Orbiter: The Video Game

[Joss]

A few years after the atari release there was another made by someone from belgium for the PC-DOS also called Space Shuttle, which worked very well for that time, however its success was limited.

In the 90's another one showed up called ESS which fitted in a 3.5" 1.44Mb disk. Also a commercial disaster.

Generally speaking "Game" means there is something to be killed, there is a score to beat or there is some kind of competition involved. If I ever tried to explain what MSFS is about to people watching me in the coomputer they keep asking "But what is it you are supposed to do?" and if you tell them "You fly an airplane!" they ask again "I know that, but what are you supposed to do?" and there is no getting them out of it.

They expect you to tell them "You kill the bad guys with wing mounted lasers" or something like that.. Otherwise they can't see the game in it.

So I stopped calling them games a long time ago. And if someone insists it is a game after all I invite them to give a try and see how much they entertain themselves.

Then they ask "If its not a game why do you do it?" and I tell them "Its a challenge".

So I dont expect ever to see anything like Orbiter close to any console never ever.

 

[Andy44]

The old SubLogic sim Flight Assignment: ATP kept score for various parameters, such as airmanship and obedience to air traffic control. When you started the sim you would pick an origin and a destination, and you would start sitting on the ramp near an air terminal. You had to talk to ground control to taxi to the runway, and air traffic control from there on. I usually scored very well except for the approach, because of the way it was scored if you deviated from the glide path by more than a few degrees at any time it would ding you. Since the act of flaring before touchdown always makes you float above the glidepath I would always take a score hit, even though I was so practiced that I could fly a 747 onto the runway using only instruments in zero-zero visibility. Following ATC's instructions could sometimes be hard, since it sometimes expected you to turn quicker than a jetliner should. Airmanship was judged mainly on how well you trimmed out the aircraft to stay at the assigned altitudes during cruise and vectoring to your runway.

When we fly Orbiter, we are all mentally scoring ourselves in a similar manner: Am I flying each phase of my mission in a correct and efficient way, and am I meeting my goals.

 

[Kyle]

The old SubLogic sim Flight Assignment: ATP kept score for various parameters, such as airmanship and obedience to air traffic control. When you started the sim you would pick an origin and a destination, and you would start sitting on the ramp near an air terminal. You had to talk to ground control to taxi to the runway, and air traffic control from there on. I usually scored very well except for the approach, because of the way it was scored if you deviated from the glide path by more than a few degrees at any time it would ding you. Since the act of flaring before touchdown always makes you float above the glidepath I would always take a score hit, even though I was so practiced that I could fly a 747 onto the runway using only instruments in zero-zero visibility. Following ATC's instructions could sometimes be hard, since it sometimes expected you to turn quicker than a jetliner should. Airmanship was judged mainly on how well you trimmed out the aircraft to stay at the assigned altitudes during cruise and vectoring to your runway.

When we fly Orbiter, we are all mentally scoring ourselves in a similar manner: Am I flying each phase of my mission in a correct and efficient way, and am I meeting my goals.

Guess thats how I owned the Space Shuttle landing simulator thing at Huntsville the first try when everyone else did a nose dive and barrel rolls or something.

 

[ar81]

I do not fly efficiently. I just fly.
For me it is like camping.
In a camping trip you do not care about having an efficient sandwich or drinking water efficiently or sleeping efficiently.:lol::rofl:

 

[Andy44]

If you are flying AMSO or Shuttle fleet and not being efficient, it becomes very hard to accomplish the mission, given the limited delta-V. I'm less interested in fantasy tech.

 

[EJ316]

And you're dating this moron....why?

That's not very nice, show some respect.

EDIT: Having read the comments that followed about boobies and such, I am amused

 

[John_L]

Nope. Just complaints that its not realistic because you can't fly like you can in star wars............

I think that it would fail not because it's not realistic, but rather too realistic, which would translate into boring for the excitement driven crowd that PS3 and XBox 360

 

[garyw]

I think that it would fail not because it's not realistic, but rather too realistic, which would translate into boring for the excitement driven crowd that PS3 and XBox 360

It's also a sandbox environment. There are no missions, you can fire orbiter up and sit there for 24 hours and watch a day go past. The sim will let you.

Many people will complain that because it lacks missions it's boring. It's happened to other sandbox games (the most famous being Universal Combat/BC3K).

 

[Urwumpe]

Universal Combat is a special case. Life is far to short to learn using it.

 

[garyw]

Universal Combat is a special case. Life is far to short to learn using it.

I thought that about Orbiter..... as would others.

 

[Urwumpe]

I thought that about Orbiter..... as would others.

I don't want to know how people think about SSU. For me it is easy to say "just look into the ascent checklist, for the post-MECO procedures"...but I remember in the dark past, that I had to learn reading the checklist once, as it is not really simple organized.

 

[garyw]

I don't want to know how people think about SSU. For me it is easy to say "just look into the ascent checklist, for the post-MECO procedures"...but I remember in the dark past, that I had to learn reading the checklist once, as it is not really simple organized.

And you know from some of the comments on IRC about how many people forget to do the simplest things because they won't use checklists.

I'm an advocate of using my own checklists as they make sense to me!

 

[ar81]

Checklist:
1.Open the door
2.Go across the entrance
3.Close the door

Geez. That's too esoteric for me!!!

 

[garyw]

no, no, NO!! How do I open the door? Which way do I turn the handle? Does the door open inwards or outwards?!

arrgh! :lol:

 

[Donamy]

Doors are too confining, get rid of them.

 

[Kveldulf]

Universal Combat is a special case. Life is far to short to learn using it.

Only took an hour for me to learn it. It really isn't as complicated as people make it out to be, so long as you follow the PDF tutorial.

I had more trouble learning Orbiter then I did UC to be honest.

 

[Andy44]

I think we should get Rockstar Games to do it.

Grand Theft Auto: Brighton Beach

Oh yeah! The soundtrack alone would be golden.

 

[MJR]

I think we should get Rockstar Games to do it.

Grand Theft Auto: Brighton Beach

Oh yeah! The soundtrack alone would be golden.

I always wish in GTA you could be in a shuttle or something like that.

 

[Tommy]

I think we should get Rockstar Games to do it.

Grand Theft Auto: Brighton Beach

Oh yeah! The soundtrack alone would be golden.

I can see myself now, all spacesuited up, yanking some poor fool out of his XR-2, popping off a few caps at the passers-by as the hatch closes and I blast away in a cloud of smoke and loud music.

 

[MJR]

Strap a few tech nines to the wings of a DGIV then come in for reentry and burn up. Lose all m weapons. Lol.