I Wish TK from Thrid Wire would do DCS Modules...

Give me every plane on Strike Fighters II.

And how the heck did he get the freaking A-4s licensed?

• A-4A/B/C/E/F/G/H/K/L Skyhawk

• A-7A/B/C/D/E/H/P Corsair II

• F-100A/C/D Super Sabre

• F-105D Thunderchief

• F-4B/C/D/E/EJ/F/J/K/M/N Phantom II

• F-8C/D/E/E(FN)/H/J/K Crusader

• F-16A Netz

• Harrier GR.1/3

• Hunter F.1/2/4/5/6/50/58/FGA.9/73

• Kfir C1/C2/F-21A

• Lightning F.1/2/3/6/53

• Meteor F.8

• Mirage IIIC/CJ/CZ/EL/O

• Mirage 5BA

• Mystere IVA

• Nesher

Ok, as much as I enjoyed his products, a couple of observations: these were not modeled with anywhere near the complexity of DCS modules today. They were more like Flaming Cliffs level of complexity, or even slightly simpler than that even.

As for licencing, that didn't used to be a problem for simulations in those days. It's only more recently that intellectual property owners of the original aircraft are thinking "hey we can monetize this and have a say in the final product if we demand licensing". It used to be the same for brand name cars and racecars... they'd use the real names, real brand logos and no licencing. But more recently, racing and games that feature driving, either make a "fake Ferrareria" or contact a certain brand in Modena Italy and try to obtain a legal agreement!

Would absolutely love them all to bits.

+ absolutely 1

That said though, I have to agree with Rick, they were extremely low-fidelity, which maybe made them more feasible.

As for licencing, that didn't used to be a problem for simulations in those days. It's only more recently that intellectual property owners of the original aircraft are thinking "hey we can monetize this and have a say in the final product if we demand licensing". It used to be the same for brand name cars and racecars... they'd use the real names, real brand logos and no licencing. But more recently, racing and games that feature driving, either make a "fake Ferrareria" or contact a certain brand in Modena Italy and try to obtain a legal agreement!

As I recall, back when I was involved with a game simulating aviation in the WWII Pacific Theater of Operations, we were told that the TBF Avenger could not be done because the publisher used the name "Grumman" in association with the TBF on their box art. I could be wrong about that but that is how I recall it being explained. Who knows, it may have been a massive coverup to hide the fact that they did not have all the data necessary to accurately recreate the operation of the rear turret! After all, we did have the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat. It seems to me that when taxpayer money is spent to create a machine at the request of the government, the only thing that the manufacturer has to protect is their name. The machine itself, and all the data that goes into the design and manufacture of it should be considered to be in the public domain - assuming of course, that it is now obsolete and no longer considered a national security asset. I could be accused of being a little biased and very ignorant though! :doh:

I loved the A-4 skyhawk in SF:p1, flew many campaigns with it, day night, unarmed photo recon... But really, it was quite a bit simpler than the DCS community A-4 freeware. That's the downside. But the upside was that this enabled one lone survivor to make multiple aircraft for simulations!

But it was definately fun! And the 60's era was a golden age for the fighter pilot! I'll love it when we can see Crusaders, Starfighters, Phantoms and Mirage III's all blast holes in the skies of DCS South Vietnam map! (no, it doesn't exist yet, nobody's working on one AFAIK, I'm just hoping it'll happen someday!)

Razor, thanks for reminding me, that's when the issue of aircraft licencing IP first came up, a few years later and suddenly it's all licensed.

Give me every plane on Strike Fighters II.

 

And how the heck did he get the freaking A-4s licensed?

 

• A-4A/B/C/E/F/G/H/K/L Skyhawk

• A-7A/B/C/D/E/H/P Corsair II

• F-100A/C/D Super Sabre

• F-105D Thunderchief

• F-4B/C/D/E/EJ/F/J/K/M/N Phantom II

• F-8C/D/E/E(FN)/H/J/K Crusader

• F-16A Netz

• Harrier GR.1/3

• Hunter F.1/2/4/5/6/50/58/FGA.9/73

• Kfir C1/C2/F-21A

• Lightning F.1/2/3/6/53

• Meteor F.8

• Mirage IIIC/CJ/CZ/EL/O

• Mirage 5BA

• Mystere IVA

• Nesher

That's not even the complete list, lol.

I was a tester for Thirdwire's simulations from before SFP1 all the way through the last major SF2:North Atlantic patch before TK bailed for Android.

The A-4, F-104 and C-130 Licenses were not easy to get and keep, and they weren't cheap.

I've been trying to pitch moving to DCS to TW for years, they have 3D Assets easily upsampled to today's standards, cockpits would need some work, and cockpit systems of the era (Korea/Vietnam) are very do-able,

SF2 Was more casual than Even Flaming Cliffs, the FM's were incredibly relaxed, as were the avionics and systems.

He had trouble maintaining his Game engine after a while, the DX10 Update and new terrain engine TW made for SF2NA pretty much spent their budget.

Even the Windows 10 Version he's building now will simply be re-compile to work w/ DX12 and Win10 Filesystem, none of the major bugs or feature requests will be done/fixed.

wow Thaaks for the inside Data Skatezilla!

Pity tho, both EAW and SP1 and 2 and everthing in between gave me lots of hours of fun and entertainment...

SP has a special place in my heart.

I know that it was a very relaxed incarnation of a Fligthsim, but the era, the missions, the atmosphere was amazing for the time.