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KUALA LUMPUR, September 24 – Microsoft took a moment to take a trip back to memory during its Ignite Virtual Developer Conference by releasing a video chronicling the evolution of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
As one of the longest running PC game series, the game is well positioned to show how much PC gaming has changed over the years.
From the simple sprites flying over flat, untextured lands to near-photorealistic renderings of the world, one cannot help but marvel at the tremendous advances PC graphics have made in the nearly four decades since the series began.
The video begins with Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0, which was released in 1982 for IBM-compatible PCs at the time. The game allowed players to fly a Cessna 182, a four-seat American single-engine light aircraft, in four different cities: New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
That said, it would not be possible to recognize any of the cities, as almost everything was represented in black and white lines. Although the graphics of the first game seem incredibly primitive by today’s standards, let’s remember that this was the cutting-edge graphics back in the day.
Two years later, Microsoft released Flight Simulator 2.0 in 1984. Here you can see a noticeable improvement in the graphics of the colored sprites. The game even added joystick support, which definitely helped immerse gamers more in the feeling of flying an airplane.
The third entry in the franchise came in 1988 with more planes to choose from and players were able to customize their plane’s display. Flight Simulator 4.0 It was released a year later and added features like random weather effects and dynamic scenarios that enhanced the overall experience of the game. This was also the first version of the game to reach Macs. It also offered players the ability to run a number of custom mods and add-ons.
Then the video fast forward to 1993, where Flight Simulator 5.0 greatly improved the realism of the game by adding texture support. Microsoft would continue to make iterative improvements to Flight simulator from version 5.1 to Flight Simulator of Windows 95 (1996) improving the smoothness of the experience with higher frame rates and tempting users with more variety of aircraft to choose from.
But things really started to take off (sorry for the pun) by the time Flight simulator 2000 shot in 1999. The game marked a major change in the series with the use of 3D models that resulted in more realistic planes and environments.
Microsoft pushed the boundaries even further with its 2001 version of the game, where it placed players inside a virtual 3D cockpit, a truly groundbreaking feature that captured the hearts of all aspiring pilots.
The tenth iteration of the game, aptly named Flight simulator X, was released in 2006. In it, players could fly all kinds of planes to one of 24,000 destinations. This was also the first game offered on DVD, although now you can easily get it on digital platforms like Steam.
Following Flight simulator X, the series went on hiatus for a very long period and was only revived recently this year. Simply called Microsoft Flight Simulator, the game stands out for the incorporation of a completely recreated and explorable planet Earth.
Everything in the game is populated by Bing satellite images from Microsoft and artificial intelligence from Azure. In addition to the jaw-dropping graphics, there are plenty of real-world planes to choose from and real-time weather effects. Images from around the world are highly up to date to the point that Flight simulator players who have been through hurricanes and the recent wildfires in California.
The game offers a nice sense of escapism considering that not all of us can travel anywhere due to the Covid-19 pandemic. If you can’t book your plane ticket anywhere, Microsoft Flight Simulator it might be the best way to “see” the world without leaving home.
It’s amazing how far PC games have come both in terms of graphics and technology. We certainly hope to see more evolution games in the future. Who knows how we’ll be playing Flight simulator in the future? Maybe in our virtual reality eye implants? – SoyaCincau
