Given the glut of flight simulators that there have been since the advent of home PCs, and the recent 3D visual advancements (the kind which allowed me to create all of the paint schemes for Fighter Squadron elsewhere on this site), many must think I'm crazy to state that I feel the best flight sim yet is still Digital Integration's 1993 release, Tornado.
Yes its graphics are dated, but a good sim is much more. To my mind, graphics aside, Tornado is perfect. In fact, it has spoiled me on other sims. None have ever matched up. It's Mission Planner and three levels of Campaign are unmatched. The campaigns are dynamic (you can land at a recently captured airfield in an emergency!), the weapons are varied (nothing beats JP233 though!), sneaking in under the radar matters (unlike just about every other sim I've experienced). Even the relatively primitive graphics are really quite good. Since it's geared to low-level penetration, the terrain is very rich and it just feels right.
Tornado is no beer-and pretzels game. It has a learning curve, but the rewards are worth it. Neither is it an ultra-realistic sim where you pretty much have to be a pilot to learn it in a reasonable amount of time. The designers got the balance just right, a rare achievement. I could go on and on about Tornado but I just wanted to get my pitch in for it.
As I understand it, you can download it from The Home of the Underdogs (search the site or go to its Hall of Belated Fame), but I don't know if it includes a manual. It can be difficult to get to run under Windows 95/98 and ME. In Windows ME, I had to create a boot disk from the Windows 98 Startup disk (with some help from Microsoft). I am willing to assist anyone in getting it to run, just email me!.
Feedback to 3dp@msn.com.