Best Use Of 1980's Music In A Video Short Goes To...

 

Evolution Of F-4 Phantom In Combat Flight Simulators (1989 - 2025)

I've played a few of these games and they never seemed as bad as they clearly are now.

Willing suspension of disbelief is real!  I was more willing then than now.

Entirely Too Cool

 LLTV Simulator for X-Plane!

This is why I love flight sims.  Not that I own a computer that can handle much of one anymore.

Uff Dah

And here I was thinking that the computer to run DCS was prohibitively expensive.  Two grand or so...

The stick, throttle, rudder pedals are about $1,000 for good ones.

Add another $300 for switch panels.

And another $850 for the multi-function displays and center controller...

Then you will have a decent simulacrum of an F/A-18C cockpit.

There's a reason that I don't flight sim any more!

Accepting Reality

I like flight sims.

I used to sit at my computer and fly all manner of planes in a virtual space.

But not for a long time despite still having the computer and software I last used.

I've been watching videos of people playing Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) and got excited for a while to play this new, gorgeous, sim.

I started accumulating information on what my new computer would need to be and...

I'm never going to save up the money.

It's not a matter of getting the money together.  It's that I don't want this new, expensive, computer to play a game more than I want dozens of other pass-times.

Let's face it, except for this game, it's not going to do any other computer thing I wanna do better than a far cheaper machine.

So, with a heavy heart, I unsubscribed from the channels where I'd been watching other people play the game and stopped going to forums dedicated to it.

I've got mixed emotions.  There's a measure of sadness to let this hobby go, but also no small amount of relief too.

Amusing

Among the funniest things I've read about recently is someone complaining about getting their asses handed to them on one of the DCS servers trying to fly an attack mission.

They and their "squadron" were flying along and essentially ignoring all the indications of Red-Team F-14s.  After all, they were flying low and could notch the radar of the enemy Tomcats, no problem.

Then one of them got a very short indication of a Phoenix and exploded.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

Until they were all dead.

WTF happened? They wondered.

One of them hit one of the DCS forums and started asking around about the username who'd nailed them.

Turns out it's four people who nailed them.

They're old buddies from the Navy.  Two F-14 crews who've found that the simulation is sufficiently realistic that all their old tricks still work.  Including hand tuning the non-Doppler modes to pick out low flying planes who're trying to notch the filter and firing in a profile that gave the minimum active time for the missiles.

Look Out Grumman and H&K

AM General loses trademark lawsuit over use of Humvee in video game.

I was a pretty avid flight sim junky and I noticed the lack of several planes in the Pacific theater.

The TBF Avenger being the most noticeable.

The reason?  Grumman sued the balls of people who attempted to use the plane in their game because they owned the trademark on "Avenger" when associated with airplanes.

From the cancelled A-12A program and TBF, they felt they owned the use of the name.

Never mind they didn't apply the name to the plane.  Never mind that General Motors has as good a claim to the name because they made a lot of TBM Avengers.

Never mind the people whom really own these planes are the citizens of the USA.  TBF and TBM are the official US Navy designations, not Grumman's.  It was designed in accordance to a US Navy requirement and every single plane was paid for by us.  Avengers in foreign service were resold and the money put back into the treasury.

I eagerly await the TBM in DCS...

Christmas Is Just Around The Corner

Not sure where I'd put it...

DECM Training Film

The basic ideas from this film are still in play today.

Between JT and Brad I think we could come up with something that works "correctly" in the game that doesn't violate anyone's classification or export laws.

Thud

Coming "real soon now" to DCS!

Razbam has indicated they're going to make a module for the F-105!

Almost certainly the F-105D, the most numerous variation and since ECM is teh suxxor in the game, an F-105G would be nearly pointless.

I'm kinda excited.

Leatherneck Simulations is working on an F-8J Crusader.

Two of my perennial favorites, and there's already a Turkey and Bug!

The hilarious thing about ECM sucking hind tit in most flight sims is the concepts are very simple.  There's YouTube postings of 1960's era training films explaining how most of the systems work in bold strokes.

The problem is while the concepts are simple and the basics are long declassified... it's way easy to end up in trouble making the systems work like they're rumored to work, and lots of the people involved have had access to the real thing.

You have to prove that you figured out how the ALQ-XX worked from public sources, and furthermore, didn't use your classified knowledge to steer your research into them.  That's nearly impossible.

It'd take someone like me, who's never had the secret materials before them, to do the research for the game...

Hmmmmmm!

I'm going to need me some help on the coding side, I am sure, but this might be something someone could make a bit of money on selling module updates.

Buffalo

Brewster Buffalo, that is.

Counter Jockey has seen Midway and the topic of the F2A has come up.

It's a plane I flew a lot in IL-2 because I liked playing in the Finn campaign.

You get to shoot communists and you don't have to play a Nazi!

A plane I got scary good with in that sim is the B-239E.

That's an F2A-1 with a bigger engine and all the naval stuff removed.

It's a solid performer against the Soviet planes of the time.

Good range, predictable performance.

One thing that stood out was how difficult it was to land in the game.  You really need to grease it in or it bounces really bad and it wants to roll over.

Come to think on it, I also got good with the FM-1 Wildcat and P-40 against zeros and oscars.

More Than One Lex?

A teaching mission for DCS got some assistance from an F/A-18 pilot named "Lex".

This is not OUR Lex.

The Hornet community can't be very big, he's GOT to know.

I Think I Just Dodged Spending A Lot Of Money

The game, despite how good the GOOD is, the bad is very BAD.

Not worth the money for the new machine, new HOTAS, VR rig and then the expensive modules.

It makes me sad.

Just Takes Buckets Of Money

Say you just dropped $1,500 on a new PC to play DCS.

Say you simply must play the F-14, because Maverick and Goose.  $80.  Your RIO has to plunk down for the machine and their own copy of the plane too.

Because immersion is all...  You need some HOTAS.

Virpil makes a stick that sure mimics the F-14 one.  Cleverly named the VFX.  €159.95 ($175.72) and that is JUST the part you grab with the buttons and switches.

You'll need a base, €169.95 ($186.71); and an extension to connect them, €49.95 ($54.88)

Then you're going to need a throttle.

Virpel VPC MongoosT-50CM2 for €269.95 ($296.57)
or
Thrustmaster Warthog for $299.99

≈$715

There's an alternate plan where you buy the Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS bundle, then replace the stick handle and add the extension.

$661.80

Then pedals...

Virpel VPC ACE-1 €299.95 ($329.53)
or
Thrustmaster TPR $533.99!!!

Yeah...

$1,200 on top of a $1,500 game machine and I'm not even sure that the game machine has the VR goggles included.

Of course you can go cheaper.  Stick to the Warthog HOTAS for $446.97 and use the much cheaper Thrustmaster TFRP pedals for $89.99.  $536.96.

Still Need More Smoke

The F-16CM block 50 has hit DCS for early release.

Lots of stuff is not yet enabled.

Watching a few vids on YouTube about it is like a walk down Falcon 4.0 Memory Lane.

I'm one of the people who downloaded the realism patches and had the full start-up on the ramp enabled.

I am so familiar with what they're showing from all the time I spent playing Falcon...

DCS is also now the first combat flight sim to have all four teen fighters native to the game.

F-14B (A coming soon), F-15C, F-16CM/50 and F/A-18C lot 20.

Shut up and take my money?

Well...

So far, only the F-15C is full release and it's running the standard model for the systems.  The others are at various stages of pre and open release but run full advanced system modeling (every switch works or will work and every system works or will work).

I'm excited that flight sims are experiencing a renaissance.

I am bummed that I don't have the system to even begin to enjoy it.

I'm squirreling those pennies though!

Also on my list of wants is the announced F-4 Phantom (likely a late model F-4E) and F-8J Crusader.

I Need A New Computer

The screen shots from the upcoming MS Flight Simulator 2020 are very impressive.

The details about flying in DCS are very impressive.

The flight-sim monkey on my back is chattering.

Atari F-14B

If you own the DCS F-14B module and are bored in the RIO pit...

Go down to computer address panel's keyboard and punch in:

2 - 3 - 1 - 4 - 1 - 5 - 9 - 2 - 7 - ENTER

You can now play Asteroids on the tactical information display.

Damn Cryptids!

So, in the midst of financial distress from car repairs, I try to distract myself by seeing what it would take to get a machine that will run VR with DCS...

The fookin' video card that's recommended runs $500!

I do recall when a top of the line vid card was a mere $150.  Damn!  I got old and inflation got past me.

I am reliably informed that the reason video cards are running pricy is these are what crypto-currency farmers use to work on the Al Gore Rhythms.  Music is important to cryptic dollars, apparently.

Great Minds

It would appear that Leatherneck Simulations is going to be making an F-8 module for DCS!

Excellent!

Thag Want Lurn

Been reading about DCS World.

That sure is neat.  I do love a good flight sim.

I also love me the F-8 Crusader.

Since the game is modular, in theory one could make their own plane module and offer it up for sale.

I don't know how, but I might have enough friends to bootstrap it.

But which version to get stupid detailed about?  The most numerous version?

218 F8U-1 were made, redesignated to F-8A in 1962.
130 F8U-1E were made, redesignated to F-8B in 1962.  63 were rebuilt into F-8L
187 F8U-2 were made, redesignated to F-8C in 1962.  87 were rebuilt into F-8K.
152 F8U-2N were made, redesignated to F-8D in 1962.  89 were rebuilt into F-8H.
286 F8U-2NE were made, redesignated to F-8E in 1962.  136 were rebuilt into F-8J.

I think the F-8E is the winner here.  Bigger radar than earlier version, more air-to-ground capability thanks to the wing pylons, approach power compensator to make landing easier...

The "big" question is whether to make it the post-66 Project SHOEHORN model with the AN/ALQ-51 ECM and AN/ALE-29 chaff dispensers.  Lose some cannon ammo though.