Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004
A Century of Flight
The next game in the series, Flight Simulator 2004,
was released on July 29, 2003. This particular release commentated a
century of flight. A hundred years prior to this game's release, the
Wright Brothers tested there first plane, the Wright Flyer, at Kitty
Hawk, North Carolina. This game the Wright Flyer along with other
historical aircraft. Other planes in FS2004
include the Ford Tri-Motor Aircraft, Douglas DC-3, and the Spirit of St.
Louis. Several historical missions were included in this release as
well, like the recreation of the famous Wright Brothers Flight, and the
take-off of the Spirit of St. Louis to embark on that Trans-Atlantic
flight to Paris . One can be there own Charles Lindbergh.
As with the previous incarnation of the game, there have been various improvements to FS2004 as well. Weather effects were even more enhanced than before. Not only that, weather could be localized now to a particular location. Weather data could be downloaded from the internet, allowing FS2004 to conform the weather forecast to that particular area in the game to real world conditions. ATC (Air Traffic Control) had been enhanced, along with GPS. They were graphical and visual enhancements throughout the game. More random buildings were auto-generated for population centers. The buildings and in-game textures were enhanced as well. This is noticeable when one flies around the skylines of major cities, like New York City, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, etc. The airports of the major cities are very detailed as well. Like in the previous releases, there is dynamic scenery with other planes in flight. There locations are show in the sky, along with there distance. The virtual cockpit visuals were enhanced, along with the weather mentioned previously.
Graphically, this is a very stunning and beautiful game. The appearance of the environment is the very impressive. Sometimes, one can be more prone to viewing the scenery in amazement than paying attention to the flight path. The environmental physics can come close to reality at times, from the sunrise and sunset effects to weather like rain, snow, and that intense thunderstorm. One can get lost in the scenery and the wonders that it offers.
They were several mods released by independent developers for this game, greatly enhancing the longevity of FS2004. Most of these mods were additional aircraft as well. Many of these planes are very representative of there real-world counterparts. Other aircraft mods of fictional aircraft, like the fictional Star War's X-Wing and TIE-Fighter, along with UFO's and prototype planes, could be added as well. One would be very tempted to recreating the Star War's trench run using Downtown Chicago flying the X-Wing Fighter.
FS2004 was very well received by the gaming press. To those who are a fan of flight simulators, one can't go wrong with this classic.
As with the previous incarnation of the game, there have been various improvements to FS2004 as well. Weather effects were even more enhanced than before. Not only that, weather could be localized now to a particular location. Weather data could be downloaded from the internet, allowing FS2004 to conform the weather forecast to that particular area in the game to real world conditions. ATC (Air Traffic Control) had been enhanced, along with GPS. They were graphical and visual enhancements throughout the game. More random buildings were auto-generated for population centers. The buildings and in-game textures were enhanced as well. This is noticeable when one flies around the skylines of major cities, like New York City, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, etc. The airports of the major cities are very detailed as well. Like in the previous releases, there is dynamic scenery with other planes in flight. There locations are show in the sky, along with there distance. The virtual cockpit visuals were enhanced, along with the weather mentioned previously.
Graphically, this is a very stunning and beautiful game. The appearance of the environment is the very impressive. Sometimes, one can be more prone to viewing the scenery in amazement than paying attention to the flight path. The environmental physics can come close to reality at times, from the sunrise and sunset effects to weather like rain, snow, and that intense thunderstorm. One can get lost in the scenery and the wonders that it offers.
They were several mods released by independent developers for this game, greatly enhancing the longevity of FS2004. Most of these mods were additional aircraft as well. Many of these planes are very representative of there real-world counterparts. Other aircraft mods of fictional aircraft, like the fictional Star War's X-Wing and TIE-Fighter, along with UFO's and prototype planes, could be added as well. One would be very tempted to recreating the Star War's trench run using Downtown Chicago flying the X-Wing Fighter.
FS2004 was very well received by the gaming press. To those who are a fan of flight simulators, one can't go wrong with this classic.
Boeing 727 with the American Airlines livery taking off from Seattle International.
Boeing 727 Leaving A Smoke Trail.
B-17 Bomber Flying Past The Seattle Skyline.
American Airlines 747 flying past the Dallas Skyline.
Boeing 767 flying over the Rockies outside of Denver.
The virtual cockpit of the Learjet.
Learjet flying past the Chicago Skyline. One can see the John Hancock Tower in the background.
SR-71 Blackbird flying over Edwards AFB in California.
Older Game On Newer Hardware
As mentioned in
previous articles, I like to highlight the capabilities of virtual
machine software like VirtualBox and VMware. However, the later
incarnations of the Flight Simulator
games hate virtual machines. Actually, Fs2004 was able to run under
VMware Player 12 running Windows 7 as a guest. However, the performance
of the game sank when constantly switching between the different camera
views. There were also drawing issues with the mouse cursor as well.
This is when I decided to run the game natively.
I recently purchased a old Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro joystick for two dollars. It was a thrift store purchase. I used it with FS2004 without issues. Up to this point, I've used the keyboard to control the plane. I imagine this is how the vast majority of those who played the game interacted with it. This SideWinder is a very old joystick. It connected to the computer using the serial port, but it had a serial-to-USB dongle attached to it. Windows 7 64-bit automatically detected it and installed the drivers for it in a few seconds. FS2004 was ready to use the joystick immediately. There are several buttons on the joystick that could be mapped to certain features in the game, like changing camera modes, raising/lower the gears, adjusting throttle, etc.
Using the SideWinder made me realize how much more capable this joystick is compared to using the keyboard. I had much more precise control over the aircraft. This is actually not surprising though as Microsoft made this joystick for use in the Flight Simulator. Flying the airplanes were much more enjoyable with the joystick. On the whole, FS2004 has very good controls and really good game-play. As I've mentioned previously, one can't go wrong with this old classic. Happy flying!
Not
surprisingly, a game that was released in 2003 had no issues running on
current hardware. With a lot of older titles, one can run across
compatibility issues. Older games that were released before Duo or
Quad-Core processor became a everyday thing. Older games that were
released before 64-bit operating systems became mainstream. Usually,
older games need to be patched or updated when running on either newer
hardware or operating systems.
However, there was no compatibility issues for FS2004. The game ran fine on my rig running Windows 7 64-bit equipped with a Nvidia GTX 950 GPU, and 16GB's of memory. FS2004
was released at a time when a Pentium 4 with Hyper-threading technology,
2GB's of RAM, and ultra fast AGP 3D accelerator with 128MB's of video
memory were all the rage. Times changed a lot since then. A computer
with awesome, early 2000's gaming specs can be virtualized in a virtual
machine now.
I recently purchased a old Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro joystick for two dollars. It was a thrift store purchase. I used it with FS2004 without issues. Up to this point, I've used the keyboard to control the plane. I imagine this is how the vast majority of those who played the game interacted with it. This SideWinder is a very old joystick. It connected to the computer using the serial port, but it had a serial-to-USB dongle attached to it. Windows 7 64-bit automatically detected it and installed the drivers for it in a few seconds. FS2004 was ready to use the joystick immediately. There are several buttons on the joystick that could be mapped to certain features in the game, like changing camera modes, raising/lower the gears, adjusting throttle, etc.
Using the SideWinder made me realize how much more capable this joystick is compared to using the keyboard. I had much more precise control over the aircraft. This is actually not surprising though as Microsoft made this joystick for use in the Flight Simulator. Flying the airplanes were much more enjoyable with the joystick. On the whole, FS2004 has very good controls and really good game-play. As I've mentioned previously, one can't go wrong with this old classic. Happy flying!
Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro
WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
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