Falcon 4.0 20th anniversary!

[sunrrrise]

I fell in love since I read the guide for Falcon 4.0 in Polish PC magazine ‘Gambler’ in April 1999 - I did not own even computer then, but was about to get my 1st PC soon! And I rememember when I finally buy Falcon 4.0 - it was in June 2000. Since then Falcon is still on my PC.

20 years! Long Live Falcon!

12.12.1998-12.12.2018.

[TommyGun]

Interesting you mentioned it… That’s right, we are celebrating F4’s 20th Anniversary! I didn’t buy it then as it had come to my attention how buggy the sim was in its first official release. Temptation was strong, though, as I had already been in love with Spectrum Holobyte’s Falcon 3.0 Later I learned about Frugal’s website (it was around the RP5 release) and a friend of mine sold his copy to me for an equivalent of a pack of Marlboro. Since that time things went on rushing and gaining impetus like an avalanche I’ve been through BMS 1.03, then 2.0, Free Falcon and… oh I can’t remember all the F4 incarnates I have enjoyed since.
And now we are where we are…

[molnibalage]

Which is the exact anniversary date…?
In Falcon epopee is 11th of December on wiki is 12th of Dec. I have never seen so far 8th of December.

https://ef4e073f-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/falcon4history/files/FalconEpopee.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7coGd7zNolZuS85DluMMe4m9CI9jZEjScC0f8YxHIPDz8scIsHM9tCb43VCT944U7R5ymIo9MsswcQUHSI0J2sbqzPcf25fmzVxyT0MYToua5VtpKRnyi8gByY7517Leq2iqPPomsgcRXYItDIjiHLE4OH9na52vXk7GbVsCYiGLx7oazkJp5ZamZsND9biCJOZ-ItPsv36-GFm2bdQJRQkrSkbFPNMY8AphMUv5fRqQDmioelk%3D&attredirects=0

One page 13.
At its official release on December 11, 1998, the virtual pilots community discovered “The new benchmark in flight sim technology” as announced in the advertisement. Users were positively surprised by the degree of realism that Falcon 4.0 - or “F4” in short - could bring out of a personal computer, and despite its age this modern air combat simulator is certainly still one of the best on the market.

I planned to release something on the big day but I’m not sure now when should be done…

@TommyGun:

Interesting you mentioned it… That’s right, we are celebrating F4’s 20th Anniversary! I didn’t buy it then as it had come to my attention how buggy the sim was in its first official release. Temptation was strong, though, as I had already been in love with Spectrum Holobyte’s Falcon 3.0 Later I learned about Frugal’s website (it was around the RP5 release) and a friend of mine sold me his copy for an equivalent of a pack of Marlboro. Since that time things went on rushing and gaining impetus like an avalanche I’ve been through BMS 1.03, then 2.0, Free Falcon and… oh I can’t remember all the F4 incarnates I have enjoyed since.
And now we are where we are…

Yes. I got the original unpatched F4.0 in summer of 2001. Even saving the campaign was buggy. If you save and quit then reload all objectives became repaired to 100% state. The heart of the game was non functional. In that time I did not have Internet connection I even did not know about the term of patch…

[Icarus]

FWIW Wiki says December 12 1998. I bought it in early 1999 and remember installing it and immediately putting it on combat autopilot and watching the action unfold. I was mesmerized and totally hooked from that moment on, despite the fact the gear collapsed on every landing (until first patch) and the baby appeared on the pie loading screen on his birthday (LOL I thought I had a virus). There has not been a day since, that I have not had it on my computer and its still my number one flight sim. December 1998>>>20 years……kinda remarkable I would say.

[neystratiou]

In love and user of Falcon from 3.0 version at 1991…!
DOS version and years.
Nikos.

[oldtommyboy]

I to still have it .
First thing I install on every puter I,ve bought .
Ha ha , and still no good internet here after all these years .
Don’t post much but still lurking pretty much daily.
Good day u,all.

[Ironman53rd]

I wonder if the devs have a nice surprise for us on the the actual day of the 20 year anniversary of the best sim in the world ������

[sunrrrise]

Of course Molni, you are right! It so embarrassing…

OMG, I must be seriously tired and desperataly need a holiday leave (coming in 2 weeks, haha!).

[DaveB]

Bought my copy around mid December 1998. I was mesmerized by that picture on the cover of the binder. I’ve had F4 and all it’s flavors on my computers over the years and I enjoy it to this day!!!

Hail to ALL the devs Dave

[TommyGun]

@Ironman53rd:

I wonder if the devs have a nice surprise for us on the the actual day of the 20 year anniversary of the best sim in the world ������

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they did…

[yubba]

worlds best sim, Hmmm that would be where it all started with me ,Janes WW2

[Eghi]

@sunrrrise:

I fell in love since I love the guide for Falcon 4.0 in Polish PC magazine ‘Gambler’ in April 1999 - I did not own even computer then, but was about to get my 1st PC soon! And I rememember when I finally buy Falcon 4.0 - it was in June 2000. Since then Falcon is still on my PC.

20 years! Long Live Falcon!

08.12.1998-08.12.2018.

Page 68:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EMM0KPp6d0xWlYyZtFkH1ZZQVoAQdxvM

Thanks for reminding me of this magazine. :thumb:

[sunrrrise]

@yubba:

worlds best sim, Hmmm that would be where it all started with me ,Janes WW2

WWII Fighters… I got it in 2000? Still it had the most beautiful graphics (volumetric clouds!) full of nice details (remember running deers?) among the sims I played at that time. It had museum section with movies and interviewies with real aces of WWII. I remember it was full of content for each fighter*.

*something went terribly wrong with this niche of the market when semi-finished product is appraissed as second coming of Messiah…

@Eghi:

Page 68:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EMM0KPp6d0xWlYyZtFkH1ZZQVoAQdxvM

Thanks for reminding me of this magazine. :thumb:

Exactly Eghi! That was THE magazine, yellow pages with “Aeroklub Gamblera” - that was awesome! I made a brief look at your scan - discussions about Fallout 2, Total Annihilation vs StarCraft, Quake 2 - oh my, like it happened yesterday!

[Flow32]

20 years old… and still kicking thanks to the BMS team !!

It would have been great if Jane’s F-15 code would have leaked too, and people continued to update it, like what happened with F4

[Quasi_Stellar]

Abducted into Falcondom on June 23, 2000. Quickly found the Delphi Forums and the 1.08 patch. Ahh, the years of Frugal’s and Freefalcon Forums… Now the greatest incarnation to date with the beautiful lady, BMS. Thanks for the many years of great flights and the occasional nights of being pissed off due to a CTD on RTB after an hour and a half mission. Love ya!! Here’s to 20 more!!! :bdance:

[johku]

@TommyGun:

• • Later I learned about Frugal’s website (it was around the RP5 release) and a friend of mine sold his copy to me for an equivalent of a pack of Marlboro. Since that time things went on rushing and gaining impetus like an avalanche I’ve been through BMS 1.03, then 2.0, Free Falcon and… oh I can’t remember all the F4 incarnates I have enjoyed since.
    And now we are where we are…

I registered first on the Falcon 4 Community website ( http://web.archive.org/web/20020527154451/http://www.f4community.com:80/ ). Eventually, I found Frugal’s World and all its members ranging from basic users to the mod developers. It’s still great to see the other old farts here after all these years. Having enjoyed eFalcon, Realism Patch, SuperPAK and FreeFalcon versions, I went on hiatus when the first versions of BMS versions below 1.0 were released since my poor computer couldn’t run it. During my studies, I discovered F4AF, and finally BMS 4.32. The rest is just history. In my opinion, the most remarkable point was when the team obtained the permission to officially modify the code.

Some ancient screenshots if I may.

Night A-A engagement on Il-28 bombers on Dec 15, 2001. Note the Easy avionics and Labels. I was still taking my babysteps in the sim.

Planning a mission in Operation Desert Storm theater in one of the SuperPAKs on Dec 18, 2002. “Community politics” aside, the ODS was created by PMC TFW. IIRC it was one of the first 128x128-sized theaters. I can’t remember if its campaigns were actually winnable, but at least you could run them and sorties could be planned. And oh the distances to the FLOT…

The wide-view SuperPAK 2D cockpit in ODS theater. And miles and miles of sand. The wide-view cockpit could be applied by pressing Shift-2 keystroke. Note the Realistic avionics setting. I had had enough of Easy and Simplified.

Ingressing in Korea with AGM-65G’s on July 26, 2002.

Landing in Korea on November 21, 2003 in SP3+FF2 installation. Panther’s Skyfix was one of the hottest community mods by the time, and it is applied here too. Note the haze foregrounding the distant mountains. Dee-Jay, please forgive me the screamingly-colored red HUD.

Taxiing for takeoff on Dec 13, 2005. Note the taxiway lighting. Having been used to the landing light effect like here, the one available in BMS 4.32 dropped my jaws. SuperPAK 4.2.

Thank you BMS for keeping the sim alive!

[edstheone52]

Bought my copy on Dec 11, 1998 and have been flying steady since!

[av8orfliboy]

Flying from the release. I’ve come in and out over the years but I always come back to falcon. Every time I fire the sim up, I’m so grateful to the community and BMS team for making the sim so awesome.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Valky]

Landing in Korea on November 21, 2003 in SP3+FF2 installation. Panther’s Skyfix was one of the hottest community mods by the time, and it is applied here too. Note the haze foregrounding the distant mountains. Dee-Jay, please forgive me the screamingly-colored red HUD.

Nice to see the correct phase of the moon in relation to the sun again, I know that used to be correct in almost all previous versions. ICP shadows show the sun high in the sky to the right and the moon showing a thin cresent orientated toward the sun. Unfortunately that is one thing that has actually gone backward in development with BMs. The stars no longer appear to be accurate and the phases of the moon are way out of whack. Seeing a full moon rise beside the sun in the morning is a most unearthly and definitely unrealistic sight.

Still the best sim around though, I have been flying it since the days of Chopstick Louie and it has always been the main reason for upgrading my computer.

[Trueno]

@Flow32:

20 years old… and still kicking thanks to the BMS team !!

It would have been great if Jane’s F-15 code would have leaked too, and people continued to update it, like what happened with F4

I always thought the same about Janes F-15