Do you remember......

[happytraveller]

I was looking at the screenshots of the VLC and thinking just how wonderful they are looking, and what we are seeing now is not even the finished product. That got me thinking back, and to my early days with computers. This will show my age, but I can remember the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64. I found a couple of screenshots on the net, which are great in comparison to FSX and the VLC screenshots this month:-





Is nostalgia a thing of the past?

Smooth landings.

[Naki]

Theres really not much difference in comparison to VLC! ..imagine what flightsim wil be like in 28 years time..if there is one?

[Ian Warren]

Grrrrr ... and to think in 1984/5 looking and using Flight Sim on a 'Mac' , grey screened and mouse controlled ... it was the bees knees!

[Adrian Brausch]

puts things into perspective eh lol,..furtherest i go back is my old atari something..cant remember what it was it had a tape deck to load games haha,..old school !,..it was before the atari 64 though. FS5 is as far back i go in flightsim..wouldnt mind digging up my FS98 and having a fly for old times sake

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (brausch @ Jun 10 2010, 11:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

..wouldnt mind digging up my FS98 and having a fly for old times sake

God Sakes Adrian ... Don't do it ! .... Y'd hear a Noooooooo wain across the country side for days on end

[Timmo]

I find it interesting how your perception of 'real' changes- Remembering back to older games with graphics that, by todays standards, are absolutely junk but at the time being enthralled with them.

Wolfenstein: Wow 3D!!!!
Doom: Wow 3D and I can go up stairs!
Quake: Wow fully three dimensional and with coloured lights!*
Operation Flashpoint: Wow fully three dimensional, interactive and massive environment which can be explored at will!

Looking back- Wolfenstein- Ugghhh what are those horrible blue pixelated walls doing everywhere? What is that grey thing? A door?
Quake- Uggh look at those horrible blocky models! What do they have, like 100 faces?
Operation Flashpoint: those trees don't look realistic, there is no grass and the models of the people look weird.

The thing was, even with blocky pixelated graphics moving at 3 frames per second, your mind took over to create a more immersive environment.
In the future, as computer graphics do get to the stage where most people will not be able to tell the difference between real and computer generated, I think more and more money will be spent on developing peripherals (mice, joysticks, displays etc) that create more immersion. This is already starting to happen (i.e. wii, project natal) and has happened in the past (the 'Virtual reality' fad of the mid 90s) but it will become more and more apparent as your mind will move from questioning what you see to what you feel and what you are doing with your body.

*for anyone that wants a really good read of the development of Commander Keen, Dangerous Dave, Wolfenstein-Doom-Doom2 etc by John Romaro and John Carmack , find the book called 'Masters of Doom'. Extremely interesting for anyone that grew up with these games.

[happytraveller]

I seem to remember waiting AGES for a small program to load from a cassette tape. Will we look back at FSX in 10 years time and say that it looks very basic compared to FS 2020?? Wish that I had bought Microsoft and Apple shares then!

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

smooth landings.

[Dion500]

QUOTE (happytraveller @ Jun 11 2010, 03:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Speaking of that, did you know he was supposed to say 'One small step for A man'
Man and Mankind are both the same thing.