Your Co-Hosts
Brian Rubin
My first flight simulator was subLOGIC’s Flight Simulator II for the Tandy 1000 EX I got in 1986. Man, I loved that thing, and played it all the time. I got Sublogic’s Jet soon after, which gave me a little taste for combat, but it wasn’t until snagging a copy of MicroProse’s F-19 Stealth Fighter in early 1989 that I really fell in love. From then on, I was hooked, and played that game for years, eventually graduating to MegaFortress, Comanche, F-15 Strike Eagle III, EF 2000 and so many others.
I love this era of flight sims because they focus more on fun and worldbuilding rather than realism and fidelity. I’d much rather spend time flying around the vibrant, lively world of F-19 than the empty dead worlds of DCS (no, I don’t care much for multiplayer). This is why I’m so excited about this podcast.
Chase Dahl
Chase “Scharmers” Dahl was pushing cardboard counters and playing “Keep On the Borderlands” when Disco was king. From those humble beginnings, he moved on to computer gaming and is still stuck there. A late bloomer to flight sims, picking up and holding the “Aces of the Pacific” box in Software Etc. changed his DNA. From there, he was an active participant in the world of sims, including writing a (not so-) fondly remembered flight sim protoblog in the 90s as well as some articles and reviews in the print mags and websites of that era. These days, while his ardor for flying things has diminished a little, he still looks fondly back on, and has an unfortunate encyclopedic knowledge of the “Golden Age of Flight Sims.”
Denny Atkin
I was Simulations Editor for Computer Gaming World in the late ’90s, during the golden era of flight sims. I covered titles ranging from Strike Commander to Falcon 4.0, and even got hands-on with some sims like Jane’s A-10 that never saw the light of day. Writing for CGW and OMNI, I was lucky enough to experience the excitement of real-world aviation firsthand, flying in the Collings Foundation’s B-17G and taking the controls of SubLogic’s Cessna 310, an F-15D Eagle, and a T-34B Mentor.
I still fly flight sims, and have stupidly full hangars in MSFS and DCS, but I miss the days when sims were more about pilot experiences and less about switchology and accurate hydraulics. I wish today’s sim developers would spend more time reading books like Gillcrist’s Feet Wet or Bud Anderson’s To Fly and Fight for inspiration. They’re a lot more exciting than NATOPS guides.
About Our Podcast
Retro Dogfight is a love letter to the classic sims of old, primarily from the 80s and 90s. Back then, limitations in hardware forced developers to be creative, all while maintaining an eye on fun.
Most modern sims focus on realism and fidelity, which is fine if you’re into that sort of thing. Here, however, we harken back to a time when more sims were single-player, came with dynamic campaigns, and had competent AI that gave the player a challenge without relying on other people playing the game at the same time.
It’s these classic sims we can’t wait to revisit, and we’re excited that you’re on this journey with us. Thank you.
Support The Show
If you like what we’re doing, right now the best way to support the show is to buy something through our TeePublic shop. If there’s enough interest, maybe we’ll start a Patreon.