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Interview: Microsoft's Rob Brown on CFS2
By Bob Marks

Bob Marks recently had time to chat with Rob Brown, design lead and the brains behind the Mission Builder and the campaign structure for Combat Flight Simulator2(CFS2), the next edition to Microsoft's CFS. Combat Flight Simulator is one of the world's best selling World War II flight simulators having sold over 450,000 copies world wide. CFS2 is due to be released before Christmas 2000. This is part one of a two-part interview series we have with the CFS development team.

CSIM: What time frame of the WWII Pacific Theatre war are represented?

Rob Brown: December 1941 (not Pearl Harbor) to Late 1944.

Fig. 1. A Shiden Kai cruises over a Pacific island

CSIM: What types of flyable aircraft are there? What types of AI only are there?

Rob Brown: Player flyables:

• Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero"
• Mitsubishi A6M5 "Zero"
• Grumman F4F-4 Wilcat
• Vought F4U-1A Corsair
• Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat
• Kawanishi N1K2-J "George"
• Lockheed P-38F Lightning

AI only aircraft:

• Nakajima Ki-43-IIb "Oscar"
• Nakajima B5N2 "Kate"
• Aichi D3A1 "Val"
• Mitsubishi G4M2 "Betty"
• Bell P-39D Airacobra
• Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless
• Douglas TBD-1 Devastator
• Grumman TBF-1 Avenger
• Douglas C-47 Skytrain
• North American B-25D Mitchell
• Consolidated B-24D Liberator

CSIM: What kind of ships are modeled in CFS2?

Rob Brown: There are 4 carriers modeled. 2 each for Japanese and American. They are representative of the classes of carriers that saw action in the Pacific war. They are the Essex, Enterprise, Junyo, and Hiryu. In the mission builder you can name them anything you want so you can represent any historical mission needed.