercial for AH on the Military/History channel and the rest is history.

[TequilaChaser]

Bought a modem in 1991, in the box was an add from Genie, Found aw 1.04 for dos in the text menus of Genie.

HiTech

Didn't bebop and shebop use to post a lot on the genie bbs


My modem was 300 baud in '91.... iirc

[hitech]

I was really styling at the time , had a super fast 2400 baud modem.

HiTech

[TequilaChaser]

 ;Lol... Round here we would've considered that crapping in high cotton  .  

[wpeters]

I was really styling at the time , had a super fast 2400 baud modem.

HiTech

How did you get inspired to write AH. 


Aces High was the first sim I ever flew on.  I would have started back into 2005 offline which would have made me 12. Didnt start online until 2013 and the rest will go down in History

[mechanic]

found aceshigh 1 on a site called gamer's hell while searching for free games and like a crack fiend I started paying for it very soon after.

[DubiousKB]

I relatively new compared to the old... errr experienced players on here.   I was actually looking to get a fix of the old Secret Weapons Of The Luftwaffe (SWOTL), i DID find an old port of the game but realized that it was much better in it's hay day and didn't hold up anymore. Thus the search was on again, after a couple google queries, Aces High came up and that was it, I was hooked.

[katanaso]

I found AW4W when AoL put it online ... was it 94 or 95?  I don't recall exactly.  I just remember my bills being $300+ per month, and somehow justifying it because I wasn't spending that at a bar.  

[TequilaChaser]

I found AW4W when AoL put it online ... was it 94 or 95?  I don't recall exactly.  I just remember my bills being $300+ per month, and somehow justifying it because I wasn't spending that at a bar.  

Heya Mir, AW4W came to aol in beta in '95.... and I think I've known you and of you every since ( the beta part IIRC was more aol beta,  than AW beta I think )

Cheers

TC

[Oldman731]

Sometime in the middle of 1995 AOL advertised that it would be running Air Warrior as one of AOL's games.  I can still recall Gray Eagle's description of his P-51 fighting a Spitfire ("He was already dead, but he didn't know it yet.")  I thought to myself, WTF is a 51 fighting a Spitfire for?  But it was free, if you had an AOL subscription, it sounded far more interesting than playing against the computer AI, but it required Win95.  I was running 3.10, if I recall (possibly 3.12?).  If memory serves, in October of 1995 AW came out with a Win 3.10 version.  I flew two missions in the training arena, and the rest of the time - until AW went TU on 12/7/2001 - in FR.

One of the problems with AOL in that era was that the company didn't have enough modems to service the sudden onslaught of customers.  I remember sitting next to the computer, listening to the modem dial the local AOL number, only to get a busy signal.  Hang up, dial again.  Quite often this process went on for as much as half an hour before you'd get a connection that would hold.  There was one map, and one map only.  In the years of FR Fightertown we may have had a total of 20 players at any one time.  Yet to this day those seem to me to be among the best virtual times I've ever had.  It also explains why I have such low tolerance for whines about numbers, maps and graphics.

- oldman

[asterix]

I googled for "best ww2 combat flight simulator for pc free". After digging through loads of garbage, computer viruses and toolbars I found this gem. Took a short brake a while ago and wanted to come back as soon as I left.

[Zoney]

I bought my first computer, plugged everything in, then immediately did a search for "Flying Games", 1996 I believe.  Clicked on the Air Warrior website and started the down load.  Counter said I had 8 hours to go before download complete.  Went to bed, up the next morning, run to the computer and go into the game.  I was thrilled !  It was everything I had ever dreamed of in a game.  I averaged about 4 hours of sleep the first month.  Phone bills of $300 to $500 bucks a month.  Didn't care, I was hooked.  I switched to Warbirds when they shut AW down, and then came here when I was no longer happy playing there.  I've been very happy here.

[horble]

Started flying Dawn of Aces on my dad's Warbirds account.