Retro Dogfight, a New Podcast Focusing on Classic Flight Sim, Launches Today

[Father Ted]

I have a USB hub with power switches for each individual port to help with this very problem. I almost always have the gamepad on, but when flying something, I turn that off and turn the joystick port on. It works wonderfully and I highly recommend it.

I'll have to investigate this.  Not so much for retro sims (I'm in the Jarhead camp on these), but more for a whole slew of games (mostly FPSs) that I "can't" play because they interpret my throttle, etc as mouse input, WASD keys and so on.  This could be a solution, TY.

[Redwolf]

I have a USB hub with power switches for each individual port to help with this very problem. I almost always have the gamepad on, but when flying something, I turn that off and turn the joystick port on. It works wonderfully and I highly recommend it.

Good idea. I never got my pedals to register for the rudder in IL-2 '46. Maybe that would help.

[SpaceGameJunkie]

Oh you guys, it's marvelous. Some games only see my stick, which is one device. Some games are my entire HOTAS, which is three devices. This hub allows me to tailor which devices my PC sees for each game. It's amazing.

This is the one I have, FYI.

https://a.co/d/h1bAOLV

[SpaceGameJunkie]

Hey friends, episode 2 of Retro Dogfight is out, wherein we look at the three LucasFilm WWII sims!

https://www.retrodogfight.com/02-a-look-at-lucasfilm/

[Destraex]

I would listen to an episode on Xwing, tie fighter. Kinda in the same vein as retro flight sims.

[SpaceGameJunkie]

I would listen to an episode on Xwing, tie fighter. Kinda in the same vein as retro flight sims.

I have a different show for that.

https://www.spacegamejunkie.com/podcasts/sgj-podcast-188-x-wingtie-fighter-series/

[Destraex]

Ahhh nice.

[Dammit Carl!]

Sweet!  Thank you and a request for some Mig Alley by Rowan attention at some point!

[SpaceGameJunkie]

Sweet!  Thank you and a request for some Mig Alley by Rowan attention at some point!

We're going in chronological order, so we'll definitely get there at some point. It'll be a while though.

[W8taminute]

I'm ashamed to admit this but I used to plan multiple raids on aircraft factory targets in SWOTL as the allies and let the computer handle those missions.  Then I'd jump into a fighter, cross the channel and obliterate a V1 site which was pretty easy to do. 

This was an exploit where the computer handled missions performed better if the human controlled mission was a success.  The more successful the human controlled mission the more devastating the computer controlled raids.  After a few missions I brought the Luftwaffe to it's knees and was able to bomb targets all over Germany with absolutely no opposition. 

[SpaceGameJunkie]

I'm ashamed to admit this but I used to plan multiple raids on aircraft factory targets in SWOTL as the allies and let the computer handle those missions.  Then I'd jump into a fighter, cross the channel and obliterate a V1 site which was pretty easy to do. 

This was an exploit where the computer handled missions performed better if the human controlled mission was a success.  The more successful the human controlled mission the more devastating the computer controlled raids.  After a few missions I brought the Luftwaffe to it's knees and was able to bomb targets all over Germany with absolutely no opposition. 

Hah. Honestly I am not surprised by this at all. That's amazing.

[JasonPratt]

My brother used to drive a B-17 into Germany in SWOTL, land near his target which effectively put him under the AI's ability to target with interceptors, roll up to it, drop a bomb at 0 feet (because most of the target would be flat paint on the ground and there wasn't code for the bombs to damage the bombers), and then drive back to the coast shooting up and bombing targets of opportunity along the way. At the coast he'd take off and cross back to England without anything chasing him because the AI would see nothing in the sky to chase and so wouldn't even launch interceptors upon ground damage.

It's possible that was in the prior game, but I know he (and I) played SWOTL more.

[SpaceGameJunkie]

I think only SWOTL had the B-17, so it was probably that one.

[SpaceGameJunkie]

Friends, episode 3 is out, in which we discuss the earliest text-based flight sim games. Yay!

https://www.retrodogfight.com/03-early-text-based-flight-sim-games/

[Vox]

Before the internet was widely known, before the term "PC" was a thing, we moved a crosshair across a mainframe terminal's screen.