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Journey's End for Microsoft's Flight Simulator

 

It is one of the oldest PC games in the world and it's even older than Windows. To virtual aviators all over the globe the news came as a shock. After almost 30 years in the cockpit it's time to say good bye. Microsoft is shutting down its Flight Simulator.

Back in the early 80s when PCs only had little power and graphics were only black and white it was still exciting to see if you could land a Cessna on a bumpy airfield. Twenty seven years later Flight Simulator 10 uses the power of high tech Pentium Dual-Core PCs with powerful graphic cards. They can reproduce most of the world's airports in millions of colors in and show the pilot landscapes and cities in great detail.

Compared with today's computer games, where you can wipe out a whole army or manage a European football team throughout  the season  flying a Boeing 757 from Heathrow to New York doesn't seem much of a deal. But to gamers all over the world the Flight Simulator appears to be close to the real thing.

 


Now Microsoft has announced that the team that has updated and perfected the Flight Simulator will be laid off.  In financially tough times, the company says, it has to concentrate on making money. No more time for playing around with games. So after 25 years of flight history, Microsoft's Flight Simulator is making its last touchdown.

 

 

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Words

  • announce = to say officially
  • appear = seems to be
  • bumpy = not flat or smooth
  • deal = nothing very important or big
  • detail = very carefully
  • gamer= people who love playing a game
  • globe = world
  • landscape = the scenery, countryside
  • lay off = to lose your job
  • real thing = here: you feel like you are in the cockpit of a real airplane
  • reproduce = copy
  • shut down = close down, stop
  • throughout =in the whole
  • touchdown = landing
  • tough = hard
  • update = to always improve and make better
  • virtual aviator = a pilot who can only fly in a simulator or on a PC
  • wipe out = destroy