Credits

An ambitious venture like this website is simply not possible without the help of many other people, directly or indirectly. I started somewhere along the run in 1988 with FS 3.0, so I certainly needed at least a lot of support for the period before 1988. Thanks to the friendly cooperation of many flight simulator enthusiasts I managed to fill the gaps in my knowledge and that way was able to present you this website. On behalf of myself and my visitors I would like to express my thanks to all of them. Many of them probably unaware of their valuable contribution.

Below you will find a long list of the many people who helped by sending me information or material. From complete versions to manuals, books, media, emulators, cover scans and other pictures or e-mails with additions and corrections to the text. Thanks to you all. Some of you I would like to mention in special.

Special thanks

First of all to Miguel Blaufuks, who  encouraged me to pull through and offered me this premium space on the simFlight website. Secondly Mathijs Kok, who was my initial inspiration with his famous article “Welcome to memory runway”, that got me on the history track, simply continuing where he left off.

I am also greatly in debt to my good FS friends Enrico Schiratti, Joe Stearns and Sergio di Fusco, who all voluntarily offered me their existing stories about different periods of the FS History. A special mention goes to the likes of Don Schaaf, John O'Neil, Gerard van Beusekom and many others, who responded to my call for help by sending small or big packages with manuals, books and media. Or sent me information and pictures via e-mail. And what they couldn’t offer me I managed to acquire at eBay and Amazon auctions. I now have an almost complete collection of any and every version of FS that has ever been published.

Another special mention goes to Hubert Born from Germany. Hubert owns a veritable Flight Simulator Museum, with almost all ever published version of FS, including the original media and manuals and appropriate processor to run it on, or at least an emulator. He has been very helpful with cover scans, disk images and emulators and all kinds of information. Recently Hubert's work was complemented and completed by Josef Havlik from the The Czech Republic, who managed to replace most separate emulators by only a few, notably MESS and DOSbox. Together with Marcus Thompson they also helped creating nice videos picturing the development of Flight Simulator over the years and versions.

Finally I owe much to all those other writers who, in books and articles or on their websites, covered essential parts of the history of FS, that I would never had discovered on my own. To name the most important: Charles Gulick, Floris Wouterlood, Nick Dargahi, Rod Machado, Peter Inglis (Flightsim Museum), Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt (Moby Games), Doug Farmer (Game Spy Hall of Fame), Charles Jackson and Kevin Savetz (Digital Antic).

All others

Numerous others did contribute to this website, via their Internet-pages, via e-mail or otherwise. Here they follow, in no particular (e.g. alphabetic) order: Andy Voss, Andreas Toepper, Ben Chiu, Bill Molony, Bill Pileggi, Bill Sherwood, Bob Jemian, Brian Deane, Brian Fillery, Bruce Williams, Christian Sauer, Dave March, Don Schaaaf, Enno Borgsteede, Franc Brvar, Frits Tappe, Gary Meredith, Jaaky Krant, Johan van Cranenburgh, Jon Krol, Jonathan Schattke, Jonathan Stern, Juan Carlos Pizzo, Katy Pluta, Kevin Kerfoot, Lee Sheridan, Marc Graviere, Marc-André Handfield, Marcel Ritzema, Marek Pleschner, Mark Percival, Martin Reiffer, Matthew Wu, Phil Lange, Philip Evans, Rick Lee,  Ron Baxter, Scott DeVaney, Stephan Haas, Steve Parkin, Steven Mellor and Ulrich Klein. Sorry if I forget to mention you!

The subLOGIC and BAO staff

The credits aren’t complete without mentioning the people that created Flight Simulator in the first place: the crew of subLOGIC. First of all Bruce Artwick, the creator and true spirit behind the whole Flight Simulator series. A special page is dedicated to him. Secondly Stu Moment, Bruce’s former flight instructor and co-founder of subLOGIC.

Together they started subLOGIC to create and market (among other things) entertainment titles like Flight Simulator, JET, ATP, UFO and Night Mission Pinball, to name a few. In 1988 Artwick and Moment split up and went their own way. Stu Moment continued with subLOGIC and Bruce Artwick started a new company under the name of BAO (Bruce Artwick Organisation). More about that elsewhere on another page.

Another important name to remember is Hugo Feugen, who joined subLOGIC in 1985, acted 2 years as VP of sL and 7 years as CEO of BAO and participated in most or all of their products. Other members of the subLOGIC staff and later BAO-staff, involved in the development of FS (and JET and ATP) were: Mike Kulas, Charles Guy, Michael Woodley, Dave Denhart, Mark Randel, Norm Olsen, Sue Klefstad, Bob Chapdu, Tom Emanuel and Doug Myers. Mike Woodley was responsible for the development of the add-on scenery series, assisted by Loren Krikwood, Chris Manrique, Holly Hardyman, Mark Allender and Michelle Maase.

Microsoft

Last but certainly not least I must mention Microsoft. I do not agree with their view that Flight Simulator started in 1982 with Microsoft FS 1.0. It started in 1979 with FS 1 for the Apple II. In the first years, from 1979 till 1996 first subLOGIC and later BAO (Bruce Artwick Organisation) created the series of FS versions for the PC and under the inspiring leadership of Bruce Artwick. Microsoft itself did a great job by marketing FS for the PC.

After acquiring BAO in 1996 together with all copyrights to FS they certainly didn't sit still but continued the development with the same intentions and the same speed. Every second year they managed to turn out a new and improved version, ultimately leading to FS 2004 COF or version 9 (generation 9 as I like to call it. We do owe Microsoft a lot. FS 2004 is quite perfect, but there is always room for improvement. Let's hope they live up to our expectation and surprise us with an even better version at the end of 2005?

Were you left out?

My apologies if inadvertently I left anyone out. Just let me know if I did and I will correct that. And new ideas or other contributions are welcome too! You know where to reach me.

Jos Grupping