Compute! Publications
Yes, folks, he's done it again! Charles Gulick,
that legendary Flight Simulator 2 (FS2) explorer pilot has written a
sequel to 40 Great Flight Simulator Adventures (as reviewed in Issue
21).
'40 More' follows the same format as its
predecessor, in that it's written as if the author is sitting next
to you in the aircraft, talking you through each scenario as you fly
it. Each adventure is laid out in the same way too, starting with a
screen shot taken from the scenario, followed by FS2 editor values
you have to key in to set up each flight, and finally the
instruction text. Again, as in the original, the text has graphic
symbols against it showing at a glance when you have to take over
control, or perform a specific action, or look outside for something
special.
40 More starts with a foreword written by Bruce
Artwick, the author of FS2 (again, reviewed in Issue 21). This gives
some fascinating background information about the simulator and its
development. For instance, did you know it began life in 1979 on an
Apple computer as a graphics demonstration? Or that there have been
21 versions in total, which between them have sold over ONE MILLION
copies!
Charles Gulick then takes over with a section on
how to use the book, tips on flying the scenarios and general
instructions on how to save editor values to disk so you can reload
them at any time without the hassle of keying them all in again.
Then, it's off into the first adventure.
Let me say now that many of these adventures
require more advanced flying skills to complete successfully than
those in the first book. A number of them are really advanced flying
lessons rather than straight exploratory flights or acting out
fictional storylines, although there are plenty of these too. For
instance, there's a whole series of scenarios concerned with
accurate, realistic take-off, airfield circuit pattern, and landing
procedures using Spanaway airfield, near Seattle. These use the
procedures and controls you'd use in a real light aircraft - the aim
is accuracy and realism, to get you flying the simulator as you
would the real thing. This is no game, it's deadly serious stuff for
the true FS2 aficionado. I found I had to practice for several hours
before I could fly touch-and-go circuits of Spanaway in the Gulick
approved manner.
For light relief following this, the next scenario
has you flying from Chino to San Diego in California, when a snag
develops. Your elevators and flaps become unusable, so you have to
make the whole flight using only engine power to climb and descend.
You have a very strange companion on this flight, who tells you what
to do and when, but he vanishes when you're safely on the ground at
San Diego! The landing in this scenario is unbelievably stressful -
do I really do this for fun and relaxation?
Another series of scenarios makes use of the World
War 1 wargame area, but ... you're flying in your modern Piper
Cherokee Archer rather than the usual WW1 biplane. One of these
scenarios has you flying through the open ended hangar
that's a feature of one of these airfields. Another has you
exploring strange 'mirror images' of the WW1 area which seem to be
scattered about that part of the FS2 world, flying over (into, if
you're not careful) the mountains from outside, to enter the former
war zone.
One of my favourite scenarios involves flying from
Bremerton National in Washington state, along a waterway to the Hood
Canal, then following this all the way to Admiralty Inlet on Puget
Sound, before landing at Snohomish County airfield.
As in the original book, some scenarios are short, like the engine
failure on take off from Fallbrook Airpark in California. Others are
very long, like the attempted flight to the North Pole. This one is
quite boring, in fact, as there's not much for you to do or see.
It's really an experiment to probe the limits of the FS2 world.
Then there are the pure FS2 phenomena exploration
flights, like investigating the nature of clouds and looking at
strange FS2 scenery bugs. Also, those that push FS2 to the limit of
its simulation abilities, like inverted flying, and the fun
scenarios, like landing and taking off from Manhattan Bridge in New
York!
All scenarios but one use the standard scenery
disk supplied with the FS2 program. The odd one uses one of the new
accessory disks, covering the Dallas area. I still haven't managed
to get my hands on these extra disks yet. Sublogic have begun
advertising them in Antic Magazine, so I assume their release in
Atari format is imminent.
This book has over 60 pages more than the
original, plus reprints of the FS2 navigation charts in the back.
It's cheaper than the original at just £8.95. If you're an FS2
enthusiast, you must have at least one of these books. If you're a
fanatic like me, you shouldn't be without either. They'll multiply
your enjoyment of FS2 many times over, and give you many, many hours
of additional pleasure.
Postscript: I recently discovered a way to
get even more enjoyment out of FS2 and Charles Gulick's books. This
is by using real maps. On a recent trip to Foyle's famous bookshop
in London, I discovered a series of tourist maps of different areas
of the USA, published by Rand McNally. I've also seen them in
Heffers bookshop in Cambridge. These cost under £2 each, and show
most of the scenery features appearing in FS2. When Charles Gulick
tells you you're flying over Lake Washington, just passing Sand
Point, you can actually see from the map that it's for real! These
maps aren't as good as proper aviation maps, but they're much
cheaper and easier to obtain.
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