History of Microsoft Flight Simulator
aspect of history
Microsoft Flight Simulator began as a set of articles on computer graphics, written by Bruce Artwick throughout 1976, about flight simulation using 3-D graphics. When the editor of the magazine told Artwick that subscribers were interested in purchasing such a program, Artwick founded Sublogic Corporation to commercialize his ideas. At first the new company sold flight simulators through mail order, but that changed in January 1979 with the release of Flight Simulator (FS) for the Apple II. They soon followed this up with versions for other systems and from there it evolved into a long-running series of computer flight simulators.
Sublogic flight simulators
First generation (Apple II, TRS-80)
− January 1980 for Apple II
− Later 1980 for TRS-80
Second generation (Color Computer 3, Apple II, C64, Atari 8-bit)
− December 1983 for Apple II
− June 1984 for Commodore 64
− October 1984 for Atari 8-bit computers
− Sometime in 1987 for Color Computer 3
Third generation (Amiga, Atari ST, Mac)
− March 1986 for Mac
− November 1986 for Amiga and Atari ST
In 1984, Amiga Corporation asked Artwick to port Flight Simulator for its forthcoming computer, but Commodore's purchase of Amiga temporarily ended the relationship. Sublogic instead finished a Macintosh version, released by Microsoft, then resumed work on the Amiga and Atari ST versions.
Although still called Flight Simulator II, the Amiga and Atari ST versions compare favorably with Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0. Notable features included a windowing system allowing multiple simultaneous 3d views - including exterior views of the aircraft itself - and (on the Amiga and Atari ST) modem play.
Info gave the Amiga version five out of five, describing it as the "finest incarnation". Praising the "superb" graphics, the magazine advised to "BEGIN your game collection with this one!"
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Flight Simulator
− Released in November 1982
Flight Simulator 2.0
− Released in 1984
In 1984, Microsoft released their version 2 for IBM PCs. This version made small improvements to the original version, including the graphics and a more precise simulation in general.
The public source identifies “History of Microsoft Flight Simulator” as aspect of history. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around History, Microsoft and Flight.
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This entry incorporates text from “History of Microsoft Flight Simulator” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.