I am 14 and I'm still slaving away in school. I'm Japanese, But I've lived
in Nova Scotia Canada for 5 years and that's when I picked up my English.
It's been close to 6 years since I came back, But I still haven't lost
my English ;) (Unli mai speling und gremmer wer losut..........)
First encounter
I first started using PCs when my Dad brought back a big laptop known as
a Macintosh from the workplace.... It had a nice-looking color screen .
I was dying to touch it! I first played arcade-style shoot-'em-ups like
Invader. Soon, My dad bought a Power Macintosh. It had all the stuff I
wanted for that time! I remember when I touched it for the first time -Instant
love!-. The first ever flight-sim was F/A-18 1.0 by Graphic Simulations
Corp (GSC). It had the best looking 4-sided mountains and 2d sky-background
of the time. I've been shooting away at Iraqi aircraft for as long as my
Dad let me :) It was tremendous fun. I always thought I was a hot-pilot
and was trying and failing to drop 2 B-57s on a dam and make it out! lol.
The SAMs always shot me up during the Egress. I also remember when I finally
completed that mission! Was I ever happy! I still was a black crater beside
the runway though... I got shot up and lost my brakes but didn't notice
until I tried to land. I also lost 1 engine during the attack and the 2nd
died out when I was 5 miles from base. When I set up my approach, I came
in a bit fast and high. Deployed my speed brakes and flaps. I extended
the landing gear at the last moment and safely touched down. Boy was I
glad!!! 'Til I noticed I lost my brakes..... I soon turned into a frantic
monkey trying to stop the plane on all fours. I got the craft down to 50knts
and was running out of runway! I made (Or tried to) a turn to the right
to kill my speed. Instead of turning, I flipped over and BOOM! That killed
my speed as well as my pilot. lol
I also had one of the earliest versions of Falcon (Micropose). It had poor
graphics when compared to GSC Hronet 1.0 and I never got tied to that sim-err..
game.
I've been playing F/A-18-based-games for a loong time. After Hornet 1.0,
I got 1.1.1, Then, 2.0 and the, I got 3.0 (This was a real dissapointment).
Later on, Jane's would release the ultimate F/A-18 sim.
My first encounter with Flight Simulator was FS4. I remember buying add-on
scenery for Chicago and seeing the extra 3d Gray dull buildings it added.
for it's time though, It was the best-looking 1st-class buildings. I flew
around in Cessnas until our newest computer came.....
Sequel....
After we got our Power Mac, My Dad bought another computer. This time,
an IBM APTIVA with a 75MHz Pentium. For it's day, It was the fastest, Most
expensive. lol. I've played "Aegis Fleet defender" "Gunship"
"Apache" "Comanche vs Werewolf" "Longbow Apache"
"F-15E Strike Eagle III" And the best- "F-22 Lightining
II". I still remember when I would fly around in my Comanche finding
targets in a rather small "Map". It was extremly fun, But never
too "realistic". "F-22 Lightning II" had the best looking
graphics, Good missions and was extremly fun to fly. But I suffered from
being shot down by the darned Rebel EF2000s...... I'm no hot-pilot after
all.. lol.
We brought all of our computers back to Japan. My Dad installed a 540mb
HD into the IBM which I thought was pretty interesting. (Later on, It turned
out I was using the same book my Dad used to install his 540mb HD into
a 75Mhz IBM to install a 20GIG HD to my 466MHz PC. I am still amazed at
how quickly the PC evolved, But how some parts would never change). I kept
on playing F-22 and Longbow Apache until we got another PC. This time,
another IBM Aptiva, With a Pentium MMX 233MHz.
We'll all get blown back to the stone age!!!
I bought Jane's Fighters Anthology (Similar to Jane's ATF). it featured
a dazzling 100+ flyable planes!!! This was also the first time I flew online
(It was also the last). Online flying was very fun for me, Even with an
arcade-type flightsim. I didn't mind getting my a$$ kicked as long as I
learn something new from that fight. My favorite plane in Fighters Anthology
was the X-32. A great V/STOL plane that can do stuff you wouldn't even
dream of! lol.
I remember when I was twiddling with LIBS. LIBs are the data files which
contain the weapons/aircraft data. By editing LIBs (Library), You can change
weapon strengths etc... I downloaded a few and was playing around with
them. They were quite amusing, But I got bored of them quite easily so
I went back to online flying. When you fly online, There are rules that
no 3rd-party LIBs are allowed. If somebody has a different LIB, The game
will not start correctly.
Anyway, When I went online, I checked and double-checked that I did not
have any 3rd-party LIBs installed. Went into an ABA (AirBase Assault) game
where the rules are simple, Destroy the other guys base before he destroys
yous! We played 2-on-2. On this game, We had specific rules that we could
not change the aircraft that randomly came up (6 different aircraft are
randomly chosen when you start up ABA). I laughed when my aircraft came
up. It went like this:
A-1D Skyraider
Mig-31 Foxhound
Mig-23 Flogger
F-8J Crusader
Mirage III
C-130
All the other guys were lucky. They had F-22s and B-1Bs and Su-27s and
all those high-tech monsters. I had vintage aircraft.....
Anyway, To the loading screen. FA had lots of ordnance to choose from.
From unguided rockets to the LGBs of today. Since all of my aircraft were
old stuff, I wasn't able to load all the newer stuff such as Paveway III
LGBs and AGM-65s. I was loaded up with MK-82s and MK-84s with the Ocassional
GBU-10...............
The Game starts........
I start off with the C-130 trying to be a decoy so the other guy in my
team can sneak up to the enemy in his Su-34 and drop his weapons......
I was shot dwon from 100 miles away by a AAALM fired from an Su-35......
LOL.. Kept on trying different things.. Then, It came down to only 2 aircraft
left for me..... The Mig-23 and Mirage 2000.... Both had 2 GBU-10s each.........
I chose the Mirage III. Flew in low and fast (50ft). Nobody would think
a single Mirage III would be able to destroy a whole airbase! I didn't
either!! The GBU-10s told me otherwise!!!!
I got shot at by SAMs when I popped up to deliver my DEADLY GBU-10s.... I targeted them both for a HAS (Hardened Aircraft Shelter).
Off they went, Out I went on full afterburner....... A few seconds later,
I was rewarded by a SLIDESHOW!!!! Those GBU-10s were actually LIBed to
be NUKIES!!!! I wondered what I had done wrong!!!... I was grinning all
the way back to home base..... The enemy base was completely destroyed...
With only 2 bombs. LOL.
We won the game by a mere 5 seconds... Good thing the Mirage wasn't too
slow.
After the game, I apologized for the bombs and told them what they were
(I didn't know what they were either! lol)
I checked my LIBs after I left to make sure I didn't have any 3rd party
stuf.... All checked OK......... Hmmmm....
To this day, I haven't been able to find out what happened to those GBU-10s...
Maybe somebody changed the warhead while in flight ;) I did not even dream
about having Nukies on board! If I knew, I would never had loaded them.
Best Regards to the guys who got nuked by me by accident. It really was
an accident!
Second M$ encounter....
My second FS was FS 95. It looked great, But wasn't so great....... I still
didn't know about downloading aircraft and adding them so I was using default
stuff and it got pretty boring easily..... I went back to F/A-18 to go
kill some virtual pilots ;)
Jane's will come and save the world...
I also bought Jane's F-15. This had a recommended system waaay over our
Pentium MMX 233MHz. It was left on the shelf collecting dust until I got
my own PC. The one I have right now.
Sony VAIO
Celeron 466MHz
440BX Chipset
ATi Rage 128 8mb Video card
10GB HD 4400RPM
17in Monitor
32x CD-ROM
I loved Jane's F-15, But I could never master the avoinics of this plane!!!
Too complex!! Day in and Day out I loaded up with bombs and try to bomb
the core out of the earth.. This game was great, but it was somehow missing
something............ Hmmmmm..?? Aha! Carrier Ops!
Enter Jane's F/A-18E SuperHornet.
This is something like a sequel to Jane's F-15 and it's just as good but
with Carrier Ops as well! It was (And is) excellent. I had to plead to
get my parents let me buy this! My Defense Budget is shrinking in favor
of new clothes and hardware! lol!
3rd M$ encounter..... Impressed!!!
My 3rd FS, was FS98. Very good looking! I was hooked! And it ran very well
on my rather meager machine of MMX 233MHz...... I began to add aircraft
to this one. I liked some of the add-ons better than the default ones.
It took me only a matter seconds to decide that the freeware add-ons had
far better quality than a few of the M$ default stuff. This is when I told
myself I had to get involved with this.... It became reality 2 years and
70$ later.....
Since I didn't have enough money to buy FS2000 by myself, I had to pray
selling FS98 at the auction would let me earn enough to buy FS2K.. I swear
it was the biggest gamble of my life! If it didn't make enough money, I'd
be without FS until I earned some. If it did, I'd have a spanky clean FS2K
right in front of me ;)
I was lucky that time.... Just before I put the FS98 up for bids, My dad
came back from Chicago on a business trip and brought back FS2000 along
saying it looked too good to miss. I now had FS2000 and FS98 with money
to spare :)
I would eventually sell FS98 for 10$, But I would never forget all of the
fun and excitment it gave me for 12 months.
I'd download as many aircraft as I could for FS2000 on my ISDN connection.
Good thing it wasn't 56K or I'd still be downlading something ;)
After a few months playing civie, I got bored... I went back to Jane's
combat sims..... For a while......
Downloading spree!!!!
After my crave for shooting down the enemy, I suddenly felt not-so-great about flying a Super Hornet around. After all, The F-14 IS the king of the air, Right?
Soon, This started another round of my crazy downloading sprees. This time
though, I was not overly impressed by the quality of some things. Mainly
due to the fact that most of the things I've downloaded were FS98 vintage..
(No wonder!). 1 aircraft though, was a bright star in my dark HD. It was
Dino Cattaneo's F-14 Tomcat. This is the plane that inspired me to start
building add-ons in the first place. While this version didn't have the
VC the current version has, Nor the good-lookin afterburners, It was waay
ahead of most other add-ons of that time in my opinion.
Soon I started to count my money, Decided I had enough, Searched around
forums, Looking for tools, And stumbled upon FS Design Studio. Since I
wasn't exactly sure this was THE thing I was waiting for, I remember posting
at a forum somewhere wether this was the right program or not. After I
confirmed this was indeed the thing I was looking for, I went to the Abacus
site, ordered it online, And then, happily went on to other things thinking
the order would not reach Abacus until at least 2 days later.... Wrong!
It came exactly 25 minuets after I clicked the order button! Now, It was
frenzy. Printing tutorials, Eating my dessert, Looking for more tutorials,
Placing my first tube in FSDS etc.. The next day, I took the FSDS tutorials
to school and read them during class. I'm sure it was worth it! And I didn't
get caught either!
Is it a bird? Is it a human? Is it a plane? No! It's a... errrr.... ahhhh.....
Tube?
I started playing around with FSDS right away. Going through the tutorials,
I had a very good time with it. The first thing I placed in the FS world
was not the "Water tower" included in the FSDS tower, But a simple
Tube. It went in without a hitch and that alone was enough to keep me smiling
for the rest of the day!
First try.....!
My first try was a F-20 Tigershark. This is a plane that is rumored to
have had better performance than the F-16 but politics kileed it. It was
"The right plane at the wrong time".
Boy did I get mad with FSDS! It was truly frustrating!!!! The plane did
get finished up, But it was all wiggly and scratchy. Not what everybody
would be looking for. I finally decided to scrap it. It was a great learning
experience though. I noticed a few bugs in FSDS to keep an eye on. They
could mess up a project at times.
I went through a few more projects (Or "studies") to see what
works how, What is best for what, How to do blah blah blah. During this
period, I found out there are at least 2, often even more ways to do a
"thing". This will later on help me a lot as it allows me to
use the best way to build something.