Flight Unlimited is a Flight Simulator game by Looking Glass Studios. It focuses mainly on Aerobatics. 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 elevators, and the flow of air over the tail and elevators 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. The rotation of the propellors causes the plane to rotate very slightly in the opposite direction of the rotation. 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 these is the Sailplane glider, which has no engine. The manual goes into greater depth of the effects of the physics.
This more sophisticated physics system allows for realistic aerobatic manouveres that were just not possible with other flight sims of the time. The game features an extensive lesson mode, covering everything from level flight and rudder turns, to the most complex manouveres, such as the Avalanche and Rolling Turns. A dynamic training instructor flying with you during the lessons will offer helpful advice and point out where you are making mistakes. If the player scores high enough, they can get a certificate for each manouvere.
The game has a keyboard control system that allows precise control over the plane, but a joystick is still undeniably better to use.
The game features 5 flyable planes:
Rather unusual (for the time) is the FBO inteface. It allows the player to walk around a room in 3d and select objects to access functions in the game. For example, a whiteboard allows access to the lessons, while the world globe allows the player to go to other world locations.
The game has a demo recording facility. 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 'eject the tape', and play the game from the current point of the recording. The game comes with several recordings, some of which show a range of manouveres, while others show how 'not' to fly a plane.
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 , though these are much more 'civilian' flight simulators. A fourth, combat oriented game based on the engine used in the second and third games, called Flight Combat, was in development when Looking Glass folded.
External links
Flight Unlimited downloads on 3D Gamers Provides the final version patch, demo version, and manual.