LGR - Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0

The 8-Bit Guy

Just got around to watching this today. I don't think I ever played with this back in the day. I was surprised how many video modes it supports! I wish you had shown playing it in some of the CGA modes, especially composite mode. I know you showed the screenshots, but some actual video would have been cool!

Peter Bridger

Watching this video brought back a forgotten era of my early PC gaming back to life. It would have been on a 286 with EGA graphics, so the framerate must have been terrible! I think the games I enjoyed the most as a kid were the "software toys", that just let me tinker and play within my own personal virtual sandbox. I certainly remember messing about with the aircraft editor to create wildly impractical aircraft :D I can't imagine I ended up fly very far in the game, but more pushing the limits through flying high and fiddling with the settings. Good times :)

GadgetBlues

I was the voice of the Microsoft automated support system for Flight Simulator 4.0. It was our first trial of an automated voice response for tech support and so we chose a game to start off with. I still remember some of the weird bugs, e.g. there was one runway that had a section that was like 10 feet lower than the rest even though it appeared at the same level, so if you happened to taxi in that particular area you would suddenly crash. Another interesting aspect is that the terrain repeats every x vertical feet (64K? I forget) except it had no collision. So if you set the starting position say for your Cessna and accidentally typed in too high of an elevation, you might see the ground below you and go in for a landing, only to fall through the terrain and then start crashing because you were above your ceiling for a prop aircraft. That one was particularly fun. There was another overflow bug where if you took the SR-71 to maximum height, pointed the nose straight down and kicked on the afterburners, you would (after ripping the wings off) start going backwards, all the way into space.

LGR

Those are the same ones in my FS 3.0 box as well! I'm not sure why FS4 didn't have them. My assumption is they hadn't yet printed them by the time the box was shipping out to stores.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-Charts-1-4-Airport-Coordinates-Lot-of-4/283974074381?hash=item421e2c800d:g:8s8AAOSwUQle2Czb Not sure if this is what you desire, they appear to match what came in my MSFS 3.0 box and my 4.0 box is not close to hand at the moment.

QUiKSR20

Another great one Clint!

Hey, I have a copy of this classic on a 5.25 floppy thanks to the man we're all here celebrating! lol

Simon Ralfe

Used try and fly real time from East to West Coast US during night shifts when I was a mainframe op. Always managed to crash for some reason

Evan B

I fully expect an MSFS 2020 review soon :)

Andrew Buffenmyer

Heh, I think I sent you an IBM PC Jr version of that Andrew Tobias Money Manager many years ago. Flight Sim 4 and specifically the design a plane feature took many hours of my adolescence. A great memory for sure!

Brandon Mingo

I tried FS4 on a Compaq Portable III with that amber plasma screen recently.... did not go well but it ran!

13Cubed

Oh man, this brings back memories. I can't remember if FS3 or FS4 was my first, but I have vivid memories of playing it on my locally built custom 386 SX-25. It would be awesome to see additional episodes covering FS1-3, and even later versions! I was absolutely obsessed with this software as a kid... and with flight sims in general.

Rob Caporetto

During my high-school years, I put a fair chunk of time into the MacOS version of FS4 in our school's labs. ...Then I would head home and tinker with ye olde Flight Sim 2 on my C64. Patience was a darn virtue with that. I'm really impressed with how far they pushed FS4 - I think FS5 is where my serious nostalgia spot hits, but the level of editability for FS4 is genuinely amazing to see.

Desperately waiting on an LGR plays of the new MFS now!

John Covil

(I wouldn't have bothered commenting, except I know it's still unlisted at this point, just in case you think it's worth fixing)

John Covil

Great video. One minor edit note: at one point you said something couldn't be understated, when you meant it couldn't be overstated.

LGR

FS4 is pretty easy-going on normal settings, but brutal on staying in the air with certain weather, turbulence, and realism settings! Stalls are no joke, heh.

LGR

https://media.giphy.com/media/tnYri4n2Frnig/giphy.gif

LGR

👀👀👀

LGR

Ha, that's excellent, I had no idea.

LGR

I hope you enjoyed!

LGR

That would be superb. And potentially possible? I know it's been modified to make it run on a modern triple monitor setup! http://www.tinmith.net/wayne/blog/2017/06/immersive-flight-sim-4.htm

LGR

That's awesome. A library packing computers that run FS4 is dreamy As in, it's a legit dream I've had, of a very specific library. I miss childhood library visits.

LGR

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed! It ended up being enlightening for me as well, I didn't realize just how many things were added in version 4.0 here. The featureset is nuts for 1989.

LGR

Ahh FS5, the first entry with textures. TEXTURES. Straight up futuristic.

LGR

Wow, jackass indeed. I remember hearing about the sim being pulled from store shelves over that, don't know if there's any truth to it or not!

This looks like great fun! I am not sure if it was this particular simulator. But, I was never able to keep from crashing...

PhotoSvein

But did it came with a coupon for pizza?

LJFox

Clint! Haven't watched your video yet, but I'm sitting on an insider copy of MSFS20 with a fried GPU at the moment. If you'd like to take it for a spin (I just hate it going to waste and not being able to play), DM me and we can work the details out!

Hernando Heilbron

Funnily enough, modern EFISs (EFISI?) work EXACTLY like seen on this video, and will populate your primary flight display with "gates" to fly through and land. Literally like a videogame.

Charles Wiltshire

Fantastic really looking forward to this one :-)

Jared

I would love a VR port of Flight Sim 4.

This game was installed on a couple of the computers at my public library when I was a kid, so it became one of the earliest computer games I ever played years before my family even owned a computer

Ian Spence

Excellent video! I never played any of the older DOS Flightsim games, being introduced into the series with FS2004. It was really fascinating to see how far the series has come and how long back some of its most notable features were introduced.

Andrew Kirkby

Ooooh I have FS5. My 486 cycles are tingling!

Frederic St-Georges

Thanks for the blast from the past Clint! I remember playing this game with a friend of mine in the early 90s, crashing in everything in sight. It was better than my memories of FS2000, where I was working at Staples and some jackass asked me about "that game the terrorists used for 9/11"...