Flight Is Unlimited (if you have the engine)

Microsoft's Flight Simulator has been the standard of the industry literally since the IBM PC came out fifteen years ago - even longer if you count the TRS-80 and Apple II versions from SoftLogic that preceded it. While there have been a number of pretenders to the throne, I hadn't seen any that would be a serious challenge to Flight Simulator until now, with Flight Unlimited for Windows 95.
   Like Flight Simulator, Flight Unlimited is designed for people who want the feel of flying a real airplane. As you'd expect it supports popular joysticks and add-on rudder pedals (the mark of a serious simulator pilot!) but can be flown with the keyboard, and as with the Microsoft program this uses VGA graphics and a sound card if you have one.
   The first difference is in the selection of aircraft - where Flight Simulator lets you fly various general-aviation and military airplanes, Flight Unlimited concentrates on aerobatics with a selection of four single-engine planes (the Bellanca Decathlon, Pitts S-2B, Extra 300 and the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-31) and a sailplane for a new challenge. Even more surprising is Flight Unlimited's graphic and sound performance; Flight Unlimited, as a Windows 95 program that uses Microsoft's
DirectX technology, gives you almost photo-realistic ground views (which Looking Glass says were created from actual aerial photos) and other graphics to match, along with very realistic stereo sound effects that will get your attention as soon as you start the program. Flight Unlimited can use 320x200, 640x480 or even 1024.x768 graphics modes, although at present the latter is usually somewhat slow due to limitations in the DirectX video drivers.
   The one drawback is that Flight Unlimited for Windows 95 needs a rather fast PC to do its magic. The instructions specify a Pentium processor (preferably 90 Mhz or faster), and though Looking Glass apparently had hoped to make it work on a fast 486 I got less than two frames per second on my 80 MHz DX2 system. Flight Unlimited does also come in a DOS version (which we did not test) that is said to work on a 33 MHz or faster 486 system. But if your computer has the guts, Flight Unlimited can give you the thrill of flying in a very attractive way.

-- Ed Ellers
                                             Link to Looking Glass Technologies Site