A History of the Flight Simulator Genre on the TI-99/4A Home Computer

In this video, I review the history of the flight simulator genre on the TI-99/4A, beginning with instruments-only simulators of the early eighties, and culminating in SPAD XIII’s success in bringing a visually appealing flight simulator with relatively rich flight control to the TI-99/4A.

All TI-99 gameplay was recorded on real iron, captured via play on an F18A modded TI-99/4A.

#ti994a #retrocomputing #texasinstruments #flightsimulators

[jordanwoerndle]

Thank you for making this - I saved up to buy Winging It in 1983

[PeBoVision]

Spad XIII includes one of the most exhaustive and detailed 4A manuals of any software for the machine...a must-have for any collector of early flight sims.

[victorsteerup]

There was a 10-part monthly series of suggested flight paths for Spad XIII called: "SpadAdventures" in the Chicago TI User's Group newsletter, the Chicago TImes.

[kneel]

wow I remember staring at that page of Triton catalog specifically as a kid, often. I remember looking at 4a flyer and that blue joystick and wanted them so badly

[billc]

i remember writing my instrument only flight sim back in high school in 1983 on Extended Basic. Since it was only instruments, had to make the runway I was landing on a half mile wide and 5 mi long. Once you took off (the plane would rise automatically above the takeoff speed without needing to pull up), you would be given a heading and distance to the next runway If you flew a diff heading, it would show you how many miles left or right you were and if you typed c(compute), it would give you the new heading to get there. Once you did and overflew the airport, it would tell you the orientation heading of the runway, so then you would fly 180 deg away from that heading for a few miles, then turn and then try to land. I also had an autopilot that would do all that for you and then cut back on power and try to land itself. In a full power dive at full throttle it could go 1000mph but at full burn rate, the range of the plane was only 50 mi! Once fuel got low, it would start beeping at you. I still have the cassette tape but my ti99 is having trouble reading it now.

[rob_milstein]

The red baron was a worthy adversary.... and bombing the German hangars was no easy challenge

[flounder]

I had both 4A Flyer and SPAD XIII back in the day. I would say SPAD is one of the most hardware limit-challenging titles for an unmodded TI-99. I played it for hours (with a TI torture stick, god help my hands!) and I'll never forget the first time I downed the Baron. Easily my favorite game I owned for my 99. Kudos to the programmer(s)!