Flight Unlimited

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Flight Unlimited
developer Looking Glass Studios
Publisher Looking Glass Studios
Eidos Interactive
Electronic Arts
First title Flight Unlimited (1995)
Last title Flight Unlimited III (1999)
Platform (s) MS-DOS , Windows , Mac OS
Genre (s) Flight simulation

Flight Unlimited is a series of civil flight simulation programs published by software manufacturer Looking Glass Studios as a competitor to Microsoft Flight Simulator .

description

A total of three titles in the series, Flight Unlimited , Flight Unlimited II (short: FU2) and Flight Unlimited III (short: FU3) , appeared in the period from 1995 until the entire series was discontinued due to the bankruptcy of the software producer in 1999.

While the first part could still run under MS-DOS , the other titles required Windows 98 .

What all parts had in common was the idea of ​​the designer to limit the flight area (scenery) to a small section, but to represent it photo-realistic and very detailed with satellite images . In contrast to this, the then current MS Flight Simulator 98 was able to carry out flights all over the world, but the graphics in the landscape representation left a lot to be desired.

Thematically, the first episode differs from the other publications in that aerobatics were in the foreground and less general aviation with flights based on visual or instrument navigation.

Looking Glass Studios also set standards with its series that were only integrated into Microsoft products many years later. FU2 already had a sophisticated air traffic control (ATC) with digitized voices, which from then on enriched the flight experience, as the player was now traveling in an airspace populated by artificial intelligence, in which it was absolutely necessary to follow the instructions of air traffic control. From starting the engines on the apron, taxiing to the runway, take-off, en route and landing - the simulated ATC kept a watchful eye over all processes. A comparable feature can only be found at Microsoft from MS FS 2002 .

In the third and last part, the weather system in particular was greatly expanded and set standards with moving front systems, rain, snow and thunderstorms. The scenery from "FU2" could be imported. The program also included developer tools for its own scenarios and airplanes and a lively community still maintains good support with new airplanes, scenarios and adventures for the flight mission mode integrated from FU2 , which gave the simulator a playful dimension and ensured high entertainment value you have a very specific reason to fly from A to B to do this or that.

Overall, Flight Unlimited convinced the professional world and found many loyal followers, especially in the USA , as the scenes are located here. In FU2 you fly in the Bay Area of San Francisco , in the successor in the greater Seattle area . But there were also ambitious projects among the fans. B. provided an English scenery.

title

  • Flight Unlimited, 1995
  • Flight Unlimited II, 1997
  • Flight Unlimited III, 1999

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