I thought I’d recommend a game I found on the net last night and it’s free, so forget all these flight simulators at 60 or 70 quid a go, download “Tower”, the free air traffic control simulation.
3 airports come in the 8mb bundle, two of which are 360 degree panoramic views from the CT and the other being a basic computer generated airport.
You must use commands which come in an attached help file: things such as clearing an aircraft to land, telling an aircraft to hold short of a particular runway etc.
It’s an American made game, so, understandably, the airlines are all American like American Airlines, Delta, Northwest Airlines etc. A radar screen shows you the aircraft and your job as the ATController is to ensure they get down safely and then go up safely.
You get a rating when you choose to end the game and you cna have up to ten controllers, so playing it with friends or family could be fun and you can see how many crashes there have been etc while a particular controller was running the airport!
It comes in 6 downloads of about 1.25mb each and the total file size is about 8mb. The first file (tower-1.zip) needs to be zipped into a newly created folder and will have about 15 files inside it. The next five files are simply individual files which need to be unzipped and dragged into the same folder and once all files are there, click on the “Setup” button and it does it for you!
But it’s the best “free” game I’ve come across in a long time and the graphics are not too bad.
Go to http://www.scenery.org/atc_sims.htm for more information and start downloading – you’ll not regret it!
By: dan330 - 13th June 2002 at 20:33
RE: Free ATC Game!
The game is basically as it states, Tower. You are also in control of ground though and receive aircraft about 10 miles out on final.
Two airports have photo realistic 360 views which is quite good, with less detailed aircraft, although the movements are very good and it certainly makes it a bit more interesting than looking at a radar screen as in some games.
Only moans are that they are not true colours and appear and disappear after / before they move.
However its a great game that I still use often and definately worth a go, especially if its free!
By: T5 - 12th June 2002 at 21:01
RE: Free ATC Game!
You simply control the movement of aircraft around the airport and in the surrouding skies.
By: Benair316P - 12th June 2002 at 20:54
RE: Free ATC Game!
This game sounds interesting. I’ve saved the page and will probably have a look at the weekend…bit busy with good old ‘exams!’
I recently recieved a CD ROM from Eurocontrol at Amsterdam. It was basically a recruitment CD but, it had an ATC sim on it. You had to prevent conflictions between aircraft on a mock-up radar screen. Quite interesting but became slightly predictable.
T5…is this game airfield control (in the cab) or radar…or…a bit of both??
Thanks
Ben
By: dan330 - 12th June 2002 at 17:52
RE: Free ATC Game!
FREE, FREE!!!
I BOUGHT this game a few years ago for £60! Mind you it was in the days before FS98 so it was a while ago. Got to agree, its a fantastic game and I used to spend hours on it. O’Hare is the best, when you have 99 aircraft every 66 minutes, hard to control but fun. Washingtonm National is quite hard, but the other Canyon Field is fun as you can see the aircraft close up.
By: T5 - 12th June 2002 at 12:18
RE: Free ATC Game!
The forum isn’t letting me upload a screenshot, but I’ve put one in my webspace so you can take a look, it doesn’t look too complexed, the various windows tell a different story.
I’m playing at the moment and have just earnt a free coupon for lunch in the airport for being such a great ATController!
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June 12, 2002 at 12:07 pm