Training stands play a key role in the training of pilots – they allow you to master the skills of controlling an aircraft without risking life and the aircraft itself. They require both “hardware” and software. And so it happened that educational technologies and video games developed in parallel, sometimes intersecting.

In a new article, I propose to consider the path traveled by flight simulators on PC and consoles, look at the features of the genre and discuss which of the video games can be called the best and what to choose today.

Training stands

Ideas for many games (as, in principle, for almost any works of culture) came from real life. Therefore, it is worth starting the history of video games in the genre of flight simulators with the invention of the aircraft manufacturer Antoinette. This device was named Antoinette-Barrel.

The Wright brothers made their historic flight with an internal combustion engine airplane in 1903. Back then, at the dawn of aviation, airplane control was not standardized – everyone was literally inventing a bicycle.

In the case of the Antoinette aircraft, steering was not carried out by a lever, but by two wheels on opposite sides of the cockpit. Many pilots found this control scheme counterintuitive and experienced difficulties with this model.

In 1910, the French military commissioned the Antoinette company to develop a two-seater monoplane. In addition, the company was commissioned to create a simulator as a training aid to learn the complex controls.

What is not a modern slot machine? Another confirmation that learning can happen through play, and that play itself is capable of learning.

Since then, simulators for pilots have undergone many changes. And they look like this:

View from the outside:

The era of arcade machines

Early flight simulators were games for arcade machines built on discrete logic – they were not yet computer video games in the usual sense.

Among the first was the Heli-Shooter game from Sega. The arcade machine began to be sold in 1977. And it is not only one of the first flight simulators – it is basically one of the first games in 3D space.

Another interesting example is the flight simulator video game 1993 from Namco. The arcade began to be released in 1993 on the basis of the Namco System 21 platform – it was the first platform for arcade machines with 3D graphics.

Flight Simulator and its successors

In the 1970s, programmer Bruce Artwick earned a bachelor of science degree as an electrical engineer at the University of Illinois. The topic of his dissertation was multi-layered dynamic computer graphics of flight. He found time for flying lessons and realized that it was possible to create a model aircraft using a PC, proving that the Motorola 6800 processor was enough for this.

As a result of his work, Artvik wrote about his idea in several magazines, and one of the editors called him and told him that readers would like to buy the program.

Then the developer founded the company subLOGIC and began to create Flight Simulator. The software was designed to run on Motorola 6800, MOS Technology 6502 and Intel 8080 processors.

The first versions of Flight Simulator ran on Apple II computers and later on Radio Shack TRS-80 computers.

The first version of the simulator had black and white graphics, one plane and limited simulation of flight processes. At the same time, in 1981, Flight Simulator became the best-selling entertainment program for the Apple II.

Although IBM wanted to obtain a license for the simulator, Microsoft won – the then small company Artvik was entrusted with the license for porting to the IBM PC architecture.

In 1982, the PC version was already very different from Flight Simulator for the Apple II: weather effects appeared, the coordinate system was updated, and even the battle mode.

The history of the project was told in detail on Habra.

In the last one at the moment 24th versionAnnounced by Microsoft, there will be such innovations as the ability to get off the plane and walk around the sights, passengers in the cabin, information about turbulence. The developers took care of even such a small thing as the clothes of the passengers depending on the weather.

It was logical to use Microsoft’s flight simulator to train pilots. So in 2009, on the basis of Flight Simulator X, the American military-industrial corporation Lockheed Martin released a commercial simulator Prepar3D.

The Flight Simulator project had other followers. In 1988, the MicroProse studio released a combat simulator about the fictional F-19 aircraft. The first version was developed for DOS, later the game was ported to Atari and other platforms.

F-19 Stealth Fighter was a completely remastered version of Project Stealth Fighter, which was ported from the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum to the PC.

In the 1990s, the X-Plane simulator was released for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It featured commercial and military aircraft, and the scenery covered most of the Earth. Support for the simulator continues now. Plugins allow you to create new worlds and copies of real terrain.

Air Combat has been available on arcade machines since 1993, and was released on the Sony PlayStation in 1995.

Il-2 Sturmovik

In 2001, the cult series “Il-2” started. I have already mentioned this game more than once – in a selection of video gamescreated in the USSR and Russia, and articles about historical lies and truth in video games.

The game was developed by 1C: Maddox Games. Since 2012, 1C Game Studios is responsible for the game.

At the start, the game was one of the most technologically advanced in the genre. The development and support of the series continues, and it is still one of the best-selling video games from Russian developers. In addition, according to many ratings, the game is considered one of the best flight simulators in the world. In the USA, for example, a large-scale community has lined up around Il-2. In the future, the release of another update is planned – the studio announced the video game “Korea. IL-2”. In addition to the actual ability to fly, the new game will have a virtual museum where you can learn about the Korean War.

It is especially interesting to read now, in 2024, game reviewwritten on November 27, 2001.

Drone simulators

With the development of unmanned aerial vehicles used in many fields, including agriculture, industry and construction, as well as as a sports discipline, there has been a need to teach piloting. It is desirable that at the same time it is not necessary to spend a lot of actual devices. For this, they began to create appropriate simulators.

Games like Uncrashed: FPV Drone Simulator, DCL – The Game and VelociDrone FPV Racing Simulator can be found on Steam.

The Russian team is currently working on a professional FPV drone simulator “Quadrosim Sport”. Various locations will be used in the simulator, the ability to configure models in detail. “Quadrosim sport” is intended for drone racing training, in addition, it will be possible to conduct virtual competitions in multiplayer mode.

Features of the genre

Over half a century of existence of the genre, several features of flight simulators for PC and consoles have developed. And above all, continued support of projects. More than one, not two, and not five years may release additions to the game, its significant improvements, new planes and maps. Therefore, the phrase “the work is just beginning at the release of the game” in the case of flight simulators has a much deeper meaning than in the case of shooters or strategies.

The fact is that reproduction of accurate aircraft models, realistic flight physics, dependence on weather conditions, realistic terrain map require significant costs.

But gamers come to the rescue. Numerous additions to games can also be created by third-party developers, if the authors of the game manage to interest a large number of people in their project. And this is the third important factor: the influence of the community.

If you look at flight simulators from the player’s point of view, you can note one more feature – the complexity of management. Of course, there are various control options, but sometimes you have to use almost the entire keyboard and joystick. In this review on Habri you can learn about Flight Simulator, there are subtleties.

But such control is a small price for the opportunity to feel like an airplane pilot and see from a height the battlefield on the Kursk arc or the largest cities, mountains and plains around the planet.

The best games in the genre

In the comments, I invite you to discuss which games you think are the best in the genre? And I will add the result to the post as a result of this discussion!