These are my comments from looking at the demo. If you have any questions I have not answered, attach a post or email me, and if I have an answer or even an educated guess, I'll gladly pass it along. It would be better to attach a post here, then I can answer it, and everyone can see it if they want to.

I hope I have been some help. I enjoyed the day at the show and spent as much time as I could with the demo. I saw many other games of all kinds out there, and comparing what I saw from MFS 98 with all kinds of other flight sims, it is comparable. I did not get to see Sierra Pro Pilot. One of my favorite military sims is EF2000.

I saw the 3D version of it. In some areas the 3D effects were better than what I saw with MFS 98, and in some areas they were the same or worse. Overall I would say, if you have a machine with some horsepower, and can come up with the 40 or 50 bucks when it comes out, try it and make your own decision. Maybe buy

from a retail store that will let you return it for cash back or other merchandise. I will say that from what I was told that if your present system does not run MFS 95 well because of horsepower limitations, it will probably run MFS 98 even worse.

The young man giving me the guided tour was Andrew Silverman. He is the Project or Program Manager for the MFS 98 project.

Will scenery developed for previous version of MFS be compatible?

There should be no problems with scenery that works and is stable in previous versions. If MFS 98 is installed on top of the older version, MFS 98 install will read the old World.vis file, and update the World.vis for MFS 98. It will not blow away anything it does not recognize. So if you have your add on scenery embedded in your MFS tree, you will be okay, even though you probably shouldn't be doing it that way. You can install MFS 98 on top of the old version, or in a different directory tree. This enables you to keep your old

system operational and run the new also.

Part of my flying of the new Cessna was done from a new airport they have added in Arizona, either Tucson or Phoenix, maybe Sottsdale. They have added textures to the mountains. Bare rock mountains like I assume you would find in Arizona. They are using a variety of textures similar to what we are seeing in some of the third party scenery. Cities and towns still look pretty much the same.

I noticed that they took the time with the city in Arizona to attempt to lay out the boundaries in a shape that more resembles what a city looks like from the air. I asked Andrew how they handled the layouts of the cities and rural towns. Did they do something other than lay down a perfectly square polygon of urban texture? His response was negative, that the third party people do a much better job of that than they can do in a production environent. So I assume in the new cites they have added, they have laid them out a little better, but the outlying towns are still going to be a square patch of texture.

I did take a short pattern flight from Miegs field. I could not see anything that they had done different in that area. From that, I assume that scenery detail from previous versions are being ported over as is, with the possible exception of dressing up the mountains. I took it from Andrew's comments that they may have dressed up all mountains. I did not get a chance to go to California or anywhere where I could compare mountains that I have seen on my system to the new system. Only in the new area of Arizona, which does not exist in the older versions. My opinion is that you are not going to see the detail in the scenery for MFS 98 that you see in the third party scenery done by some of the authors we have furnishing us with great scenery. Especially in the area of tile textures. The new versions scenery looks better than the old versions, especially in new areas they have added. To repeat myself, it still does not come close to what we can get for free from our favorite web sites. I can certainly understand that. If they put in the hours some of these third party authors have and tried to recoup their monetary investment, we would be paying three times what we are for the product.

In summary, yes scenery looks a little better in some areas. Keep in mind that what they demonstrated was a beta version, with much work still to be done.As far as scenery, I saw nothing that would make me be standing in line with my 50 bucks when the first package is put on the end cap at the retail store.

I inquired whether there was going to be any change in the "flickering on the horizon" that so many people complain about. The response was kind of vague. The Microsoft guy, (different guy) attempted to show me the difference, but after a little looking around and head scratching, he thought that they did not have the appropriate hardware installed to show the difference. I think they were using machines they had rented here in Atlanta. He ended that response with yes, we can get rid of a great deal of the flickering, if the user has the

horsepower to run it in the proper way. I got no firm answer on this, other than it will be a lot better, but not 100%, depending on the horsepower of the machine.

I have noted that even on the win 95 version, that since I have gotten updated video drivers from ATI, and started playing with higher resolutions, that it is even better on the current version, at higher resolutions.

The only panel I experienced was with the new Cessna. It looks very good. Much better resolution and more dials and gauges added. I assume they are all live and serve a purpose, but can't say for sure. The radio stack does not display on the panel by default, you have to use a hot key to bring up the radio stack, and when you do it overlays the right side of the panel. That looked okay to me, since once you set frequencies, you don't need to have constant access to it Anyway.

If you are a panel nut, this won't make you happy. When I asked if panels designed for previous versions would port over, the comment was that they would not. They will have to have work done on them. Quote "The MFS 98 panels have had significant overhaul" "MFS 95 and earlier panels will not work" "We will put a system in place to support the efforts of 3rd party panel designers to help them make the transition to the new system"

So what that means is anybody's guess. The panels are however much different, and look like they have been redesigned from the ground up.

For what purpose it serves, you can pan around the interior of the cockpit. I guess if you dropped your TAC chart, you could look down at the floor and pick it up.

Nothing has changed in this area. You still have scrolling text, and your call letters are still "Microsoft Flight Simulator".

Andrew's comment was at least a 486 66mhz. He also stated that at that level, performance will be at a minimum. I took that to mean, "you can, but you won't be happy."

Custom aircraft coming over from previous versions will require a new converter. He said they plan to have the converter on the CD with the software. He said however that if the converter causes them to miss their "on the shelf" target date of November" they will not put it on the CD, and will instead make it available for download from their web site. He said the converter will be available through one of these methods, by the time you can buy the software off the shelf.

My notes are sketchy, but I believe the way he said this was "if your plane has been converted or designed for MFS 95, no conversion is necessary for MFS 98." If its a flight shop plane, you will need the new converter.

Same goes for adventures, as for Aircraft. They will port over with a new converter.

They say there are now 3000 airports. The "Go To Airport" function has been redesigned. You work down from higher levels, for instance: You have a Global dialog, where you select a country. Then you have a country dialog where you select a state. Then a state dialog where you select a city. Then you select an

airport. At the airport level, you have the option of starting on the threshold of either end of any runway in that airport. That looked nice to me. I asked if there would be an option of being placed on the ramp, to taxi out. He said not now, but it had been discussed, and may come later.

"I think Tim Dickens has a patent and copyright on that capability."

I was told any 3D card with compatible Direct Draw drivers would be fine. I feel from my experience that the key is going to be not so much which 3D card you have, but how much available machine RAM you have in addition. Make certain your 3D card is from a reputable company, and find out if it supports the latest Directx Drivers from Microsoft. I would say though that if you are going out to buy a 3D card, just for this upcoming software, you should wait to see how things shake down. I was surprised to learn today that in my IBM Aptiva, I do have 3D capability, I just had to download the latest drivers for this system from ATI.

The only plane I flew was the new Cessna. It is a fixed gear plane. I found it to be much more stable on the climb out with hands off the controls. It lifted off, and began to ascend at about 500 FPM, and I did not have to touch it. It stayed at that attitude pretty much until I leveled off and banked around. It seemed very stable. I think of everything I saw, I would buy the product for the difference in handling of this little puppy compared to the old Cessna. I like

the small planes, and I was very pleased.

They were using the new product Microsoft Sidewinder 3D with Force Feedback. I don't think they are available on the market yet. My opinion of force feedback....Save Your Money. When rolling dwon the runway to rotation, you feel a vibration in your hand that stops and smoothes out upon rotation and liftoff. When you land, as soon as you touch down, you once again feel the vibration. I could feel some resistance in various ways in the stick, when I stalled out (on purpose). Then when I crashed it jerked around a couple of times. I wouldn't buy force feedback based upon what I saw. I think the gyrations the stick goes through is going to decrease the life of the mechanism. I was told that I should be feeling some resistance from the aelirons as I began to bank, but I did not. Maybe its my age, I am 51. Maybe if I was still 25, I would have felt more.

Make my chair shake, and give me 1.5 to 2.0 Gs in my chair as I make a tight bank, and then I'll be impressed.

They said there will probably be a $10.00 rebate coupon in the package, and you have to send it in with a page from your previous manual. The key word here being "probably"