Flight Unlimited - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia20150608005350

Flight Unlimited

North American box art

Developer(s) Looking GlassTechnologies

Publisher(s) Looking GlassTechnologies

Designer(s) Seamus BlackleyPlatform(s) DOS Windows 95

Macintosh

Release date(s) June 7, 1995[1]Genre(s) Aerobatic flight simulatorMode(s) Single-player

Flight UnlimitedFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flight Unlimited is a 1995 aerobatic flight simulator video gamedeveloped and published by Looking Glass Technologies. Itallows players to pilot reproductions of real-world aircraft and toperform aerobatic maneuvers. They may fly freely, race throughfloating rings against a timer or take lessons from a virtual flightinstructor. The instructor teaches basic and advanced techniques,ranging from rudder turns to maneuvers such as the tailslide,Lomcevak and Immelmann turn.

Flight Unlimited was the first self-published game released byLooking Glass Technologies. It was intended to establish thecompany as a video game publisher and to compete with flightsimulator franchises such as Microsoft Flight Simulator. Projectleader Seamus Blackley, a particle physicist and amateur pilot,conceived the game in 1992. He felt that other flight simulatorsfailed to convey the experience of real flight, and he reacted bycoding a simulated atmosphere for Flight Unlimited based onreal-time computational fluid dynamics. Aerobatic pilot MichaelGoulian endorsed the game and assisted the team in making itmore true to life.

Flight Unlimited received positive reviews from critics and wasa commercial success; its sales exceeded 780,000 copies by2002. Reviewers lauded its realism, flight instruction, graphicsand sense of flight, but some criticized its high systemrequirements. The game was followed by two sequels: FlightUnlimited II (1997) and Flight Unlimited III (1999). A combat-oriented successor, Flight Combat, was released in 2002 asJane's Attack Squadron after a series of setbacks. Soon afterFlight Unlimited 's completion, Blackley was fired from LookingGlass. He went on to design Jurassic Park: Trespasser atDreamworks Interactive and later spearhead the Xbox project atMicrosoft.

Contents1 Gameplay2 Development

2.1 Origin2.2 Production2.3 Publication

3 Reception3.1 Design3.2 Presentation

4 Aftermath4.1 Sequels

Flight Unlimited - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flight_Unlimited&printable=yes

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Piloting the Extra 300S in the3-D Cockpit view mode, theplayer follows a "ghost plane"through a Hoops course aboveSugarloaf, Maine. The flightinstruments, which showreal-time information about theplane, are displayed on thebottom half of the screen.

5 Notes6 External links

GameplayFlight Unlimited is a three-dimensional (3D) flight simulator video game:its gameplay is a simulation of piloting real-world airplanes.[2] Players maycontrol the Bellanca Decathlon, Extra 300S, Pitts Special S-2B, SukhoiSu-31 and Grob G103a Twin II sailplane. The game begins at the fixed-baseoperator (FBO) interfacea traversable 3D room whose contents representmenu options. For example, the player interacts with a row of scale airplanemodels to select an aircraft, and with a world globe to change airfieldlocations.[3] Six settings are available, including Sedona, Arizona andSpringfield, Vermont.[3][4]

The player may choose to begin flight on a runway or taxiway, or in theair.[3] Aircraft are controlled via keyboard, joystick, head-mounted displayor specialized input devices such as pedals.[5] During flight, several third-and first-person camera angles may be selected. For example, the third-person Flyby View places the camera in front of the plane as it flies past,while the first-person Three-Way View displays more information about theplane's position and speed than other angles. Certain camera angles,including the Three-Way View and 3-D Cockpit view, provide the player

with simulated flight instruments such as an altimeter, airspeed indicator, accelerometer, variometer andtachometer.[3] The game is designed to allow players to perform aerobatic maneuvers such as theImmelmann turn, tailslide, Lomcevak and Cuban Eight.[5] Performances may be recorded and played back,with controls that allow the player to pause, rewind and fast forward. At any time, the player may stop arecording and resume flight from that point.[3]

The game contains lessons that cover basic and advanced flight techniques, ranging from rudder turns tochallenging aerobatic maneuvers. A simulated flight instructor offers real-time advice based on the player'sperformance.[3][5] Certificates are earned by performing well during lessons. In Hoops courses, the playerundertakes a time trial through rings that float in the sky, with the option to enable a "ghost plane" of thehighest score. Four types of Hoops courses are available: Basic, Challenge, Distance and Trick. The last isintended as a highly demanding test of the player's aerobatic ability.[3] The game's sole non-powered aircraft,the Grob G103a Twin II sailplane, features its own game mode focused on energy management.[6] The playerattempts to use the direction of the wind, thermalswhich realistically occur above areas that absorb moreheat, such as plains and parking lotsand the orographic lift caused by slopes to stay airborne for as long aspossible.[3][7]

Development

Origin

The concept of Flight Unlimited originated from Looking Glass Technologies' discontent with contemporaryflight simulators.[3] Company co-founders Paul Neurath and Ned Lerner wanted to develop an exceptionalgame in the genre, and Neurath considered the idea during the production of Ultima Underworld: TheStygian Abyss and Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds.[5] In 1992, Seamus Blackley, who had beenundertaking graduate studies in particle physics at the Fermilab research facility, was hired through a want


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Seamus Blackley wasinstrumental in thedevelopment of FlightUnlimited.

advertisement that Lerner had placed on a bulletin board.[8][9] At thecompany, Blackley programmed the physics modeling system for a racinggame and designed a large number of standalone physics demonstrations.He became fascinated by physics programming. An amateur pilot and flightdevotee, Blackley asked Lerner extensive questions about his earlier gameChuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, which Blackley held in highregard.[5][8] In reaction to Blackley's enthusiasm, Neurath suggested thatthe company develop a "traditional Cessna sim".[5]

However, Blackley instead proposed an aerobatics training simulation,which he had conceived while reading an aerobatics magazine on aLexington, Massachusetts bus. Collaborating with Ultima Underworld IIprogrammer Greg Travis, he created a thirty page concept document thatoutlined the game.[5] His core idea was to recreate the "yummy, visceral,fluid feeling that you get when flying a real airplane".[10] He wanted theproject to bear more resemblance to a playground than to a video game,and he sought to give it simple controls and realistic terrain to decrease thelearning curve for beginners.[7] Blackley assumed the role of project leaderand then engaged the team in "flaming sessions" to generate ideas.[3][5][8]According to programmer Doug Church, Blackley's concept of the game was not fully developed, but heclearly expressed his thoughts and motivated the team. The first months of the project produced disparateprototypes that demonstrated prospective features.[5] The company committed to full development of thegame in early 1993, and production commenced in March.[5][11]

Production

Blackley's first objective was to code the game's simulated physics. He began by deciding on a programmingmethodin particular, he sought one that would allow aircraft to perform the "knife-edge spin" maneuverthat he had witnessed at air shows. In 1995, he said that he had never played a flight simulator with anaccurate sense of flight.[10] He later described his belief that the genre had stagnated, and that flight gameswere evaluated "by [their] implementation of the standard feature set", rather than by their enjoyability.[12]Blackley researched physics programming in contemporary flight simulators, and he discovered that manyused large databases of wind tunnel and plane sensory equipment information to dictate how aircraft wouldoperate in prerecorded scenarios.[5] Higher-end simulators used a "Newtonian" system, in whichalgebra-based measurements of force vectors determine a plane's position in real-time. However, Blackleybelieved that neither system correctly simulated the experience of flight.[10]

In reaction, he used his knowledge of particle physics to create a real-time computational fluid dynamics(CFDs) model for Flight Unlimited.[3][5][8] The result is a simulated atmosphere: air acts as a fluid thatautomatically reacts to the shape of any object placed within it.[7][10] Blackley gave the example that a lawnchair, if placed within the game's real-time CFDs model, would fall merely because of its shape. The game'splanes fly because the interaction of their architecture with the atmosphere creates lift, as with real-worldaircraft.[10] Changes in the plane's direction are caused by the interaction of their flight control surfaces(ailerons, elevators and rudders) with the simulated atmosphere.[3] Because it simulates the dynamics offlight in real-time, the system allows for aerobatic maneuvers that were impossible in previous flightsimulators.[10][13] In 1994, Blackley said that it was possibly the first flight code designed for aerobatics.[7] Inconstructing the CFDs model, Blackley and the team built from the NavierStokes equations of fluid motion,which Blackley described as "horrible, complicated partial differential equations". According to ComputerGaming World, Blackley did not seek to represent the equations with perfect accuracy, and he was satisfiedwhen the results were consistent and the sensation that they generated was correct.[10]

After programming a basic version of the CFDs model, Blackley used several programs to examine the


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The flight instructor wasdesigned to respond to theplayer's performance. If amistake is made during amaneuversuch as theImmelmann turn demonstratedaboveguidance is provided inreal-time.[3][5]

simulated currents of air that flowed across a model of a flat plate. He adjusted the code until the plate fellrealistically, and then constructed test models for a plane wing and fuselage. He eventually built a completebut dysfunctional plane by using data from "pinhead books". By reading aircraft design manuals, hediscovered that the problems were caused by his plane's incorrect tail and center of gravity. Following this,he created an exact three-dimensional model of the Extra 300S over roughly three days. As he had not yetsimulated the physical attributes of its propeller, Blackley programmed the plane to be propelled from therear. However, the accurate model performed properly in the simulated atmosphere.[10]

Artists Mike Marsicano and Kurt Bickenbach played critical roles in the creation of the game's aircraftmodels, which were built in 3D Studio.[5] As reference material, the team photographed real planes atseveral airfields, and they received blueprints and datasheets from aircraft manufacturers.[3][5] The game'sGrob G103a Twin II sailplane was based directly on the one that Blackley owned at the time.[10] Thesophistication of the real-time CFDs complicated the 3D modeling process, as the planes required accurategeometry to fly properly. While attempting to meet this goal, however, Bickenbach said that the models hecreated were overly detailed, which caused the team to struggle with performance issues related to the highnumber of polygons. Reducing the number altered the plane's shape, which in turn reduced its flight realism;this necessitated a balance between performance and accuracy.[5] To obtain audio for the planes, GregLoPiccolo and Tom Streitformer bassist and road manager, respectively, of the band Tribevisited aFlorida importer of Russian aerobatic aircraft.[3][14] The two placed microphones inside the cockpits andnext to the engines,[4] and they flew each plane at multiple speeds while recording with a digital audio tapemachine.[7][14] Combining this material with digital recordings of wind sounds, the team fashioned aphysics-based sound system: sounds of the wind and engine are altered in real-time based on wind speed inthe game.[7]

The flight instructor was created by programmer Andrew Grant and voicedby Tom Streit.[3][5] It monitors the player's controller input during "eachframe of animation". If a maneuver is attempted, the instructor"interpolates the initial control movements" and predicts which maneuver isbeing performed. The instructor then gives advice on how to complete themaneuver and offers guidance if a mistake is made. Grant believed that thecode is sometimes "too picky", and he stated that it expects players toperform maneuvers more precisely than is humanly possible.[5] The teaminitially planned to include an online multiplayer component, which wouldhave allowed 64 planes to fly in the same areathereby giving players theability to compete with one another.[7] However, the feature was notimplemented into the final game.[6] The staff members also sought toinclude aerobatic competitions in which the player could participate, butthe idea was dropped because of difficulties with realism. Problems withartificially intelligent judges were also a factor in the feature's removal.[5]

Flight Unlimited 's terrain graphics were created withstereophotogrammetry.[3] The team gathered aerial photographs fromlocations in France and the United States.[4] They combined two to three

images of each area to create digital reproductions roughly 11 square miles (28 km2) in size.[4][5] Eachlocation in the game was based on two stereoscopic sets of photographs,[13] which were processed for morethan 72 hours by a "dedicated Pentium tucked away in a dark corner". From the contrasting images, thecomputer generated a terrain "data blanket" with 3D height variations. While the team had considered usingsatellite or surveillance aircraft images to create the game's terrain graphics, they found that the resolutionwas inadequate. Material from geographic information systems was also studied, but associate producer PaulSchaffer said that it would have been "astronomically expensive" to obtain data with the necessaryresolution.[5]


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After assembling a playable demo of Flight Unlimited, the team requested assistance from then-USAerobatic Team member Michael Goulian, who worked as a flight instructor at the nearby Hanscom Field.[5][13]

Because of the game's flight code, Goulian was able to execute aerobatic maneuvers within less thanthree minutes of playing the game; and he later performed his "entire basic aerobatic routine".[5][13] Blackleytold PC Gamer US that, while Goulian disliked flight simulators, "When he flew Flight Unlimited, he justsaid 'pretty cool.' I was so psyched".[13] Goulian assisted the team during the next year of development: heco-designed the game's flight lessons and advised the team on adjustments to the plane models.[3][5][10]Aerobatic pilot Patty Wagstaff was also consulted.[7] At one point, the team encountered problems whiletesting a maneuver in the game's Sukhoi Su-31, and Blackley was concerned that he would need to reworkthe game's physics code. However, Goulian phoned a colleaguea Russian pilotwho told them tocompensate for the plane's abnormally large ailerons. Using his advice on flying the real-world plane, theteam found that the maneuver worked correctly.[10] Goulian endorsed Flight Unlimited and wrote theforeword to its official strategy guide.[5][15]

The graphics and physics code increased the game's system requirements, and the team worked to optimizeperformance during development.[4][16] They struggled to improve the game's memory usage: the processconsumed nearly as much time as the creation of the physics model, according to Church. Programmer EricTwietmeyer ran weekly tests of the game's performance by disabling certain parts of the codesuch as thephysics calculationsto isolate which parts used the most memory.[5] By 1994, Blackley's physics code tookup only 1% of CPU time, with the rest allocated to the terrain renderer.[7] Blackley optimized his code byconverting the mathematical calculations of air from the 3D game world into a "math-friendly space", duringwhich time the Navier-Stokes equations are applied. Afterwards, the data is returned to 3D space. Accordingto Computer Gaming World, this method increased speed by "a factor of 100, with almost no loss inprecision."[10] The team had trouble with complex memory-related glitches during development. Churchcalled them "crazy", and programmer Greg Travis noted that debugging the terrain cache system was a"nightmare".[5]

While leading the team, Blackley adopted a loose style of supervision. According to Opening the Xboxauthor Dean Takahashi, "Blackley [was not] ultra-organized. His idea of good management was to invitesomeone over for a gourmet dinner and have a casual conversation about work". However, Takahashi wrotethat "Blackley worked hard to inspire his team", and he described artist James Dollar's belief that, "incontrast to other Looking Glass managers, he didn't take over tasks and make others feel stupid".[8] Duringthe first two years of production, the team was divided into small groups that worked on the game's elementsseparately. For example, Blackley programmed the game's physics, while Eric Twietmeyer and Tim Daycreated the terrain renderer.[5] However, Doug Church later said that, while "the team [did] a bunch of verycool stuff, the FBO, the flight model, the instructor, the renderer, so on", the result "was almost like fourseparate programs, with no connection".[11] Following the completion of the concurrently-developed SystemShock, a significant part of that game's teamincluding Church, Marc LeBlanc and Rob Fermiermoved toFlight Unlimited to add connective material.[5][11][17] At the time, Church said that it was difficult to meldthe game's elements,[5] but he later stated that they largely coalesced by the end.[11]

Publication

Flight Unlimited was self-published by Looking Glass Technologies. Their previous games had beendeveloped for other video game publishers, and had generated $90 million total earnings for thosecompanies. However, Ronald Rosenberg of The Boston Globe reported that Looking Glass was "no longersatisfied as a backroom player surviving on royalties".[4] Doug Church later explained that the companywanted to self-publish in order to escape the "treadmill of waiting for advances", which would allow them tomake long-term plans without needing to satisfy the immediate demands of a publisher.[17] In late 1994,Looking Glass announced that venture capital investors, including Matrix Partners and Institutional VenturePartners, had provided the company with $3.8 million. The sum was intended to fund the development and


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self-publication of Flight Unlimited. According to Michael Humphreys of Matrix Partners and RuthannQuindlen of Institutional Venture Partners, the decision was partly influenced by the past success of thecompany's co-founders, Paul Neurath and Ned Lerner.[18]

Looking Glass intended Flight Unlimited as a gateway into the video game publishing industry. According toLerner, the idea of self-publishing had been considered when the company was founded. In 1995, LookingGlass projected that sales of Flight Unlimited would increase royalty revenues to $10 million that year, upfrom $1.5 million in 1994. Jeffrey A. Kalowski, the company's vice president of finance and administration,expected that the game would recoup its development costs and make a return before the end of the year. Hepredicted that, over the following 12 to 18 months, the company's number of employees would increase from52 to 82. The company's executive vice president and general manager, Jerry Wolosenko, told The BostonGlobe that the company hoped to publish six games each year.[4] According to Doug Church, the pressurefor Flight Unlimited to succeed meant that the concurrently-developed System Shock, which was notself-published, received little attention from the company's management.[17]

Flight Unlimited was placed in direct competition with several major flight simulator franchises.[4] Beforethe game's release, Shelby Bateman of Next Generation Magazine wrote, "1995 is going to be a real dogfightin the flight-sim and aerial-combat categories, and LookingGlass [sic] is betting its bankroll ... that it cancapture significant market share from the likes of Microsoft Flight Simulator and the debut of SpectrumHoloByte's Falcon 4.0, among others."[19] Describing the situation, Johnny L. Wilson of Computer GamingWorld wrote, "The games that sell big are the ones that allow you to blow stuff up, so, if anything, that couldbe a problem for Flight Unlimited."[4] Doug Church explained that, because the game did not featurecombat and bore little resemblance to Microsoft Flight Simulator, the team spent "many late nights" onmarketing strategies. However, he noted that the game had a wide appeal among those who tested it duringdevelopment, which he called "a really good sign".[16] Talking to Bernie Yee of PC Gamer US, Paul Neurathsaid that he thought the game would sell well. Yee noted that Neurath "fully [expected] it to prove morepopular than Microsoft Flight Simulator".[13]

In January 1995, Looking Glass showed Flight Unlimited alongside Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri atthe Winter Consumer Electronics Show, under their "Immersive Reality" marketing label.[20] In March 1995,the Boston Globe reported that the team was performing "11th hour checks" of the game to prepare it forshipment to a Midwestern United States Compact Disc manufacturer. According to the newspaper, LookingGlass planned to begin by shipping 100,000 units to retailers in Canada and the United States. Another100,000 copies were to be sent to France, Germany and the United Kingdom at a later date.[4] However,upon the game's June 7, 1995 release for DOS, 200,000 units were distributed simultaneously in the UnitedStates and Europe. The game's European releases were localized with German, French and English text andvoice acting, which was made possible by "close coordination with international partners".[1] Versions forMacintosh and Windows 95 were later released;[21] the former was shown at the Macworld Expo in April1996.[22]

Reception

Flight Unlimited was a commercial success.[23] It debuted in twelfth place on a June 1995 sales chartcompiled by NPD Group, while Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.1 took first place.[24] The game went on to sellmore than 300,000 copies by 1997,[25] and more than 780,000 by 2002.[8] According to Constantine vonHoffman of the Boston Herald, Flight Unlimited successfully competed with Microsoft Flight Simulator.[25]PC Gamer 's Lee Buchanan wrote that it "soars above the pack of flight simulations", and he considered it tobe "the most fun [he had] had in a computerized cockpit".[2] Frank Vizard of Popular Mechanics hailed it as"the new top gun of flight simulators",[26] and Doug Bailey of The Boston Globe considered it to be the "firstreal serious challenge to Microsoft's dominance of the genre".[27] The Record 's David Noack believed thatthe game's physics and stereoscopic terrain set "a new standard in flight simulation".[28] Writing for


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Computer Gaming World, Bob and John Nolan stated, "If anything, you should at least take a look at thisproduct, because you'll be looking at the future of simulations."[29] The game was a finalist in the 12thAnnual Awards for Technical Excellence held by PC Magazine, whose staff called it "the simulator by whichall others will be judged."[30][31]

Design

Vizard stated that Flight Unlimited 's "very advanced computational fluid dynamics make [each] plane reactaccording to spec".[26] Buchanan lauded the fluid model for creating a "sensation of actual flight [that] isnothing short of magnificent",[2] while PC Magazine 's staff commented that it makes "planes behave morelike real aircraft than any simulator we have seen".[31] Bob and John Nolan called the game's physicsprogramming "groundbreaking",[29] and Chris Ware of the Lexington Herald-Leader found the game to bethe most accurate simulation of flight beyond "those multimillion-dollar flight simulators [used by] fighterpilots and astronauts".[32] Noack agreed: he wrote that the game "is about as close to flying within going tothe airport".[28] In 1996, Computer Gaming World presented Flight Unlimited with a Special ArtisticAchievement Award For Physical Model. The magazine's staff praised Seamus Blackley's programming forpushing the genre "higher into the realm of simulation".[33]

Ware found Flight Unlimited approachable and noted its "simplicity of use and depth of instruction".[32]Buchanan hailed the lesson mode as "a dream come true for any budding pilot".[2] A writer for TheWashington Post called the game "[the] world's first truly easy-to-use flight simulator" and "a good entryproduct", in which "rank amateurs can just launch the program and start cruising immediately".[21] TheWashington Post 's John Gaudiosi wrote that, while many games in the genre are overly complex, FlightUnlimited lets "those who aren't rocket scientists ... experience the thrills of stunt flying." He found itscontrol scheme simple to understand.[34] By contrast, Bailey found the game difficult and initially"frustrating": he complained that he had to play the lesson mode before even taking off.[27] Denny Atkin ofComputer Gaming World characterized the game's learning curve as steep, thanks to the accuracy of thephysics programming, but he noted the scalable difficulty options.[6] Bailey later recommended the game in aholiday shopping guide. He wrote that "it can be difficult to master. But once you're up, it's worth thetrouble."[35]

A writer for The Washington Post commented that "serious flight freaks will like the racing and advancedmaneuvers".[21] According to Gaudiosi, dedicated players will learn "all about aerodynamics and stuntflying"; he considered the latter to be "hard stuff, even with green hoops guiding you".[34] Similarly,Buchanan characterized the Hoops courses as "incredibly demanding", and Atkin cited that mode's Trickdifficulty level as "amazingly tough".[2][6] Bob and John Nolan wrote that people who "love to loop aroundthe skies of Flight Simulator 5 will go bananas for" the aerobatics; but the pair commented that combatflight simulator players "might get a little edgy once the wow-power wears off."[29] However, Atkin believedthat only those "never happy without something to shoot at" could be disappointed by the lack of combat:other players will "be too busy choreographing aerial ballets, pulling off death-defying aerobatic stunts, orjust enjoying a quiet soar down the ridge line to miss that stuff".[6] Likewise, Ware called the non-violentgameplay "refreshing",[32] and Buchanan wrote, "If [you are] a battle-weary veteran of air combat sims,Flight Unlimited might be just the sort of [rest and relaxation] you need."[2]

Presentation

Atkin found the cockpit and terrain graphics to look "almost real". He commented, "Every few years a simcomes along that lets reviewers use the 'sets new standards for graphics' clich, and Flight Unlimited is the1995 entry in this club."[6] Bob and John Nolan called Flight Unlimited "the ultimate show off piece foryour new Pentium", thanks to "unbelievable" graphics superior to those of any other computer game.[29]Gaudiosi concurred: he characterized the visuals as "photo-sharp" and "better than any I have seen".[34] PC


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Magazine 's staff found the graphics "impressive" and "even more stunning than those in Microsoft FlightSimulator".[31] Ware noted the "stunning 3-D photo-realistic scenery",[32] while Bailey stated that the"graphics are brilliantly rendered and whiz by smoothly".[27] Buchanan called Flight Unlimited 's terrain"just superb" and Vizard described it as "amazingly real".[26] Buchanan believed that "what you hear inFlight Unlimited is every bit as good as what you see", thanks to "utterly convincing" sound effects.[2] Atkinpraised the instructor as "one of the best uses of voice ever in a multimedia title".[6]

Bailey wrote that the game needs "a real beefy machine" to run properly;[27] Atkin stated that the "massivehorsepower requirement will restrict many gamers to lower resolutions and detail levels".[6] Bob and JohnNolan similarly found that the game "hogs computing power".[29] Buchanan wrote that the systemrequirements listed on the back of the game's box "must be a joke", and that a high-performance computer isnecessary to run the game.[2]

AftermathFlight Unlimited was the first of three self-published titles released by Looking Glass Technologies.However, the next two products, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (1996) and British OpenChampionship Golf (1997), were commercial failures. As a result, the company ceased self-publishing andwas left in dire financial circumstances.[23] Doug Church later explained that Looking Glass' attempt topublish came at a difficult time for the video game industry: "the other mid-sized publishers were mostlygoing out of business or getting bought". He believed that the company had been "overreaching itself" withthe venture, and that it was "being a little overambitious and a little cocky".[17]

Sequels

Flight Unlimited was intended to be followed by a combat-oriented sequel,[10] which was developed underthe working title Flight Combat.[36] In 1995, Seamus Blackley told PC Gamer US that he wanted the gameto "feel so real that pilots will be afraid. They'll feel the gun hits."[13] Talking to Computer Gaming World, hestated that the game would teach players the "same curriculum [as] the Air Force", and that it would featurecompetitive online play.[36] However, a company manager, newly instated by venture capital investors whodisliked Looking Glass' management style, instead demanded that Blackley create a direct sequel to FlightUnlimited. The two argued regularly, and Blackley later accused the manager of "ripp[ing] the guts out ofLooking Glass". In response to Blackley's refusal to create Flight Unlimited II, the manager fired him.[8]Blackley left the company in late 1995 with designer Austin Grossman, and both were hired by DreamworksInteractive to create Jurassic Park: Trespasser.[12] He later spearheaded development of the Xbox atMicrosoft.[37]

Constantine Hantzopoulos directed Flight Unlimited II, which was published by Eidos Interactive in 1997.The team could not continue using the real-time computational fluid dynamics of Flight Unlimited because,according to Hantzopoulos, it was "all black box spaghetti code from Seamus". The aerobatics focus of itspredecessor was dropped in favor of general civilian aviation.[38] The development of Flight Combat washinted at during the production of Flight Unlimited II.[39][40] A third game, Flight Unlimited III, waspublished by Electronic Arts in 1999; and it continued the focus on general aviation.[41] That year, FlightCombat was officially announced as the World War II-themed, Electronic Arts-published Flight Combat:Thunder Over Europe,[42] but its name was eventually changed to Jane's Attack Squadron.[43] The game wascanceled as a consequence of Looking Glass Studios' closure in 2000. However, it was later finished bydeveloper Mad Doc Software and released in 2002 by publisher Xicat Interactive.[44]

Notes


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"Looking Glass Technologies Ships Flight Unlimited Worldwide". PR Newswire. June 7, 1995.1. Buchanan, Lee (September 1995). "Flight Unlimited" (http://web.archive.org/web/20000229120635/www.pcgamer.com/reviews/443.html). PC Gamer US. Archived from the original (http://www.pcgamer.com/reviews/443.html) on February 29, 2000.

2.

Grossman, Austin (June 7, 1995). Flight Unlimited Operator's Manual. Looking Glass Technologies. pp. 1, 2,58, 10, 1417, 20, 2629, 32, 35, 36, 4042, 6163, 106, 107.

3.

Rosenberg, Ronald (May 3, 1995). "Preparing for Takeoff: Company Hooks Fortunes to Pilot Game". TheBoston Globe. pp. Business; 77.

4.

Addams, Shay (1995). Flight Unlimited Official Pilot's Guide. Infotainment World Books. pp. 113, 75, 88, 94,103, 188196. ISBN 1-57280-051-8.

5.

Atkin, Denny (September 1995). "Trapeze Flying". Computer Gaming World (134): 190, 192, 194.6. Wilson, Johnny L. (September 1994). "More Than Atmosphere; The Flight Plan for Looking Glass Technologies'Flight Unlimited". Computer Gaming World (122): 8083.

7.

Takahashi, Dean (April 23, 2002). Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an EntertainmentRevolution. Prima Lifestyle. pp. 4144. ISBN 0-7615-3708-2.

8.

Flaherty, Julie (Summer 2007). "The Auteur Theory of Video Games" (http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/summer2007/planet-tufts/video-games.html). Tufts Magazine (Tufts University). Archived(http://www.webcitation.org/5vy84rHsu) from the original on January 24, 2011. Retrieved January 24, 2011.

9.

Schuytema, Paul (August 1995). "Hex, Bugs & Rock 'N Roll; Calculus Unlimited". Computer Gaming World(133): 174, 176, 178.

10.

Bauman, Steve (January 30, 2000). "The Tracks of His Games" (http://web.archive.org/web/20030908171031/www.cdmag.com/articles/025/191/dougc_interview.html). Computer Games Magazine. Archived from theoriginal (http://www.cdmag.com/articles/025/191/dougc_interview.html) on September 8, 2003.

11.

Laprad, David (September 8, 1998). "The Evolution of the Prehistoric Beast: An Interview with TrespasserProject Leader Seamus Blackley" (http://web.archive.org/web/19981205060034/http://www.avault.com/articles/seamus.asp). Adrenaline Vault. Archived from the original (http://www.avault.com/articles/seamus.asp) onDecember 5, 1998.

12.

Yee, Bernie (March 1995). "Through the Looking Glass". PC Gamer US 2 (3): pp. 62, 63, 65, 67, 69.13. Lozaw, Tristram (December 15, 1994). "Music; Tribe's fans are in for a 'Shock' ". Boston Herald. pp. Features;47.

14.

"Michael Goulian" (http://www.castrol.com/castrol/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9000657&contentId=7005216). Castrol. Archived (http://web.archive.org/web/20051020102225/http://www.castrol.com/castrol/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9000657&contentId=7005216) from the original on October 20, 2005.Retrieved January 24, 2011.

15.

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External linksFlight Unlimited download (https://archive.org/details/Flight_Unlimited_1995_Looking_Glass_M3) atthe Internet ArchiveFlight Unlimited (http://www.mobygames.com/game/flight-unlimited) at MobyGames

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Categories: 1995 video games DOS games Flight simulation video games Looking Glass Studios gamesMac OS games Single-player-only video games Windows games

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