Flight Unlimited is a Flight Simulator game. It was innovative, as it was possibly the first flight sim game to use the idea of air physics. Instead of the control inputs directly affecting the planes, the controls affect the control surfaces on the plane, with the flow of air doing the rest. For example, in an older game, pushing the joystick forward would directly make the plane pitch down (relative to its orientation), as though a "magic hand" was moving the plane. In Flight Unlimited, pushing forwards on the joystick tilts the flaps down, and the flow of air over the wings and flaps causes the planes orientation to change accordingly.

The game also simulates the gyroscopic flow of air over the plane caused by the propellors and takes into consideration the changing 'angle of attack' of the propellor blades as they rotate. Finally, the game even simulates the weight in different parts of the aircraft, with the heavy engine in the nose causing the plane to pitch downwards, requiring correction in flight. The exception to this is the Sailplane glider, which has no engine.

This more sophistocated physics system allows for realistic aerobatic manouveres that were just not not possible with other flight sims of the time.

The game features 5 flyable planes:

• Bellanca Decathlon
• Extra 300
• Pitts Special S-2B
• GROB Sailplane G-103A Twin II Acro
• Sukhoi SU31

The game also has a demo recording feature. Recordings can be saved and played forwards or backwards, at various degrees of speed. Camera views can be changed, as in normal flight, and at any time, the player can play the game from the current point of the recording.

There were two versions of the game released, for MS-DOS and Windows 95. The DOS version features a rather innovative easter egg in its credits screen: A 3d mini-game of sorts where you bounce a cube of coloured Jelly/Jello on a plate. The faces of the developers are on the sides of the cubes. Dropping one will result in a new cube with the next set of developer faces appearing. This mini-game is somewhat remnicent of the early GameCube demo 128 Marios, shown at Spaceworld 2001.

The game was followed by two sequels, Flight Unlimited II and Flight Unlimited III.

External links

Flight Unlimited downloads on 3D Gamers (http://www.3dgamers.com/games/flightunl1/downloads) Provides the final version patch, demo version, and manual.