Roger Louie's Background
As you have probably figured out, my name is Roger Louie. Most people who know me
would pretty much agree that I am a 'Propeller Head', 'Techie', 'Hacker', but not
quite a 'Nerd!' Don't think that the term 'Hacker' is used in a negative way. I
don't break into systems, or steal secret CIA files from the government. In the olden
days, a computer 'Hacker' was a person who put together computers in their garages,
wrote software that had never been thought of, and who 'hacked' away at problems
for hours/days on end, until the problem was solved. 'Hacker's, having solved many
problems in the past, are generally able to solve most problems that they may come across
in the future. I guess that pretty much describes myself, a problem solver.
Many years ago, perhaps in 1976, I bought my first computer. It was an Ohio Scientific
'Superboard' computer, COMPLETE, WITHOUT case, power supply, floppy disk, cassette tape
storage, and if I recall, without instructions! Those were the days! Basically, this
computer was a motherboard, with the keyboard mounted on that motherboard. It had the
famous 6502 cpu, running at 1 Megahertz, with 4 kilobytes of STATIC ram. This computer
never made it commercially, even with the Cased/Power Supplied/Floppy version, since
Apple computer had their now famous Apple II on the market. Still, this computer force
me to learn how to design/build computer hardware, and to program in assembly language
and machine code. Before I graduated to an IBM-PC clone computer, I had made my own
memory boards, floppy disk controller boards, and various I/O boards, using standard TTL
and CMOS logic chips. I was also able to modify the 24x24 character video display to a
whoppin 64x24 display. Hey, that was great stuff in those days!
Many years later, my brother obtained an Atari 500 computer, with Microsoft Flight
Simulator version 1 on it. It was that program that got me hooked on computer flight
simulator type programs. I guess it was the 'technology' behind those programs that
really interested me the most. I was always amazed to see the 'next better' flight
simulator program to come into the market. Over the years, I have purchased many
flight simulator programs, most of which were impressive, a few of which were a waste
of money. The following list are the programs that I can remember buying, in rough
chronological order of purchasing (a couple of which were 'loaded' to me):
(1) Sublogic Flight Simulator
(2) Sublogic Flight Simulator 2
(3) Sublogic Jet (This is the first program I had that had dogfighting)
(4) Electronic Arts Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Simulator
(5) Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle 1 (Still remember that DAMMED 'keydisk')
(6) Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle 2
(7) Electronic Arts Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer
(8) Microsoft Flight Simulator 3
(9) Electronic Arts Chuck Yeager's Air Combat (Great program to this day!)
(10) Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle 3
(11) Jetfighter 1 (Had this stupid/easily damaged copy protection scheme)
(12) Microprose Gunship
(13) Microsoft Flight Simulator 4 (Great program for non Pentiums)
(14) Microprose Gunship 2000 (Still Playable)
(15) Jetfighter 2
(16) Microprose F17 Stealth Fighter (Almost exact clone of F-15 Strike Eagle)
(17) Microprose F117 Stealth Fighter (Visual True F117 look upgrade from F17)
(18) Microprose ATAC (Junk)
(19) Blue Angels (Sound wouldn't work, so never played this one)
(20) Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.0
(21) Strike Aces (Fair low level bombing-Stupid copy protect Wheel-Dial thing)
(22) Microprose Stormovic (Mediocre Russian Jet Sim)
(23) Flight of the Intruder (JUNK)
(24) Dynamix A-10 Warthog Version 1.0,1.5 (Fun, simple game - Crummy Aerodynamics)
(25) Microprose SU-27 (All I remember is crummy sound)
(26) Wing Commander 1 (First/Last Space 'Flying' game - It's just not the same)
(27) Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.1 (Great graphics-Marginal with fast 486)
(28) Spectrum Holobyte Falcon 3.0 (Great Program, especially with modem play)
(29) Spectrum Holobyte Operation Fighting Tiger (Falcon add-on)
(30) Spectrum Holobyte Mig something (This Jet didn't fly with beans!)
(31) Jane's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF)
(32) Wing Leader (Junk-I had to take this one back for refund!)
(33) Jane's Longbow
(34) I-Magic Apache (Great game-beats Longbow for action/sounds)
(35) Jetfighter 3
(36) Novalogic F-22 Lighting (Problems... Vowed Never to buy Novalogic)
(37) Jane's Korean campaign (Longbow add-on, didn't notice much improvement)
(38) Jane's NATO Fighters (Good add-on for ATF)
(39) Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 (Tons of features)
(40) Novalogic F-22 Raptor (Improved F-22 Lighting, I took a gamble)
Other Aviation Related Programs I've Bought
(1) TRACON for DOS, plus extra airport sectors
(2) RAPCON (military airport version of TRACON)
(3) TRACON for Windows
(4) Bruce Artwick TOWER
(5) Microsoft Space Simulator
My main game platform, is a no-name Pentium 233 MHz MMX clone, with 32 Megs EDO RAM, S3
Virge 325 chipset 4 Meg Video board, 24x CD-ROM, Thrustmaster WCS Mark 2 Throttle controller, and
Thrustmaster FCS PRO Joystick. Operating systems are switchable from DOS 6.22, Windows 3.1, and
Windows 95. My secondary computer is an upgraded no-name 486 66 MHz motherboard upgraded with a
STACKER 133 Pentium chip (costs $90), 20 Megs RAM, Genoa ET4000/W32 2 Meg VL-Bus Video board,
16x CD-ROM, SAITEK X36 programmable Joystick, and SAITEK X35 programmable Throttle controller.
Theortically, this STACKER computer is supposed to perform similar to a 60 to 70 megahertz
Pentium. The speed improvement was well worth the $90 'investment', but who knows if it's like
a Pentium. I will base my opinions using these 2 computer platforms.
My current job as a Applications Systems Programmer/Analyst allows me to make money to blow
on these types of programs. Still, I've been burned in the past, and that is why I have not
purchased all of the programs that are on the market. I bought Novalogic's F-22 Lighting near
Christmas 1996, got burned by that program due to the Joystick fading away during flight, and
due to bad aerodynamic programing. From that Christmas and on, I didn't buy anymore flight
simulation type programs until Christmas 1997. I read an article in Aviation Week & Space Technology
that stated that the Airforce had used Novalogic's F-22 Raptor program for some kind of training,
and that this program was realistic. Well, I now had to get that program, and so far, I have had
no problems with it. In my opinion, it's pretty much the same program, with minor refinements in
graphics details, but fixes the past major bugs that existed in F-22 Lighting. This pretty much
brings brings me to present. Somehow I feel like sharing my opinions and tips for the various
flight sim programs that I've fooled around with, and perhaps help someone save some money by
diverting them from junk programs. Oh well, we'll see. Thanks for visiting my site. Roger Louie.
(Dated January 20, 1998)
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