One of my favorite "fun facts" is that Falcon 4, in one way or another, has been always installed in my computers since 1998. That by itself is not remarkable. What is absolutely great is that I never lost interest in this flight simulator. I have ended campaigns more than I dare to count. But I immediately re-launch another one.
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| The airport facilities and the lighting looks like as in one of those early flights I have to take in my day job. If I could only fly a Viper to this business trips! :p |
During my ongoing campaign, I have been conducting OCA strikes. One after another. I switched from Blu-107 Durandals to GBU 24s and this has worked very well for hitting and disabling runways.
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| The air to ground radar (left) and the targeting pod (right). |
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| Getting closer to the target area. Note the targeting pod (right multi-function display). |
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| That was a nice hit. Return to base. |
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| Landing the Viper at our home plate. |
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| Debrief. |
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| Debrief and mission events. |
I took two more OCA strike missions and came back empty handed. I was able to hit the targets but the target airbases/airstrips were already damaged. This counts as a mission failure in Falcon 4 books. Oh, well.
Then I realized that after continuous pounding from the air, most of the airbases in west North Korea were gone.
Time to hit other type of targets: wild weasel!
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| So I went back for re-training. The whole HARM missiles routine I have not used it in a very long while. It is fascinating how BMS has updated it. |
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| Magnum! Note the smoke plume down there. That's an SA-3 site I just took out. |
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| And this is from an SA-2 site that forced me into some violent maneuvering and eventually down to a very low altitude. |
And that's how I take it with Falcon 4 BMS. I fly the campaign, then I go back to the training missions. I get the feeling that finishing Falcon is like finishing the internet.
Cheers,
4 comments:
For way too long now, I've had a love-from-a-distance relationship with Falcon4. I stopped actively playing in the early BMS days, mostly due to Flanker 2.0 / DCS. I like to check in on developments every few months, but that's about it. Anyway, that makes me appreciate posts like this showcasing the stories of those who are still playing. Thanks!
I had Falcon 4.0 a loooong time ago; I even had the cool spiral-bound manual. Back then I remember wishing for a computer that could run it without having to turn the graphics all the way down. I think the computer had a 300MHZ processor, 96MB of RAM, and an 8MB video card. I played quite a few missions before giving up on the game. I ended up losing the disc and haven't played since, although I have often thought about it. :)
tFS
I have also had this great sim from 1998. I first ran it on an AMD 800mhz. I still have all my manuals etc albeit well thumbed and coffee stained. I now fly it using a 27inch widescreen with the mfds on a second screen. I really do get a lot of pleasure flying this sim and still haven't mastered it. I don't think I ever will.
Thanks for your comments.
So many memories with this sim.
Cheers,
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