[DavidJ]

Sometimes you just want to shoot something up. I was a big Hellcats fan, and these days I use WarBirds (which you can buy for $20 and fly offline):

https://www.totalsim...=download_store

It's awesome, you can put up a flight of 10 B17s and view from outside the formation while waves of enemy fighters tangle with 'em, or fly the bombers or fighters, or try your luck as a ball-turret gunner. I've never had the time to join up with the online play but came across the direct purchase option a year or so ago.

Then there's good ol' Don's Games and WWII SkyFighters 1945:

http://www.donsgames...php?page=sf1945

I flew his P51 back in prehistory and have had every one since. This one teaches you to dogfight, and you can fly against your friends over the net...

[blimpal]

My first Apple were the LCIII and 2e. I subscribed to a magazine that had programs that you entered yourself. One of them had to do with flight. Had a radar screen enemy fighters. Drop bombs, Aerial combat. You could fly under a parachute and rescue the pilot.This was in early 80's. Great game. Don't remember the mb but it was fun. Forget the name of the magazine. Every month it had another program you could enter in Basic. Put them on the 5-1/4 disk.

[KennethP]

X-Plane does fall short in the UI area though. MSFS is more for Gamers with a Sim taste and X-Plane is for those interested in doing hardcore simulation of the systems involved in flight. What's missing is something between the two.
Ah, to have a "pretty" flight simulator with good scenery, a good user interface with integrated flight planner, and ATC on the Mac... heaven!
I for one wish someone would resurrect the Fly! series. I know there was an attempt at Fly! Legacy (http://flylegacy.sourceforge.net/), but I think that has kind of died on the vine.

[John_Dewar]

I disagree that Flight Simulator isn't for hardcore sim fans. Just look at the PMDG 747-400, which far surpasses anything in X-Plane. On the other hand, X-Plane certainly has much better freeware, the 757 and MD-80 are phenomenal - and you have to spend a lot of money to get anything like that in Flight Simulator. Also, Flight Simulator's weather isn't as realistic and the built in autopilot can't autoland. But I agree with you that X-Plane desperately needs a built-in flight planner and better ATC. Also the flight model in Flight Simulator is very uneven. It takes a lot of work to make it behave realistically, which is why certain aircraft like the King Air and Jet Ranger are more realistic than the 737 and Robinson R22. X Plane is a lot more interesting in that it gives you fluid dynamics simulation, so you can see what custom designs would really fly like, more or less. I really think FSX's new missions feature is a killer app for civilian flight simulators though. At first I was skeptical, but now I can't get enough. It makes it very fun and gives you a lot of interesting challenges to fly through. X-Plane isn't far away from having the same ability, since it has situation support and plugins like XCopilot, but it's all a little too clunky at the moment. And Planemaker really needs some interface rethinking.

[SomeTechGuy]

I'd love to get this for my MacBook Pro. 70 gigs is a ton but that's okay I guess.
Rob, is there any recommendations on heating issues? Is there something special to do to make a laptop stay cool while running a program like this or is the normal "set it on a table and don't block the airflow" method just fine?

[Philscbx]

All the key players must have gone down in flames.
Trying to find cool games for a desk top of MacPro is really looking slim on this site.
May 2008?