Anyone remember Microprose?

[One 48]

They announced a come back with a B-17 sim a while back but all went quite, but it looks like its back on again, a B-17 sim, two of them actually, one with VR and multiplayer and one without, perhaps a more strategic serious crew management bombing sim and a fun multiplay VR one?

Not sure if anyone remembers the old Microprose DOS sims, but they were good, great fun and got increasingly more realistic before the company folded, its good to see them back and I for one am happy to see whatever they produce B-17 wise for todays simmer, VR too, thats got to please many
Both are on Steam wishlist now, put my name down for both of them, nothing solid yet, but early screenshots look good.

https://www.microprose.com/

 

[Marlin]

I remember Microprose B-17 and the hype about it before it came out. 

I bought it and played it a few time but got bored with it since it was too "real" i.e you couldn't compress the time which meant that a mission could take around 12 hours.

 

/Bosse

[NoSG0]

Ooof no time compression is a mistake IMHO.  Who has time to fly 12 hours if you have a family or any type of responsibilities outside of the game?  If you had a family, you would need the most understand partner ever.

 

[Stephen]

I fondly remember Microprose Gunship , F-15 Strike Eagle and Stealth fighter.

[One 48]

11 minutes ago, Marlin said:

I remember Microprose B-17 and the hype about it before it came out. 

I bought it and played it a few time but got bored with it since it was too "real" i.e you couldn't compress the time which meant that a missing could take around 12 hours.

 

/Bosse

Yes, I had that one too, all the early DOS Microprose sims actually I think that early Microprose B-17 sim did have time compression keys? long time ago but do remember buying it on day one and feeling very excited, LOL of far we have come from those early DOS days, good memory's though.

Another B-17 sim with lots of potential i bought later was B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th, this was quite buggy and had the intention of multiplayer to be tacked on on ... but I dont think it ever happened?

Quite sure original DOS Microprose B-17 did have time compression, perhaps not at first but with a patch? Spent many hours on it and finished missions I seem to remember, LOL

[One 48]

3 minutes ago, Stephen said:

I fondly remember Microprose Gunship , F-15 Strike Eagle and Stealth fighter.

 

 

Great titles back in the day, remember them well 👍

[Marlin]

26 minutes ago, One 48 said:

Yes, I had that one too, all the early DOS Microprose sims actually I think that early Microprose B-17 sim did have time compression keys? long time ago but do remember buying it on day one and feeling very excited, LOL of far we have come from those early DOS days, good memory's though.

Another B-17 sim with lots of potential i bought later was B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th, this was quite buggy and had the intention of multiplayer to be tacked on on ... but I dont think it ever happened?

Quite sure original DOS Microprose B-17 did have time compression, perhaps not at first but with a patch? Spent many hours on it and finished missions I seem to remember, LOL

Come to think about it I think it was the later B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th I'm talking about.

/Bosse

[One 48]

As regards time compression vs saving flights, prefer to do them in real time if I can, talking Civilian sims here, but with this forthcoming FS2020 update coming next month, the anniversary Spirit of St Lois aircraft Ryan M-2 and the fact I love the movie too, been meaning to do this in real time for years and years, partially to test my endurance with no distractions outside whatsoever,  ... a sort of Karma, just my phone handy in case of emergency and also to navigate the way Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927 did, hardly anything to see enroute, just side by side window views and a retractable periscope for forward viewing too, but most importantly, navigating the way he did too with no cheating, cockpit only views, no mod cons ... perhaps after that I'll consider a round the world flight ... and that would be done in stages

[Latinbear]

1 hour ago, NoSG0 said:

Ooof no time compression is a mistake IMHO.  Who has time to fly 12 hours if you have a family or any type of responsibilities outside of the game?  If you had a family, you would need the most understand partner ever.

 

 

The Cost Centres are now in their mid-20s but when they were much younger I could happily have argued that a 12 hour flight in a computer game simply wasn't long enough........

[fightersweep]

Well, I've still got an Amiga 500 and a copy of B-17 Flying Fortress, F-19 Stealth Fighter and Dog Fight. Haven't played them for some time, but the itch is there now.

 

Thought that B-17 was the bee's knees at the time. I loved the fact that you started at a historical base (Alconbury if I remember rightly) and had dispersals and perimeter track to navigate before even getting to the runway. I enjoyed the aspect of selecting crew, naming your ship, attending briefings etc. At the time, it was all a very long way from my first experience with a flight simulator, Spitfire 40 on the Spectrum 48k!! It's funny, but I seemed to remember there being the option of skipping time. I can't recall now. Maybe it didn't and explains why I mostly flew missions to targets on the French coast!

 

F-19 Stealth Fighter was an excellent sim/game. I got many hours of enjoyment out of it. It certainly took some time to master the stealth capability and weapons systems but it was extremely immersive once I'd figured it all out. Remember enjoying the novelty of the fly by camera angle. Don't think I'd seen that in a game before. Yep! Many hours of 90s fun stooging around Libya had there.

 

Dog Fight was a blast. Where else could you pitch a Harrier against a Fokker Dr.1?

 

Other sims I remember owning on the Amiga (and still do I think): Acrojet, Reach For The Skies, Falcon, A-10 Tank Killer, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer. There was probably more.

 

My all time favourite flight game on the Amiga though was the mighty "Wings" from Cinemaware. More of an arcade game I guess, but wonderfully atmospheric with good character development for it's time. You really felt it when you lost a squadron buddy (Wing Commander on the Amiga was a similar experience)

 

....And of course, there was FA-18 Interceptor on the Commodore 64. Awesome!

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

[One 48]

You have a good memory Fightersweep. I started out computer sim wise with an Amiga 500+ too, this was a pack that came with Bob Dinnermans FA 18 Interceptor too, but my base Amiga 500 only had 512k memory, upgraded it to a massive 1 MB at great cost, second external floppy drive too, cost a fortune but all seemed so high tech back then.  Mine was a Batman pack with FA /18 as I recall, Batman game was fun ... whole package had deluxe paint program too and of course Workbench OS ... early days, fun days

But when I bought a joystick and learned FA/ 18 Interceptor was hooked, what the hell, was doing simulated carrier traps, shooting down Migs invading San Francisco (preposterous story line) but fun, then flying under the golden gate bridge, then upside down

During that time and with no internet at all, was reading enthusiast magazines to keep up, noticed the swing to PC based computers with early Falcon 3, so ordered up a PC 386 33mhz, 4mb of ram, tseng graphic card ISA or was it vesa local bus, but it got me started on PC sims too, shortly after and after ripping the 386 apart, built my own 486 DX2 66 ... woaw, been building my own PC's ever since.

 

Current spec just now, AMD 5950X 16 core/32 thread, RTX 3090 24GB, 64 GB DDR4 3600 tight timings and so on.

I do appreciate the long haul it took to get here and the modern FS controllers too, its been a blast.

[IanHx]

Gunship 2000 was a particular favourite. Especially when hooked up to the stereo amp and the bass turned up