Eagle3
11-19-03, 07:30 AM
Bucko and I beta tested flight sims for Stealey when he started up Interactive Magic (IM). His article here includes a bit of history about computer flight sims.
"Wild Bill" Stealey: The Magic Time Machines (http://www.military.com/NewContent?file=Stealey_111203)
..... My first computer war game was a futuristic Space game on the Atari 800. I was looking for a computer to do Visi Calc! Does anyone remember Visi Calc? It was Dan Bricklin's original spreadsheet program. It turned into Lotus 123 and later Excel, as others saw the magic of Dan's idea!
But, I found a computer that did Visi Calc and had a cool game called StarRaiders from Atari! Wow! Work and play in the same box! Is that the reason lots of folks have powerful computers these days? To do work at home of course; you really do need a powerful graphics card to run all the spreadsheets don't you?
The first historical military flying game I remember was the World War I flying game that Sublogic actually put in their original Flight Simulator Product. You remember that Microsoft did not actually make Flight Simulator don't you?
Two smart guys, Bruce Artwick (brilliant programmer) and Stu Moment (Flight instructor) actually made Flight Simulator before they sold the company to Microsoft.
At MicroProse Software we competed with Sublogic. Sid Meier, my famous partner, had developed Solo Flight. We sold lots of Solo Flight to Sears as a competitor to Sublogic's Flight Simulator.
Sublogic even hired two ex-military officers who I remember as "Captain Jack" and "Colonel Bob" to compete with MicroProse. They came out with Jet to compete with F-15 Strike Eagle, and even had a helicopter and submarine game to compete with MicroProse's Gunship and Silent Service. They were really surprised when I visited their headquarters in Champaign, Illinois, but after my initial meeting with Captain Jack and Colonel Bob, along with Bruce and Stu, they all turned out to be good guys and friendly competitors. When you think of it, Sid had me as his flight instructor and he was (and is) a brilliant programmer and game designer!
We have lots of stories of all the old exciting military games Sid and I did together. You will get some of those fun stories later.
Our first real Strategy Game was NATO Commander on the Atari 800. On Pennsylvania National Guard duty at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa, I watched 20+ West Point graduates stand around a big map and practice defending the Fulda Gap from the Soviets! They rolled the dice and then moved the little markers around the map!
I told Sid about this, and he came up with NATO Commander. Actually used for a while at the Army Command and Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas for instructional purposes.
In the modern game world, many of the military games are some sort of commando game. We have World War II infantry games and Iraq War Special Forces games. Grab a gun, capture the bullets and the power ups, (they seem to hang in the air in many cases), and go blow up something. These games make great team games too.
My brothers and I played Novalogic's excellent Delta Force games for a long time. This game is originally done in the early 90s and is still one of the best!
Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor series is an industry by itself. This wonderful game is a combination of military subjects, pseudo real weapons, and excellent graphics! It should be in all military gamers' collections. Most reviews of this game have been excellent, although some on other platforms are less strong. I suggest you go to GameRankings.com to look up your specific platform rating.
How can you go wrong with a game directly from the U.S. Army? America's Army is a successful effort to promote the Army and Free online too! Check it out! America's Army has gotten excellent reviews from most of the game sites all over 80%.
This week's big buzz is Activision's Call of Duty. It has received a 95% rating from some reviewers. I will get this game and have a server set up so we can have some battles online. Maybe we can get some military volunteers to participate in a big match in a few weeks after everyone has a chance to get familiar with the game. .....
"Wild Bill" Stealey: The Magic Time Machines (http://www.military.com/NewContent?file=Stealey_111203)
..... My first computer war game was a futuristic Space game on the Atari 800. I was looking for a computer to do Visi Calc! Does anyone remember Visi Calc? It was Dan Bricklin's original spreadsheet program. It turned into Lotus 123 and later Excel, as others saw the magic of Dan's idea!
But, I found a computer that did Visi Calc and had a cool game called StarRaiders from Atari! Wow! Work and play in the same box! Is that the reason lots of folks have powerful computers these days? To do work at home of course; you really do need a powerful graphics card to run all the spreadsheets don't you?
The first historical military flying game I remember was the World War I flying game that Sublogic actually put in their original Flight Simulator Product. You remember that Microsoft did not actually make Flight Simulator don't you?
Two smart guys, Bruce Artwick (brilliant programmer) and Stu Moment (Flight instructor) actually made Flight Simulator before they sold the company to Microsoft.
At MicroProse Software we competed with Sublogic. Sid Meier, my famous partner, had developed Solo Flight. We sold lots of Solo Flight to Sears as a competitor to Sublogic's Flight Simulator.
Sublogic even hired two ex-military officers who I remember as "Captain Jack" and "Colonel Bob" to compete with MicroProse. They came out with Jet to compete with F-15 Strike Eagle, and even had a helicopter and submarine game to compete with MicroProse's Gunship and Silent Service. They were really surprised when I visited their headquarters in Champaign, Illinois, but after my initial meeting with Captain Jack and Colonel Bob, along with Bruce and Stu, they all turned out to be good guys and friendly competitors. When you think of it, Sid had me as his flight instructor and he was (and is) a brilliant programmer and game designer!
We have lots of stories of all the old exciting military games Sid and I did together. You will get some of those fun stories later.
Our first real Strategy Game was NATO Commander on the Atari 800. On Pennsylvania National Guard duty at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa, I watched 20+ West Point graduates stand around a big map and practice defending the Fulda Gap from the Soviets! They rolled the dice and then moved the little markers around the map!
I told Sid about this, and he came up with NATO Commander. Actually used for a while at the Army Command and Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas for instructional purposes.
In the modern game world, many of the military games are some sort of commando game. We have World War II infantry games and Iraq War Special Forces games. Grab a gun, capture the bullets and the power ups, (they seem to hang in the air in many cases), and go blow up something. These games make great team games too.
My brothers and I played Novalogic's excellent Delta Force games for a long time. This game is originally done in the early 90s and is still one of the best!
Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor series is an industry by itself. This wonderful game is a combination of military subjects, pseudo real weapons, and excellent graphics! It should be in all military gamers' collections. Most reviews of this game have been excellent, although some on other platforms are less strong. I suggest you go to GameRankings.com to look up your specific platform rating.
How can you go wrong with a game directly from the U.S. Army? America's Army is a successful effort to promote the Army and Free online too! Check it out! America's Army has gotten excellent reviews from most of the game sites all over 80%.
This week's big buzz is Activision's Call of Duty. It has received a 95% rating from some reviewers. I will get this game and have a server set up so we can have some battles online. Maybe we can get some military volunteers to participate in a big match in a few weeks after everyone has a chance to get familiar with the game. .....