homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Falcon 4.0 Falcon 4.0 turns 13! Post your first purchase

Hello all!

Falcon 4.0 is a teenager tomorrow and as an homage to the old girl how about posting about the first time you bought it.

Here's my story:

I was hanging out at the Janes F-15 forum at Combatsim when someone started a thread bragging that they just picked up their binder. I thought to myself "crap...thats right..Falcon comes out today" I had been so involved with F-15 and other stuff, I completly forgot. Within about 26 seconds I was in my truck, heading on down the road to find one. I didn't call anywhere to see if they had any first, I just left knowing I should be able to find one somewhere.

My first stop was going to be EB at the Hillsdale mall in San Mateo. I parked and did that kinda hurried walk that isn't really a jog but everyone knows you've got somewhere to go. As I approached the store, I came to the window where they usually put new releases on display and my heart sunk...no binders. As I banked left, in through the door, my eyes opened wide. There they were...about 7 shrink wrapped binders stacked up behind the counter. WooHoo! When I got home I fired in the CD and started the install and just flipped through the binder and just admired how awesome it was. My P2 266 with a 12meg voodoo card was going to get a serious workout for sure. Bubble at 1 for sure for those that remember.

Well, here it is 13 years later and with BMS, she's never looked better.

Happy Birthday Falcon 4.0!!

I think I actually have one of the most unusual stories how I got to the Falcon 4.0 binder.

I was of the Jane's Persuasion after Navy Fighters '97, then Apache Longbow and F-15. I thus only had a passing interest in Falcon, and went straight to JF-18 without ever buying it.

Then when I started a job at my first IT Company in 2001 (which is right about the time I was deep in IL-2), my boss promised me a payraise after three "evaluation" months. Which his management didn't grant.

So to make up for it - in one of the nicest things I've ever had a boss to do me - he decorated my workplace one morning with a collection of his preowned sims he wanted to give away. Turns out he used to be a Radar Controller at the Military Airspace Control Center before he became an IT Guy - and he had the Falcon 4.0 Binder fed-exed to him in Austria on release day as he was a flightsim nut (by then, no longer, but before I joined his company).

I realized at the time that this binder, for sheer production value, was the best thing ever done for flightsims.

But I NEVER INSTALLED it. Seeing that in 2001, I had 3d cockpits with clickable buttons to play, and with my ambiguity towards the Falcon as an aircraft, the ring binder remained on the shelf for ten years, trough three different apartments always on the same shelf above my computer.

Only now, with BMS 4.32, and with a distinct lack of other modern multirole sims, did I get to actually use the CD - if just to copy down the .exe file for the BMS installer.

Oh, and to add another most unusual part: I have since 2001 also a Cougar HOTAS, since 2008 even modified with FSSB sensors. But I don't use it anymore since Win7 drivers need a bit of dance to get it working.

So in some ways I guess I [I]really[/I}missed the Falcon 4.0 train.

But very glad to have such an awesome sim today.

Good story RS...thank you for sharing! You are certainly coming to Falcon when its the best it's ever been. With every other incarnation of this sim, I was always able to load it up and go blow some stuff up right away with my previous knowledge of the bird. Not so with BMS, I think all of us feel like fresh faced novice's after installing and trying this latest and greatest mod.

Happy Birthday Falcon!!

My story is nothing to crazy.... I believe it was 1998 or 1999 when I picked up falcon 4.0, which would of made me 11 or 12 years old lol. I bought it a few days after my birthday, with some money I got from my parents in a birthday card. I always loved fighter jets and when I seen the box I instantly had to pick it up n look at the pictures on the back and read about how awesome it was. I remember the box was VERY heavy for just "some computer game", as I thought at the time lol.

I ended up buying it and rushing my mom to drive home faster so I could try it out. I didn't even have a joystick or anything, and quickly gave up after realizing how difficult this SIM was going to be to figure out.

Came back to it a few years later. Now had some microsoft joystick, only had a trigger and 1 button, and the throttle wheel on the base of the stick. I now had some experience with online games, decided to search around and see what I could find on this sim. Found my way to FrugalsWorld and went looking for a virtual squadron to teach me the ropes and give me some real people to fly with. Found the FreeBirds VFW and really the rest is history. That was THE best wing I've ever been apart of and I learned just about everything I know from those IP's and there instructional material.

As I got into my upper teens/early twenties I kinda put down gaming for a while, only coming back n flying every now n then. Now this new BMS comes out and draws me back in lol. Gotta say it is truly amazing how far this sim has come over the years and I can only imagine where it's gonna be in the future. Looking forward to it

Same here, I was like 11 years old (I'm 19 today) when I went to a fleamarket (idk if its the right word, but its when people get on a road and sell the things they don't use anymore) and saw this CD (there was no box) with a fighterjet on it, I remember that when I was young I didn't really like the look of the F16 because it was a single engine, I only liked the F15, BUT there was something going on between me and this CD lol I told the guy that was selling it to hold on and don't sell it to anyone cuz I was going to buy it, then I ran back home to ask some money to my mother (the price of Falcon was 4�), she gave me, and I ran back to the seller of the CD, and i had it ! I was so happy, and couln't wait to be at home to try it !
There I became a Falcon4 nerd, and got my 1st joystick a few weeks ago.

Today I'm still wondering howcome I had so much love/patience to have read the whole manual (the .pdf one) several times when I was 11/12.
And today I'm still a Falcon (BMS) nerd and I hope I could join the Arm�e de l'air next year.

Happy Birthday Falcon !!

What kept me from earlier patches and mods was that some would offer A and B, others would offer C and D (clickable cockpit versus widescreen versus singlelcick installer... something like that the dance went).

Now with BMS finally a gang of guys has realized what I think everyone wanted alongside the "less deep" system LOMAC and others - a single click install, dynamic campaign Jetsim which ticks all boxes of modern technology (okay, the landscape needs work - but that's not a real issue for the simulation value).

In some ways I'm glad I waited for this version as it might be the easiest to "stick with".

I'd tried Falcon AT on the Atari ST and then Falcon 3, but I could'nt get into either. LB2 and Mig Alley were where it was at for me, so I never paid much attention to Falcon 4.

Then, I cant remember why, someone on the Mig Alley forum here on SimHQ wanted to swap their copy of F4 for MA, so I went for it. That was about 2001 and I have flown every iteration of F4 since. I actually saved up for nearly a year to buy an Abit BP6 motherboard with dual celeron 500mhz cpu's and a Voodoo 3 AGP card.

I dont fly much else now, maybe FSX with FS Passengers now and again. I tried to get into IL2, LOMAC, F18, DCS, but it doesnt work for me. Although I have high hopes for Take On Helicopters.

When I bought my first PC in 2002, a friend gave me several game disks, including F4.

As I realised I'd have to read several hundred pages to fire anything other than the gun, I ditched it until about 4 years ago when I found a mint binder edition on ebay cheap.

Still play F4:AF off and on, hard to find anything to replace that campaign, or that game packaging. Unless DCS brings out an F-18 with carrier ops, might still be flying F4 for years to come.

Hi All,

I bought my copy of Falcon 4.0 a couple of days before Christmas 1998 while on my way to hospital for an operation. I had cought the train to town and was mooching around a computer shop when I saw a copy on the shelf. I had been waiting literally years for it to be released, and thought what brilliant timing as it would sweaten the pill of going into hospital, so parted with, I think, 35 quid.

I duly had the op and distinctly remember being in what was known as the day room on the ward, avidly reading the manual. I was still in there that night when a nurse came in asking if I wanted painkillers to help me sleep and that I should really be going back to the ward, as I was literally sweating with pain after the op. " No thanks" I replied, "can you bring me a cup of tea because I want to read this manual". She looked at me with complete disbelief but duly came back with the cuppa. I had got to chapter 17 and was reading about the consoles thinking to myself " all these buttons to press, and all this detail, I'm going to have fun here"! Crazy.

I have still got the same copy on the shelf and am looking at the same page as I was all those years ago. Page 17-19 in case you're wondering. Can't believe it's been so long. So many memories......

I still fly FreeFalcon and have downloaded the latest BMS and seen it running on a mate's computer. It's hard to believe it's the same sim as I had in my sweaty palms all those years ago.

Brilliant.

And thanks to the OP for giving us the chance to take this trip down memory lane. Fantastic times.

Regards,

MTB

Happby Bday F4.

I bought the game in 1999. It was the "special edition" which came with a 3" loose-leaf binder. I have been playing on and off since then, never as much as I wanted to, but I was always putting it aside until a new version came out.

I re-bought it in 2005 when AF came out. I actually put in more time in AF since it actually worked and I was able to finish my 1st campaign.

Now with BMS, I am re-discovering F4 yet again. Just listening to the menu music brings back so many memories.

Great posts everybody!

@MikeTB: Really enjoyed that story!

I hope to see a few more before this thread drops off. I am defintely the nostalgic sort, and in addition to re-living my own sim memories, I really enjoy reading others! My fondest memories of simming were right in this timeframe(1998-2000), lots of good stuff for us pilots.

I started flying Spectrum Holobyte's first F-16 with the release of the original "F-16 Fighting Falcon" in the mid "80's and continued on with "Falcon AT", "Falcon 3.0" and "Operation Fighting Tiger" through the early '90's. I still have the books "Falcon 3.0 Air Combat and "Art of the Kill" written by F-16 pilot Pete Bonanni, who I believe is currently a Brigadier General and Assistant Adjutant General-Air of the VA ANG.

In 1998 the long delayed and awaited Falcon 4.0 was released by Microprose and I immediately purchased a copy and have flown it off and on ever since as it migrated through its many freeware iterations and the payware Falcon 4.0 Allied Force. Now I am transitioning to the freeware BMS 4.32 and having a lot of fun in the process.

Long live Falcon 4.0!

Mike

MikeTB, cool story!

Aren't we by definition all old farts if we bought F4 back then or similar sims

Anyone under 30 here?

*raises hand* 24

43 here. Pretty old, except when I'm hanging with some of my 50 year old friends!

Hi All,

I'm 52 so definitely in the old fart brigade!

I bought my first PC in 1990 - 91. An AMD chip running at 40Mhz and I think 2 meg of ram, a 42 mbyte hard drive and a soundblaster card. Top specs in those days and I think it cost me something like �1300. God knows what that would equate to in today's money. Got it specifically to run Falcon 3. Obviously had more money than sense.

Slightly more on topic - I installed BMS 4.32 today and am having a blast. Beautiful flight model. AI seems more switched on. Lovely graphics after turning the bloom down. Smooth as silk. Hard to think this is based on something that is 13 years old now. And it cost - nothing. So many thanks to all the people involved in its development over the last 10 years and more.

Regards,

MTB

Well I gut sucked in almost immedietely but never got it working satisfactory on my 233mhz P1. I still have that old PC.. Well I shelfed after about a month of Frustration and didn't pick F4 back up till SP3 came out.. Well Since then I have been playing it ever since..

I am really excited in BMS and THNX to the guys that made it possible Snaps to ALL those Guys and Gals who made BMS possible..

Well since I upgraded my Rig to a Triple screen Setup I shelfed Allied force since it only had single screen capability then BMS happened with DX9 and Triple Screen Functionality My Prayers where answered see you all there is a God..

Well I burned out 2 bulbs and just waiting till after the holidays to get 2 new bulbs so I can go back to triple screen goodness and BMS..

here is to well at least 1 more good year LOL!!

My how time flys!

I got my Falcon 4.0 Binder at Target on my birthday 13 years ago. They had put the "TOPGUN" (Remember that game?. lol) price tag on it for $17.98

Of course, with the combination of bugs and my system it got shelved until I got a new computer, which is still the prime motivator for upgrades to this day. Then due to Delphi (remeber that forum) and Frugalsworld got back into Falcon.

Having beta tested for Thrustmaster in the mid 80's with the MK I hotas, I have stuck to the Falcon/Thrustmaster combo all these years up to the Cougar. The Warthog will have to wait until I win the lotto or that long lost Nigerian Prince finally sends my money.

I would like to thank Falcon 4.0 for the oppertunity it has given me to make the friends I have made throughout the years, being part of the FreeFalcon Team.

Time for another computer rebuild to get BMS4.32 running better.

I bought my day-of-release copy in some giganticus mall in Las Vegas while on a business trip. Made it very difficult to not open the box while sitting in the already pretty boring meetings, while sitting inches away from the package with the monster binder and associated goodies. I swear it was lighting up periodically, and occasionally emitting a #%&*$# Betty voiced, "Open Me now! command."

I'm trying desperately to get my hands on an original Falcon 4.0 but a number of the options at Amazon show various other segments to the title which don't really confirm that the item really is the original. The original is required so I can get it to associate with Benchmark Sims 4.32.
Can anyone tell me precisely what the title should consist of please?
i.e. FALCON 4.0 (WITH NO OTHER NAMES OR SUFFIXES FOLLOWING IT)