Flight Unlimited II

The second game of the Flight Unlimited Flight Simulator series by Looking Glass Studios, known for their sophisticated physics. However, unlike the first game, this is not an aerobatics simulator. The aircraft are of the more ordinary, personal variety, and not built for fancy moves. In fact, attempts to perform many of the manouveres from the first game will probably result in tearing the aircraft to shreds, or at the very least cause the aircraft frame and wings to make groaning noises.

There are 6 flyable planes:

Piper Arrow
Beechcraft Baron
De Havilland Beaver seaplane
Fokker Dr.I triplane (provided by a patch)
P-51D Mustang
Trainer 172

There are also many other aircraft controlled by the computer, ranging from small civilian planes, like the flyable ones (except the fokker), to larger corporate transports (such as the Beechcraft Starship), to passenger jets, to military transports (such as the C-5 Galaxy), to fighter craft (such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon). These aircraft fly on their own flightpaths around the map.

The game is played in the region of the San Francisco Bay Area, with approximately 13,400 square nautical miles, or 46,000 square kilometers of area covered, with textures derived from USGS aerial photographs. Most landforms such as mountains, hills, valleys, and changes in land height are (presumably), modelled from actual geographical data on the region. Some other major flight simulators of the time, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, allowed the player to fly around the entire globe. However, the amount of detail used for individual areas was but a scarce fraction of what Looking Glass achieved in re-creating San Fransisco. According to the manual, it was the first game with terrain detailed enough to allow for "Dead Reckoning" navigation, that is, navigation by comparing landforms to maps. Some out-of-the-way areas use mirrored textures and terrain, but this was presumably for areas the aerial photographs did not cover.

Most of the buildings, such as houses, in the area are nothing more than flat textures, but some special objects, such as bridges, stadiums, etc. are modelled. You can fly through the gaps in the pylons of the Golden Gate bridge, land on the USS Enterprise, or buzz Alcatraz, to name a few.

The game features a fully functional air traffic control system, with the busiest airfields having some form of control tower, ground control and ATIS systems, all accessible via different radio frequencies. Various private and maritime (seaplane only) airfields may have only an UNICOM frequency shared with some other airfields, or no radio at all. There are also three radar approach controllers, who can give vectors direct guidance, vectors ILS guidance, and airport status advisories. The player can also utilise VOR/DME systems for navigation.

Players can contact the various facilities at an airfield for a variety of services and information. They have to share these facilities, however, as many other aircraft are flying around the map, taking off and landing, performing runway touch-and-go's, or requesting to transit the airspace of an airfield. As such, players should not interrupt them while they are talking.

The game allows a lot of customisation. Players can set the starting point, time of day, rough wind speed, wind direction, rain and cloud height among others. The weather system is universal however. If it is raining at San Francisco International airport, it will be raining at the little airstrip at Bonny Doon Village. The third game in the series features localised, randomisable weather conditions. Players can set up complex flight plans, though these are purely optional.

The game also features Pilot Controlled Lighting. At certain uncontrolled aiports, the player can dial in the appropriate frequency on their radio, and press a button to broadcast a series of clicks. This will activate or increase the runway and taxiway lighting intensity. AI controlled craft also make use of the system.

The game has special pre-scripted missions, with special settings and events individual to each mission. These vary greatly, from manouvering and navigational challenges, to having to deal with sudden system failures, to night missions, strong weather, or a combination. Often certain details of missions make humorous references to various games or movies, using parodical names, such as Boston Flowers (Austin Powers), or Mox Fulder (Fox Mulder).

Unlike the first game, this game does not have a recording feature. However, the presence of a (non-selectable) reel-to-reel tape playing machine in the diffrent Airport Teminal and FBO interfaces suggests that the feature may have been in consideration at some point. A non-selectable world globe is also present in both interfaces, suggesting that other world locations may have been available, as in the first game. These would probably have become available at a later date, perhaps via an expansion CD. The resource files contain unused graphics for the tape machine and globe showing them highlighted, as though selected. The third and final game in the series does have a recording and playback facility, and can import the terrain data from the second game, allowing flights between the two areas, with lower-detailed west coast bridging areas inbetween.

The game was preceded by Flight Unlimited and followed by Flight Unlimited III . A fourth, combat oriented game based on the engine used in this game and the third, called Flight Combat, was in development when Looking Glass folded.

External links

Flight Unlimited II downloads on 3D Gamers Provides the final version patches, as well as updates containing new missions and the Fokker triplane.