Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator
The logo used for the series since version 5.0
Genres	Amateur flight simulation
Developers	subLOGIC Bruce Artwick Organization Aces Studio
Publishers	Microsoft Microsoft Game Studios Dovetail Games
Creators	Bruce Artwick
Platforms	DOS, Windows, Mac OS
Platform of origin	DOS
First release	Microsoft Flight Simulator 1982
Latest release	Microsoft Flight Simulator X 2006

Microsoft Flight Simulator (often abbreviated as MSFS or FS) is a series of flight simulator programs, marketed as video games, for the Microsoft Windows, and earlier the MS-DOS, operating systems. It is one of the longest-running, best-known and most comprehensive home flight simulator programs on the market. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and differed significantly from Microsoft's other software, which was largely business-oriented. At 25 years it is the longest-running software product line for Microsoft, predating Windows by three years. Microsoft Flight Simulator may be the longest-running PC game series of all time.Bruce Artwick began the development of the Flight Simulator in 1977. His company, subLOGIC, initially distributed it for various personal computers. In 1981, Artwick was approached by Microsoft's Alan M. Boyd who was interested in creating a "definitive game" that would graphically demonstrate the difference between older 8-bit computers, such as the Apple II, and the new 16-bit computers, such as the IBM PC, still in development. In 1982, Artwick's company licensed a version of Flight Simulator for the IBM PC to Microsoft, which marketed it as Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00.

In 2009 Microsoft closed down the ACES Game Studio, which was the department responsible for creating and maintaining the flight simulator series.

Microsoft Flight Simulator began as a set of articles written by Bruce Artwick in 1976 about a 3D computer graphics program. When the magazine editor said that subscribers wanted to buy the program, Bruce Artwick set to work to create it and incorporated a company called subLOGIC Corporation in 1977. The company began selling flight simulators for several computer platforms, including the 8080, Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080. In 1979 subLOGIC released FS1 Flight Simulator for the Apple II. In 1980, subLOGIC released a version for the TRS-80, and in 1982 they licensed an IBM PC version with CGA graphics to Microsoft, which was released as Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00. It was unusual in that it was not an application program requiring an operating system, but contained its own operating system, which displaced the installed one as long as the program was running. In the early days of less-than-100% IBM PC compatible systems, Flight Simulator and Lotus 1-2-3 were used as unofficial compatibility test software for new PC clone models. subLOGIC continued to develop for other platforms and ported Flight Simulator II to the Apple II in 1983, the Commodore 64, MSX and Atari 800 in 1984, and to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1986. Meanwhile, Bruce Artwick left subLOGIC and founded The Bruce Artwick Organization to continue his work on subsequent Microsoft releases, beginning with Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 in 1988. Microsoft Flight Simulator reached commercial maturity with version 3.1, and went on to encompass the use of 3D graphics and graphic hardware acceleration.