Virtual Flight Test & Test Drive Centre 101
I bought Test Drive 2 for PC by Atari a few months ago and lived to regret it ever since. Atari has not changed it's ways since it's heydey with the STe and Jaguar hardware. If I had a bit more patience I could have bought Driver for the PC and have much more fun. Water under the bridge for you.
The hardware is a Sony Viaio Laptop with Intel 1.73 Ghz i7 processor, a 1GB NVidia Cuda Video card with 4GB RAM, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 - bit. This is the best Operating System in the whole pantheon of OS's in my opinion.
Previous used Simulations include Wings Of . Previously FS98 on my the same Win 95 PC, Activision Fighter Bomber was run on the Atari STe (forgettable 16 bit computer compared to its rival Amiga), and earliest of all, Psion Flight Simulator on the ZX Spectrum - rubber wonder.
My Logitech Wingman force 3D joystick has been used on all 4 machines mentioned above. I am not going to purchase the Wifi cordless newer Logitech joytick. No manufacturer has made a decent flight yoke up to July 2011.
- Installed Wings of Prey on my new Sony Viao Laptop
- Installed my Logitech Wingman Force 3D joystick with USB 1.1 connector on this machine - it runs fine for a 3 year old joystick on a new Sony Viao with USB 3.0 slots.
- Installed Wings of Luftwaffe on top of that - then re installed this because it was not recognised when I re inserted the Wings Of Luftwaffe disc - is there a bug here me thinks?
- Installed GP4 - works very well for a 2002 Game - I installed the fix brought out in November 2002.
- Installed Microsoft Flight Simulator X - looking good especially after installing SP1 and SP2 for FS X on top of base installation which is the Budget version of FS X. The Budget version of FS X is really a standard version FS X. Wish I got the Gold version of FS X but, thats life!
- Installed Test Drive Unlimited 2 on my VIAO. Got it up and running (Atari has the same attitude to it's clientelle when I was reading ST Format and Atari ST User. It is ironic how much anti - piracy rhetoric was put in ST format towards the end. This did not boost the Atari STe market in any measure.)
Wishlist:
- X Plane 10 by Laminar Software - my VIAO is sufficiently future proofed. I can wait for the next release date. X Plane 10 apparently has significant improvements over earlier X Plane versions although the interface system is the same.
- Wings Of Steel, the Pacific Theatre counterpart of Wings Of Prey WW II Combat Flight Sim.
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