What sim impacted you the most?

[Marvin]

Ok, obviously everyone here has flown all titles or latest tiles of the Falcon series, so neither of these count.

Curious what simulation back in the 90s had impacted you the most... 

Mine was "Back to Baghdad".  I really did enjoy that sim and played it quite a bit while waiting for Falcon 4.0 to release.  It really was the most realistic avionics simulator from that time implementing SOI modes etc.  Too bad I never seen the sim past about 15 fps as it was a real PC hog.  But certainly will never forget that sim.

And go!

[Hagakure]

I'm gonna embarrass myself with this but it was "Top Gun - Fire at Will" from Spectrum Holobyte circa 1996. Really hard to call it a sim but it counted for me only because it was the first time I ever "flew" any plane on a computer and I loved it. I remember sitting at a desk and was banking hard to the right. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window and saw that I was leaning over in the chair. It may not have been anything compared to BMS but it was the one that got me hooked.

[Road218]

U.S. Navy Fighters by Janes. Then every Janes Sim until falcon 4.

[Marvin]

U.S. Navy Fighters by Janes. Then every Janes Sim until falcon 4.

I tried SO hard to get into Janes Sims.  Bought them all, but they were like DCS for me today.  Could never get into them. 

[James R. Stern]

Back in those days it was Origins Strike Commander. Also no real complex Sim I liked it a lot. And as its available via GOG.com I still play it today from time to time 

[sagrzmnky]

Jane's had video clips of different Fighter Jets. I use to sit and watch those all the time.

[salaxi54]

It was Sublogic's Flight Simulator II on the Amiga back in '87. Ultra-fun early project, where me and a friend set up two FM transmitters and receivers instead of the 'normal' 300Baud modems that were supported for 2-player mode. Then followed F-18 Interceptor (not really a sim), and Blue Angels both on the Amiga computer.

[Red Dog]

Tornado from digital integration,
and close behind, strike eagle III, especially playing from the backseat
then would be EF2000

all pretty centred on avionics and I loved them all

[Marvin]

Tornado from digital integration,
and close behind, strike eagle III, especially playing from the backseat
then would be EF2000

all pretty centred on avionics and I loved them all

Yes!  I remember playing in the back seat of Janes F15 III with a null modem cable and that was back in 94 or something like that.  And we don’t have that today with BMS. 

[PePe]

Hmm, FS of course (from the first version !).

In terms of military jet sims, this is clearly Fleet Defender from Microprose.

First carrier flights, first backseat flights, first re-skin work (with Paint...)... mission editor with some nice stuff like Ready-5 and SAR able to launch from the carrier when events dictates... awesome experience.

I still have it on my computer, along with F-19, another sim I cherish.

[Marvin]

As much as appreciate more what we have today and that is dying sum community of high fidelity sims and so few of them.  I really do miss the 90s era when sims were released almost monthly and there were so many different ones to enjoy.

[Doc]

Back in those days it was Origins Strike Commander. Also no real complex Sim I liked it a lot. And as its available via GOG.com I still play it today from time to time 

+1, flying through the canyons in a particular mission

[Fhyndoh]

Sierra's A-10 tankbuster II got me into jet sims, but i also enjoyed TIE Fighter. Then one of my friends asked me to help him work out how to play  a new sim he'd brought...that was F4, and the rest arrived in 3-4 weeks...

[lightning]

For me, one of the more fun & engaging sims of the 90's era was European Air War.

[Catcher]

I remember the very first sim; F19 on a monochrome screen
Then it was Retaliator, that blew me away.
Spend hours at F22 Red Sea operations, that give me the first real mission sensation.

And then there was that day I found a real F16 panel....

Now BMS is part of my life, and respect to the developping team

[Azul]

for me "Novalogic F-16 Multirole Fighter" and "Jane's USAF"

[HOLLYWOOD]

I can ditto almost all of these.. Jane's were definitely top 5.. all of the Microsoft flight simulators I was really into. hmm.. Flanker and Flanker 2.0, f-22 lightning 3, JSF, some other good ones in there.

But I think the sim I played the most was A-10 Cuba by ParaSoft.. something about the movement and physics in that game just hooked me in.

The more I think about this, the more I go down a rabbit hole of remembering all the different 'sims' i've played over the years.. it's crazy how many options there were back then...

[avn-tech]

actually what got me into aircraft, was growing up on the approach end to McClellan AFB. All day long I would watch aircraft coming and  going from the base. Later I joined the USAf Reserves at the base (406 CLSS), and worked on A-10's, F-111, F-15's, F-4's, T-37's, B-52's & KC-135's.

Later I was accepted into the Army Warrent Officer pilot program, but the USAF Reserve's refused to release me and I lost my spot. I jumped to the Army as soon as I could and ended up as an operation specialist. I was assigned to Edwards AFB working flight test, and got to fly about 5-10 hrs a month.

Then recruited by LAPD and left active duty, and went into the guard as NCOIC of flight Ops at Los Alamitos. Then NCOIC of A2C2 (airspace command & control).

Then one day LAPD sent me to guard aircraft at the Van Nuys airshow after hours. While there I was talking to a C-130 load master, who told me they were looking for Flight Engineer's. Call to the unit, meet with the chief, and then lateral to the CA Air Guard as a C-130E Flight Engineer. Recalled to Active duty for 5 years (and loved every minute of it). Released back to my job at LAPD (22 1/2 years now), and the CA Air Guard as they phased out the C-130E's for C-130j'S. So I latered into Civil Engineering as a Generator Mechanic, and retired with 28 years of Service, with 15 years of Active Duty.

During this time, I started to collect warbirds (PT-19, L-5, BT-13, Yak-52 and one WW II fighter). This led me to doing movie props on the side and eventually to viper pits and flight sims. I also collect aircraft manuals and flight gear.

Currenty, I am working on several flight simulators (F-16B, F-16C,F-18, F-15, P-51 ad a-37B).

Laterrrrrrr
Avn-Tech

[Rufus]

What really did it for me was that I got to fly an A-10 full-up cockpit/sim at WPAFB during a tour when I was a college student...and the only one in that student crowd that actually knew a little bit about airplanes.  So I was "spoiled" rotten from the beginning by that A-10, even before I found out about Falcon or desktop simming.

After that experience that A-10, other military Trainers, and the Falcon series (once I discovered it) became the gold standards against which I measure every desktop sim - they all have strengths and weaknesses (including Falcon and BMS), but F4/BMS is the absolute best air combat sim out there and I've very little interest in any other one, as far as combat sims go.

OTOH - if you're looking to develop, design, or do simulated "flight test", you simply can't beat X Plane as a tool.

[Pekay]

Reading these posts sure do bring back a lot of great memories. Yup "Strike Commander" was the one that hooked me. My son and I would take turns trying to out-fly and out earn each other. Thanks for the trip down memory lane guys.

Pekay

[Cupra]

U.S. Navy Fighters

Same here. But not the version from Jane´s, it was the original version from EA. Jane´s made the remake (1:1 copy) 3 years later because EA called every flightsim Jane´s Still have the original Box, Handbook, Disc within 2m or range. This game started my sim life.

But in 1994 they had deck operations, cat officer and so on.. and for example DCS... nothing after more than 20 years time for developement 

[Sneakpeek]

Same with me - USNF and Tornado started it. Later ATF Gold - where you could virtually fly everything - the intro movie even suggested that X-31's would enter operational service and fly combat missions. Then, even later, I liked USAF a lot.