Hello, I'm Kamox. I've built this page to help people get oriented in the big and sometime dispersive world of Falcon 4.0, a game which, despite the lack of support by its development group, fired by Hasbro, continues to be the most patched, updated and enhanced combat flight sim of our times. This is because the open structure of the game allows to modify almost every aspect of it, resulting in a massive, confused amount of stuff available for download over the internet. In this little site I'll present only the latest versions of the most important patches and utilities which make Falcon 4.0 a better game. Other add ons, such as skins, cockpits, etc. can be found in the sites listed below as "reference".

[ Newbies/Setup Guide | Must-have files | Add-on campaign theatres | Reference sites ]

{|} Last updates {|}

News archive

August 31st, 2009: Geocities is closing in less than a couple of months. PLEASE UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS!!!

The new address for this website is: http://kamox.altervista.org/f4p&ug/index.htm

March 19th, 2007: Even if this site is dedicated to the "original" Falcon 4.0, created by Microprose, I think it's worth mentioning that a small software house is selling an updated version of the game (they've used the code from the commmunity-created SP3 patch), named "Falcon 4.0: Allied Force" with a brand-new manual and package. They're fully supporting it and you can visit their web site to know where to buy it and to download the latest updates.
Concerning the original Falcon 4.0 and its developments, you can check this little guide in order to update your copy of the game with the latest patches.
Also, check this list for some useful material and some interesting readings in Frugal's World forum.

July 23rd, 2006: 300.000 hits since this site has been launched, exactly six years ago. The funny thing is that I did very minor updates to it since Spring 2004; it's a good thing people keep visiting it, I guess... I've no F4-related news for the moment, maybe in the future. By the way, check out the site me and a couple of friends built following our passion for racing in the Nürburgring Nordschleife: Ringers.it (it's all in Italian, but you can visit the Multimedia section for some serious photo galleries and videos).

November 15th, 2005: Hello! I was surfing the net the other day and thought: "Let's check if the Falcon 4 community is still alive and working". It is! Ktel has issued a One-Click Install patch which can be applied to a standard F4 installation. No other files needed (except BMS', if you want)! I couldn't resist, so I've updated the site accordingly. I don't know if there will be other updates in the future, but enjoy these news for the moment!

March 20th, 2005: From now on, you can check the optimal installation sequence at Frugal's World forum: there's an excellent SP4 guide made by Swampy which is constantly updated as new patches come out. This, along with his other guide, which contains other links and resources, form a perfect vademecum for the Falcon 4.0 world.
The reason I'm telling you this, is because I've decided not to update this site anymore. I have now very little time to follow the continuous developments of our beloved sim. Therefore, the information on this page may become outdated and, for a site which aims to be a guide to other people, that would be pointless. I hope you found useful and enjoyed this little site as much as I've had fun in building and improving it during these years. We have seen many improvements in Falcon 4.0 thanks to the work of many people, and I hope that the community which supports this sim will stay brilliant and healthy for a long time.
Goodbye,
Kamox

November 21st, 2004: The SP4.2, a high resolution add-on for SP4, has been released, along with its BMS data patch. Now the installation sequence (which you find explained in detail in the "Newbies/Setup Guide" section) is: Falcon 4 CD > 108us > SP4 > SP4.2 > BMS 2.0 > BMS SP4.2 data. Enjoy!

May 28th, 2004: The SP4.1 Hotfix is out. Patch it over a SP4 installation. Click here to get it. The BMS v. 2.0 patch is also ready, but I'm still waiting until a reliable URL for download is set up.

February 27th, 2004: The SP4 IS OUT! I updated the whole page but, as I'm still not sure whether the SP4 is compatible with FreeFalcon 2 and BMS, I've put a warning in the Newbies/Setup Guide. Enjoy the show!

January 2nd, 2004: Hard work in progress at Benchmarksim... the patch v. 1.03 has just been released!

January 1st, 2004: Happy new year! The BMS v. 1.02 patch has been released, promising an exciting year for you falconeers out there!

{|} Newbies/Setup Guide {|}

You've just bought a copy of "the new benchmark in flight sim technology". But you notice that the game is just a benchmark for software bugs. So, would you like also to play with this game, and not only experience system crashes? If your answer is yes, follow these simple steps:

1- I assume you've got the American/International version of Falcon 4.0. Defragment your hard disk, then install the game. If you are using Win98 Second Edition, erase the file msvcrt.dll found in your Falcon 4 main directory. Reboot your PC. Now, if you have a recent PC, proceed to point 2. Otherwise, if you have an older machine (i.e. less than 1,5 Ghz CPU, less than 256 Mb of RAM, GeForce2 or slower video card), I suggest you to install Microprose's official patch v.1.08, reboot, then install the Realism Patch 5. It does not have all the features of the latest patches, but it requires less CPU work and it's still a great piece of software. Moreover, the cockpit is much simpler to manage than the one which comes with the SP4, as many functions aren't modeled: for a newbie, that's a plus. Once you've downloaded the file, unzip it and execute the installer. That's all. If you want to install optional features, check the provided readme file.

2- Click on a letter in the mirror sites list in the table below to get the SuperPak 4.2 One-Click Installer. Because of the size of this patch (over 250 megabytes!), I suggest you to use a download utility like GetRight if you don't have a DSL or faster connection. The best thing you can do is starting the download with the utility program then adding the various URLs as "alternate" locations in case the server from which you're getting the file breaks the connection. Once you have the file, unzip it to a directory of your choice. Execute the unzipped file and follow the instructions provided. Reboot your computer.

3- Download and install the BMS 2.0 patch, then the BMS SP 4.2 data patch. Voila'! You have the most recent version of the game! Should you experience serious issues such as bugs, crashes to desktop and so on, uninstall Falcon 4 from your hard disk, download and execute this utility, reboot, then re-install the game following points 1 and 2 (i.e.: no BMS patch). If you want to try other interesting utilities, check the following section of this site. But remember: they can serioulsy mess up your installation if not used in the right way. You're using them at your own risk! Also, check the "Falcon 4" section of Frugal's World Forums: there are many useful files, guides and links listed in there!

{|} Must-have files {|}

{|} Add-on campaign theatres {|}

{|} Reference sites {|}

• Frugal's World: currently the best site for Falcon 4, period. Here you could find files and news which aren't posted on other sites. A quite big database and the most active and interesting forum concerning the sim.

• Falcon 4.0 official forum: once the Community's lighthouse, known as "the Delphi forum" (because of the platform it used), the official forum has now been transferred to Infogrames' official site. The interface is of course different from that of the old forum, which will be closed by Infogrames itself.

• Delphi Forum: it's still online! Enjoy it while it lasts!

• The Falcon's Nest: do you miss the good old Delphi forum? This is an unofficial area where you can meet the people who contributed the most to keep alive the community. And it's under Delphi, of course.

• F4 Community: this site is the new point of reference for the community. Pleasing graphics, up-to-the-minute news and a huge database. Bookmark it.

• F4UT Homepage: The Falcon 4 Unified Team put together the skills of the people who brought us the eFalcon patches and the Reality Patches. With the blessings of G2Interactive, this team developed astonishing works.

• Flight Hangar.net: former F4Freeware.net, a German site mantained by Terrapin. It's the biggest Falcon 4 file library on the net. Due to the high cost of mantaining such a bandwidth-demanding site, you've to pay a small fee to access the file database. Some files are still available as free downloads. Very quick if you live in Europe.

• Check Six: this is a French site which is frequently updated with the latest additions for F4 (patches, utilities, new cockpits, etc.). Very well organised and easy to browse, with a vey big database.

• Viperwear: I think the author of these skins for the F-16 (and for other aircrafts, too!) is the best around. Try to believe :-).

• Swissflight - Falcon 4: It's hard to say whether the excellent skins on this site are better or not than those found on Viperwear. I suggest to check often both sites, as they really provide state-of-the-art skins.

[ Last updates | Newbies guide | Must-have files | Add-on Campaign Theatres | Reference sites ]