Very early versions of Flight Simulator could be viewed as abandonware. Nevertheless not everything is so simple like at first sight, especially abandonware. We can distribute abandonware for free, but with permission of copyrights owner and it is a problem. Some companies and software distributors already do not exist or another company bought them. The companies become owners of copyrights but do not support very old software or even do not know about its old ownership. Then abandonware is distributed with silent tolerance. Unfortunately, sometimes somebody try to distribute not so old and still selling products. In addition, it is necessary to respect copyrights of shareware and freeware programs (the most of emulators and ROMs). Therefore, I have to keep all agreements and I can not share all files which I have.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00 for IBM PC (black and white monitor) - Chicago Meigs Field airport

           It is wonderful that there are programs called "emulators". The emulators are programs which emulate some virtual hardware environment (for example early IBM PC, Amiga, Apple II, Data General/One and so on) and they can run early Flight Simulators on current computers. One of the best emulator is a multi-emulator called MESS (Multiple Emulator Super System). It can emulate many computer platforms. The problem is to find right setup for disk images and the emulator itself. Next great problem is to have disk images. When you have original tapes, floppies or cartridges you can use them in original hardware only (Atari, Amiga, TRS-80 and so on). When you would like to use this software in emulator on PC, you need these old Flight Simulators convert to a special suitable format - virtual disk image. After long research I found right MESS set up for 21 versions (included A2-3D1 demonstration) of 11 computer platforms for early versions of subLOGIC/Microsoft Flight Simulators. On a picture below you can see an interface screen. There are three columns:  a list of computer platforms on the left, icons of Flight Simulator disk images for each platform in the center and cycling screenshots on the right. Choose computer on the left and double click at some disk image icon in the middle will start Flight Simulator. The interface is very user friendly.

The interface of Multiple Emulator Super System (MESS)

Briefly, you can use the emulator MESS in accordance with following rules: The program itself is freeware and it is available on above shown homepage. For emulation of each hardware platforms is necessary to have ROMs. They are copyrighted material and it is not allowed to distribute them together with MESS. It is possible to download them and use only in case you are owner of each real computer platform. Next, you need Flight Simulator programs in the special format of floppy disk images or hard disk images. Finally, you need to create suitable setup of MESS. How to do this construction kit working together?

1. Download MESS emulator (4,5MB) for Windows and unzip the file anywhere on your hard disk. It is version 0.118 which include my setup and screenshots.

2. Download twelve ROM files (1,3MB together) called : a500n.zip, apple2e.zip, apple2ee.zip, atvga.zip, coco3.zip, ibmpc.zip, macplus.zip, msx2.zip, pc.zip, c64.zip, trs80.zip and trs80l2a.zip. Copy them into a “roms” subfolder (do not unzip them).

All ROMs are available here as well. Unzip the roms.zip file into "roms" subfolder. Do not unzip the individual ROMs.

3. Download Flight Simulator disk images (7.5 MB) and unzip the file into a “software” subfolder. Make sure you have structure of subfolders similar to a picture below.

Right directories structure of MESS

When you manage to complete the small puzzle correctly, you can start each version of Flight Simulator by above described interface. Start MESS by “messgui.exe“ file. An important key is Scroll Lock, which switches keyboard control between MESS and Flight Simulator (it is especially important for Macintosh emulation or Amiga emulation). For subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Color Computer 3 is important that when BASIC starts, you have to type command DOS and hit Enter. The same for subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Commodore 64, the command is RUN. The C 64 FS II version is the cassette tape version. The disk image of this version does not include the second side of the tape. It means that WW I Ace mode is not included.

My compilation covers whole early history of Flight Simulator. You can see the first ever Flight Simulator "demo", the first generation for Apple II and TRS-80, the second generation for few type of computers and you can compare graphic differences (Apple II, Color Computer 3, C 64, Data General/One, IBM PC, Tandy), you can see the third generation as well for few type of computers (Macintosh, Amiga, IBM PC). There are following versions or modifications running within MESS:

- subLOGIC 3D Graphics package - demonstration, a Load and Go manual,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator 1 for Apple II, a manual,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator 1 for TRS-80, a manual,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator with torpedo attack for MSX,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Apple II sub-version 1.0,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Apple II sub-version 2.0,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Color Computer 3,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Commodore 64,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Amiga,

- subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Data General/One,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00 for IBM PC,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.05 for IBM PC,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.10 for IBM PC, a manual,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.12 for IBM PC,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.12 for Tandy 1000/1200HD/2000,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.13 for IBM PC,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.14 for IBM PC and PS/2,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00 for Apple Macintosh,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.02 for Apple Macintosh,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 for PC,

- Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0 for PC.

In case you will have any problem, just let me know. I will try to help you. It is not easy to fly old versions of Flight Simulator.

Credits:

           I spent much money to get original old versions of Flight Simulator. What was important, I need above mentioned disk images. Some of them I found on Internet but the rarest versions did not exist. I bought the versions on eBay and sent a copy to Jeff Leyda who lives in USA. Thanks to his great job I got back disk images of Flight Simulator 2.12 for Tandy computers, Flight Simulator 2.14 for IBM PC and PS/2, Flight Simulator II for Data General/One.

           The same great thanks deserve to Mark Percival from Canada who made a disk image of subLOGIC Flight Simulator 1 for Apple II as well as a disk image of A2-3D1 demonstration.

           Next great thanks deserve to Brian Ties from USA who made a disk image of subLOGIC Flight Simulator II for Apple II sub-version 2.0.

© 2005 - 2011 Josef  H a v l í k