12th anniversary of IL2

[Jumoschwanz]

It is this year right? 12 years since we started flying IL2 online?

And patch 4.12 is coming out this year.

I see that the original IL2 is still listed on IL2, and that there is one server up for it. Everyone should get in there this year and give it a go to see how things started and how much better they are now.


I remember one guy quit flying the sim when the original IL2 was replaced by FB, he said that it was going backwards and was ruined. I believe his handle was VSO. Too bad he is not still around to see how the latest patch flies.

Another guy who was flying around back then flew under the name "Moggy", that was it. He really took getting shot down hard, we all did, but he could not hack it and quit, too bad he was a nice guy and I felt sorry for him.

I remember my first day flying IL2 online back in the winter of 2001-2002. One of the first guys I flew against was 609IAP Relentov. Not much of a contest, I mainly just ran like hell from him and his buddies in the very fast La-5fn.

Everyone flew the same version, the official version and "full-real" servers were cool and common. When I first flew I used the number-pad to scan around horizontally only, I did not know how to do anything else and did not even know how to use "padlock".

Because everyone flew the same version and the sim was new, there were a lot of full servers to choose from with any settings you wanted to fly with.

New patches came out with new aircraft and flight model alterations that tipped the advantage back and forth between red and blue and various aircraft. Strangely enough at one time the Hurricane was the most-flown plane online. The first version of the P-40 would explode in a dive at not too-high a speed. I remember tricking a P-40 pilot into diving after my 109, all I had to do was wait for the bang, greed was always one of the biggest killers.

In 2001 the hottest setup most could afford was an AMD Athlon 900 Thunderbird. If you were lucky you had half a gig of ram and a GeForce 200 ultra. A friend of mine still has that old tower of mine, I think I will try to get it back for shits and giggles.

Flying Microsoft CFS and CFS2 was very popular on "TheZone" before IL2 came out. I was there of course, and I remember buying IL2 in a electronics boutique and taking it home. I remember the excitement at watching the opening video, the IL2 lifting off the ground and it's wheels going up. It was a very short time later that everyone dumped the Microsoft sim and switched to IL2, it was so much better Microsoft never had a chance again and they still know better than to try! I still have that big cereal-box sized package that the original IL2 came in sitting on a shelf.

So I am a retro-grouch now. The only servers I might make an appearance on are the very few hard-settings servers that are running the official patch. I practice with one squad of nice guys a few times a month while BSing on teamspeak, a nice non-competitive time. Vinni-Puh server is the only thing left up and running that feels like the original IL2 servers, based out of Russia and flying a lot of old maps for many years. It is probably my favorite server to visit on the rare occasion I feel like flying anymore.

I was on Grij Dedicado today for a bit, it can be fun, and JG27 was there, so it was a bit of a retro-time.

Okay enough of my reminiscing, how about yours?

Happy Anniversary....

S!