I don't know what got me started but I was reminiscing about my days playing Air Warrior on dial up. Are there any modern ones that are in that same vein? I would spend hours playing and it was a ton of fun.

Been out of it for a while, but we were talking about DCS the other day and it look pretty amazing. And the base game if free.
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/

used to play Falcon quite a bit - had a stick, throttle and rudder pedals

my weak spot was monitors - they were always small - and now big screens are pretty cheap

haven't played a game since I graduated University - so that's been 26 years

Big time combat flight simulator junkie.
Started with SWOTL... Then Red Baron, Pacific Air War 1942... European Air War.

Also beta's Dynamix's desert air war game before they went out of business.

Still have all the software!

If you like WWII era fighters and fighter bombers, try IL-2 Sturmovik. This game had some of the best flight physics ever modeled on a PC. The fan community was also very strong in supporting this game.

It has been while since it was out, but you can probably find it on Steam or GOG.

Mike

Yep, IL-2 Sturmovik is $9.99 on Steam. Spent many, many hours with this game. The flight modeling is fantastic, especially when you take damage.

I wish.

Does anybody even make a good one these days? I used to play a10 tank killer, aces of the pacific and of course, Chuck Yeagers Air Combat.

I liked Ace Combat 4 & 5 on PS2, that was probably the most recent things I've played...on a 27" CRT TV.

As far as I know, DCS is the new standard as zoom zoom linked above.

Not familiar with Air Warrior, but if you're looking for a modern flight combat game, might want to look into War Thunder.

I'd like to find something I can do with my son, and I love aviation. I'm not into shooter games like he is. He has an X-Box One. Do they make any good ones for that platform, or are you better off going with a PC? This is probably of enough importance for me to do it right.

I was just thinking about this the other day myself. Took my kids to the air show last month and they loved it. My oldest is about the age I started playing air combat simulators (12) so I was wondering if they even make these games any more.

I played Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator from 1999 to 2002 or so, both standalone and online as well. It's remarkable to think of what I was able to do with Win98 and a 56K modem.
I must have downloaded more than a hundred aircraft. I still have all those old files on backup. I had great fun playing it.

I will definitely check out War Thunder. I'm also checking out Aces High III although that one is a $15 a month subscription. Air Warrior was the first MMO game that really took off. I played it on a 486 system to start. Then upgraded to an AMD K6-II. The story of the creators is pretty amazing.

https://www.engadget.com/2012/...d-the-kesmai-legacy/

IL2 - Countless hours playing that. Have a friend who was focused enough to create his own missions.
I would love to get back into it but need a new PC. Interesting thread!

Warbirds... Played online all of the time. Was part of a squadron that had 2-3 scheduled missions each week that would be in excess of 2 hours each. Also the squadron would participate in campaigns made up of many squadrons and hundreds of "pilots".

We flew mostly navy stuff, but also loved flying over Europe.

Warbirds had an annual convention that I would attend to participate in huge LAN gaming parties and to meet squad mates (1 of which flew and fought at Guadal Canal, he was in his late 70's 10-15 years ago).

I miss that game. It is still around I think, but the community is gone with most jumping ship due to pricing issues, service issues, bankruptcy, and changes in the company's main focus (from sims to online gambling I think). Many of the developers left and started WWII Online.

It was great fun that was theraputic...

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
I'd like to find something I can do with my son, and I love aviation. I'm not into shooter games like he is. He has an X-Box One. Do they make any good ones for that platform, or are you better off going with a PC? This is probably of enough importance for me to do it right.

99% sure you need to go the PC route with this one. Not only are the games more realistic, but you can expand almost everything as much as you want. Most of the PC sims have dedicated modding communities and the airplanes and missions can be literally endless. You can also start with a simple gamepad control setup and then step up to a flight stick and throttle if you want. The sky really is the limit.

I played Combat Flight Sims for many, many years.
Starting with Chuck Yeager's and almost everything up to Microsoft Combat Flight Sim and finally IL2.
Microsoft's Zone allowed us to go online and I joined a squadron and flew with a bunch of guys.
in Il2 I flew with a bunch of guys from all over the world. Being able to communicate in real time with the people you were flying with was awesome.
I have the full suite of devices; Rudder Pedals, Throttle and Stick.
Over the years, I flew as XL_Target, 54th_Target and finally TFC_Target.
I stopped about ten years ago.

Here is a video from one of the last inter squad matches that I played (IL2).

Played fighter ace from the beginning to the end and then on the European servers for awhile.

I wasn't big on the PC games. I was into original Atari but not much after that. but I do remember the arcade game simulators. I did like going to the arcade at the mall whenever possible.

I worked at the local mall arcade, Diamond Jims, in the early 90's during college days. I would play After Burner and Final Lap (or it was a Pole Position) for hours. the After Burner was the sit in one with the moving seat and speakers like surround sound. loved that one. got pretty good back then. the Final Lap was a sit down two seater. one of the other young guys I worked with was into car racing games. so after hours we would sit and race each other for hours if we both closed that night. the mall would close and after we did our clean up and shut down we would sit at this race game for hours battling it out. great times. we would open up the coin doors and trip the counter switches several times to load up on credits. miss those times.