by Al Massey
Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 and Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro
After struggling with Flight Simulator for most of its fifteen-year lifespan it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the ‘98 version. Launching this little darling and taking over the controls with a Sidewinder Pro Force Feedback Joystick is pl easure at its purest.
This combo represents a quantum leap in PC gaming and sets the standard for Flight Simulation. More than 45 cities and 3,000 airports from around the world are represented here including Hong Kong, London and Paris.
This is a ten-fold increase over previous versions.
Improved digitally sampled sounds and high-resolution instrument panels in all aircraft, along with the addition of new aircraft such as the Cessna 182 Skylane and Learjet 45, and the introduction of the first helicopter, the Bell 206, round out the pack age.
I can’t imagine this using this simulator without the Force Feedback Joystick. In a prior life I spent several thousand hours at the controls of high performance aircraft and this is the closest I have come to realism outside of a real cockpit.
Because the Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro has its own 16 bit 25 MHz processor in the joystick itself it doesn’t put undue burden on your system resources. You can enjoy this combination on a minimally equipped 486/66 sporting Windows 95 and 8 megs of ram but for optimal performance I would suggest a Pentium 100 with 32 megs and a good 3D video card.
Flight Simulator 98’s street price is $39.95 and the Sidewinder Joystick is $149.95. By Microsoft. For more info go to http://www.microsoft.com.
Al Massey is a HAL-PC member who can be contacted at almas@hal-pc.org .
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