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
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