Games World
Paul Brett with the latest gaming news.
You may well remember that in the last issue of RISCWorld I covered the !A10 flight simulator, which was based on a compiled version of the Flight Sim Toolkit. Well after seeing !A10 in the last issue Dave Daniels contacted RISCWorld and had this to say...
"I was just looking through the latest RISCWorld (vol 6 no. 1) when I was pleasantly surprised to come across the !A10 flight sim in the games section. I even got a name check as the maintainer of the RISC OS version of the the flight sim engine in FST, Fly. I am not the author of the program: that was written by Simis (now Kuju Entertainment). They released the source code of Fly into the Public Domain about three years ago and I have been working on it on and off since then. I wanted a decent flight sim for RISC OS and Fly looked as though it was the best one around that had a chance of running under RISC OS. Others I saw were written in C++ and/or used floating point numbers wall-to-wall. I am sure that the more technically literate readers are aware that RISC OS machines are not exactly noted for their floating point arithmetic performance. Anyway, I ported Fly from DOS back to RISC OS and set about fixing bugs and improving the game. Three years later I still have plenty to do. Progress on the program is not very fast as I do not spend huge amounts of time on it but I do what I can. The program will never be in the same league as any of the PC flight sims as I just do not have the knowledge or maths to do this. I do not think it is too bad as it stands, though."
"I would like to point out that !A10 includes an ancient version of Fly, version 3.09. I am currently working on 3.18. Fly 3.09 lacked sound and joystick support but that has been remedied. A joystick turns Fly into a completely different game: it is a trial using the keyboard or mouse but fabulous with a joystick. It has also gained things like clouds which I think add a lot to the, err, atmosphere of the game. The look and feel of the program is basically the same. The somewhat chronic-looking menu system has long gone. Something else mentioned was the lack of multiplayer support: the PC version of Fly does not have this either. It looks to me like a planned extension that was never written."
The new version of !Fly
"FST stands for 'Flight Sim Toolkit': the purpose was to allow you to create your own flight sims, albeit mainly military ones. There was nothing to stop you setting up a simulation of, say, an airfield with general aviation aircraft such as Cessnas and Beechcraft and just flying around for fun. You can do a lot with it but it is very time consuming. The program came with a set of tools to let you create objects, define aircraft models and place everything in a world. The RISC OS versions of these are quite primitive compared to the Windows versions. The files they create are not compatible either so the old RISC OS sims (such as some of those on the APDL 'Flight Simulator Collection' CD) cannot be used with the newer version of Fly. It would be a bit of work but I could probably could do something about this. I would like to update the tools and port them to RISC OS but that is a long term aim. I only have the source for a couple of the tools so it would be a case of rewriting most of them from scratch."
"Paul mentioned the 'Flightsimtoolkit.co.uk' web site. This is run by a FST enthusiast, Adrian Brown. His is the main web site for the program. There is still a small FST community out there. Some very good sims have been written using FST and they are well worth looking at. The only thing is, the site only has the Windows version of Fly on it. I really should do something about putting the RISC OS version on a web site. The RISC OS version is aimed at a RiscPC or later machine but it will run under VA5000 if you don't mind the screen colours being a bit psychedelic. It is slow on an A7000 but runs well on a StrongARM RiscPC or an Iyonix."
(Now I know why the letters page is short! - ED)
Anyway as Dave said he has been working on version 3.18 of !Fly and has made a number of improvements. As a special treat for RISCWorld readers he has produced a new version of !A10 and has also produced a new game !Defender, which RISCWorld readers can play first. Dave sent us a second e-mail telling us about these new versions.
"Here, as promised, is the updated version of the !A10 flight sim originally on the RISCWorld vol 6 issue 1 CD and a new sim to show off other aspects of Fly. The new sim is called !Defender and the idea is that you are defending your home airbase from enemy bombers. It is somewhat more complete than !A10."
!Defender
"The program, Fly, is a 32-bit application and so needs Castle's 32-bit Shared C Library. I have not included a copy of this. I do not know if it is possible for you to include one. (It's on the CD - ED). The sims will otherwise run 'out of the box'. I have tested them on a RiscPC, an Iyonix and using VA RPC and they work fine for me. The program should run on VA5000 but the colours will be a bit psychedelic because it does not handle the palette properly (the game, not VA5000)."
"Fly is under constant development. I have a long list of things I want to do to the program, like a couple of year's worth. My view is totally biased, but I think it is the best RISC OS flight sim as it stands now. It will never, ever come anywhere close to what is available for PCs but I am happy with it."
"Thanks for putting the sim on the CD."
At RISCWorld we totally agree that !Fly is the best flight sim for RISC OS, indeed graphically it's one of the best games for RISC OS full stop! Before running either !A10 or !Defender you will need to read the supplied instructions, which include a set of simply instructions for getting airborne for the first time. I hope you enjoy these simulators as much as I do and have hours of fun with them.
Paul Brett