SubLOGIC - Company Flight Simulator Timeline

Company Flight Simulator Timeline

1975

"FS-0" — Engineering thesis by Bruce Artwick: 3D-graphics demo of the simulation of flight on the Apple II.

1978

Bruce Artwick and Stu Moment start subLOGIC to market graphics and systems software for microcomputers, amongst which the once famous "Night Mission Pinball" and the even more famous "Flight Simulator".

1980

• January: First generation: FS1 for the Apple II, 4 color/monochrome, with a 2-gauge panel (airspeed, altitude), on cassette tape.
• March: First release of FS1 for the Tandy TRS-80 (16 Kb), monochrome, without panel, on cassette tape.

1980/81

New releases of FS 1 for the Apple II, with altitude-counter, enhanced terrain lay-out, "3D"-mountains and other structures. On 5¼" floppy disk.

1982

• New release of FS1 for the TRS-80 with enhancements, on 5¼" floppy
• November: Second generation: Microsoft releases FS 1.0 (created by subLOGIC) for the IBM-PC: 4 color (+ dithering), panel with 8 gauges, new coordinate system, 4 scenery areas (20 airports), 2 COM radios and DME (no ADF), 9 view directions, weather, slew, simulated aircraft is a Cessna 182.

1983

first release of FS II for the Apple II by SubLOGIC, comparable to PC-version, but 6-color, solid filled, 4 areas, now with 80 airports, more roads, rivers, mountains, buildings, bridges, ADF, simulated aircraft is a Piper Archer. Better manuals.

1984

• New releases of FS II (8-color) for the Commodore 64 and Atari-800.
  Several new releases with some added functionality for all processors follow.
• Several new releases of MS FS 2.1x for the IBM PC with the same functionality as FS II, including a special version for Tandy computers.
  Manuals for these versions were better.

1985

• Jet released in 1985 for DOS and the Commodore 64, 1986 for the Apple II, 1988 for the Atari ST and Amiga, and 1989 for the Macintosh and NEC PC-9801.

1986

• Third generation: New releases by subLOGIC of FS II (some call it FS III) for the Amiga and Atari-ST with 320×240, 16-color display, new menu system and multiple windows and views (including spot view), an enhanced coordinate system and enhanced scenery (buildings, bridges) in 5 areas with 120 airports.
  Autopilot and multiplayer option. Aircraft: Cessna 182RG and Learjet 25.
• Microsoft releases FS 1.0 for Apple Macintosh. Functionally the same as the third generation Amiga and Atari versions, but high res, monochrome. Without multiplayer option. Also comparable to FS 3.0 for the PC (1988).

1986

First add-on sceneries by subLOGIC, gradually covering the whole of the USA, compatible with both Microsoft and subLOGIC FS versions.

1987

First non-USA add-on scenery (Western European Tour, with special Paris, London and Munich scenery) by subLOGIC.

1988

• Bruce Artwick leaves subLOGIC and founds BAO Ltd (Bruce Artwick Organisation). He retains the copyright to Flight Simulator. subLOGIC goes its own way with the development of "Flight Assignment: ATP" (Airline Transport Pilot).
• June: FS 3.0 (part of third generation), created by BAO but released by Microsoft for the PC only: 16-color EGA (640×350), new panel, new high resolution scenery structure, better weather/time of day features, flight recording/analysis, multiplayer. Mediocre flight model. Comparable to FS II for Amiga and Atari ST.

1992

AAF (Aircraft and Adventure Factory) by Mallard: including first "real" ATC.