''Fly!'' is a flight simulator video game for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

developed by

Terminal Reality Terminal Reality is an American video game development and Video game producer, production company based in Lewisville, Texas. Founded in October 1994 by ex-Microsoft employee Mark Randel and former Mallard Software general manager Brett Combs, ...

and published by Gathering of Developers.

Gameplay

It includes simulation of

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

features as well as aircraft's on-board systems, and was acclaimed for its highly detailed fully working interactive cockpits. Featured

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

are fixed-wing light to medium aircraft. An enhanced version, ''Fly! 2K'', and add-on, ''Wilco's 737 for Fly!'', were released in 2000. ''Fly! 2K'' added user-created add-ons, enhanced graphics, real world and real-time weather generation via the ability to import

METAR METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by aircraft pilots, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting. Raw METAR is highly standardize ...

reports from

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

, and support for Roger Wilco. The improvements were made available for owners of the original ''Fly!'' via a free patch. Another version titled ''Fly! 2K: German Edition'' was released in early 2001. It added

Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

to the game. It is intended to replace the Fly! 2 main program (exe) and remain fully compatible with previous versions, scenery, aircraft, etc. The first publicly available version was released in 2010.

Development

The game was in development for more than three years. It was developed by a team of 20 people.

Reception

''Fly!'' and ''Fly! 2K'' received mixed or average reviews according to the review aggregation website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. It sold 93,000 units by October 2001.

Sequel

''Fly! II'' is a sequel to ''Fly!'' released on April 26, 2001 for Windows and Macintosh. Macintosh version was distributed by

MacSoft MacSoft was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1993 by Peter Tamte as a subsidiary of WizardWorks, specializing in the production of video game ports from Microsoft Windows to Macintosh operating systems, as well as prod ...

. Said sequel and ''Fly! 2K'' sold combined 47,000 units by October 2001.

Reception

Danny Atkin for

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

said ''"Fly! II is this year's poster child for programs shoved out the door before completion–publisher Gathering of Developers not only shipped FLY! II with bugs and missing features, it even left out most of the manual. The shame of it all is that the finished parts are quite good, and developer Terminal Reality has been very quick to post patches and missing terrain data."''

Gameplay

Development

Reception

Sequel

Reception

See also

References

External links