Those Interactive Magic sims were about as lively as DCS IIRC. A map, a machine and some scripted content. I do remember Hind having animated little dudes running to and from your chopper, so it’s got that over the more modern sim ;-)
The hind is such a joy in VR. It’s pretty hard to handle in a hover and transitioning to it, but once it’s moving forward, it loves to fly and can be pretty dang accurate. That big ol’ gun mounted to the cheek goes either ‘blyat blyat blyat’ or ‘dakkadakkadakka’ and will dole out significant emotional events to anything short of an MBT at ranges up to two clicks. It’s a motherbeast. I love it.
One thing flying hind in VR has shown me, that I didn’t know before is that the asymetry in the cockpit glazing leads to a serious tactical weakness. You have a far better view to the left as the pilot than to the right. This makes you prefer to turn that way, as you can see more. Predictable fighters lose fights, so yeah. I hope some smart gopnik is making good use of this planning a MANPAD ambush in a thicket somewhere in the Donbas.
So wait, in DCS Hind you can’t drop off or pick up little guys?
You can, but they aren’t animated 12 polygon dudes running up with a 4 polygon stretcher between em no. Between the trillion million things they also need to and want to do, doing sweet sweet infantry animations still remains on the todo list.
Well that’s something I suppose.
Is the Interactive Magic Hind game the one where you could open the troop compartment door mid-filght, bank hard to the side, and have all the passengers tumble out?
Is this the one you’re talking about?
Aye. You can try it for free for 14 days. It’s not entirely done yet, there’s plenty on their todo list for it. Early access beats the old model of buggy releases and patches tho imo.
If you just want the game and not the lovely box and manual it is on steam.
I remember seeing that boxart and wanting the game so bad when I was a kid. I eventually got to play it a year ago. Still fun!
Have you flown the Apache yet mate?
Also this is garbage, respectfully. Sir. Those DI sims had dynamic campaigns. DCS has…what, exactly?
To be fair, I might actually buy that DCS module when it leaves early access because I love that helicopter so damned much. But I won’t for a second think it’s as “lively” as a DI sim.
Only tornado had a dc. Hind, the f16 and wasnt there another? All didnt. The tank game did, but that was sterile as fuck compared to the microprose one. Your glasses, they have some pink gunk on em, you might wanna clean em.
@midnight.mangler yeah I flew it a bit. In some ways its further along than Hind. The AI crewmember for example is voiced. It’s a mind-bogglingly complex machine, perhaps even more so than the warthog. I haven’t scratched the surface.
The FLIR rework that is so central to the apache works glorious. In other machines… eh not quite there yet. But being able to tell if a vehicle been running and even shooting, that’s hella cool imo. Imagine the stories one can make happen with that.
From the Hind manual:
A campaign is a series of inter-linked combat missions. The outcome of each mission will determine how the campaign progresses.
So either it’s dynamic, which I believe is the case, or it’s branching. Either way, DCS has neither of those things. I will admit to a certain degree of nostalgia, sure, but to say the worlds of the DI and DCS games are similar is disingenuous to say the least.
I’ll agree with you on their tank game though. Great campaign (the IM games had great campaign engines) but ugh the game itself was soooooo boring.
Anyway, I apologize for my vitriol. It just irks me to see such a marvelous sim handwaved away because the new hotness is prettier. Maybe that’s just me being defensive.
The next step after the IM sims are Apache: EE and Comanche/Hokum. These were created by Razorworks, who were devs from IM after it closed shop. Both sims have full dynamic campaigns and were terribly unappreciated at their time of release.
Both are available on GoG. There is a community patch available (the games’ source code was released], but its old in the tooth as well.
I’d rather have an old sim that also remembered to be a game rather than something pretty and soulless.
I truly don’t mean to knock DCS, I do believe there’s enough room in this genre for both pilot sim and plane sims.
I just wish the fucking rivet counters hadn’t made pilot sims so untenable for developers.
Side note, I’d forgotten how amazing and kind of hilariously those old Dynamix sims used MIDI. I just set up Aces over The Pacific for next week, and they use MIDI for everything, from engine sounds to guns, so when I shoot, it sounds like a very angry violinist playing an electric violin.
These are awesome. I still play them with mods.
So my buddy Trevor (developer of Star Fleet II) sent me this in the hopes it would increase my enjoyment of Red Storm Rising. Look at this beast!
