My father was a WWII carrier pilot, decorated at Midway, Santa Cruz, and Bougaineville. He was part of the Navy’s Patuxent River Class Zero, one of the first hot groups of test pilots to come out of the war. He ended up in charge of flight test for the McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom, arguably the most successful military aircraft of all time. He had the "Right Stuff".

Me, I only have the "Approximate Stuff". I’m one of those poor souls who --given a little genetic cooperation-- might have been the genuine article. But I’m blind as a bat without glasses. I also think I have a healthy dose of that enzyme which hinders pursuit of daredevil lifestyles, like one-finger rock climbing , skydiving, and… carrier landings. But, I inherited a love of flight.

Fortunately, there is hope for the few, the proud, the Approximate. To "slip the surly bonds of earth, and dance the skies on laughter- silvered wings", as poet John Magee wrote, is the worthy goal of flight simulators, which provide an affordable alternative to the expensive world of private flying. We can select from a healthy list of flight entertainment software --mainly on PC’s-- ranging from exacting combat simulations, to acrobatic stunt flying, to non-aerodynamic space ‘flight’. Even more exciting, we can engage in multi-player aerial feeding frenzies, pioneered by the on-line air combat game Air Warrior.

These home products are very good, and are constantly improving. In fact, they are possibly the finest software applications ever crafted. Still, their authors will tell you they can’t wait to give us the next step, the next improvement. Meanwhile, we customers drool over a slightly faster CPU, a bigger display, the latest graphics, all to improve the fidelity and gameplay of our flight entertainment.

That is where location-based entertainment (LBE) --entertainment in public locations-- comes in. If games on home computers are good, might not a more expensive rig in public locations be even better? Well, plenty of folks have thought of this already, and the last decade is littered with debris from ‘leading-edge’ simulator or Virtual Reality (VR) products that didn’t make it. Most simply weren’t economically viable. Some weren’t leading edge at all, and hence uninteresting. Often, they incorporated proprietary hardware which was quickly superseded by advancing mass-market PC technology.

There are lots of LBE products, but I’ll focus on my passion: flight simulation. Several companies currently offer a location-based flight experience. A brief tour down the West coast will start at The Other Side, in Lynnwood, near Seattle, which uses off-the-shelf Gateway Destination PC’s, adding real-live flight ‘coaches’ to coordinate pilots through missions. Then there is Magic Edge, in Mountain View, California, with their sleek motion-based pods and visuals driven by Silicon Graphics computers. Down in southern California, in Lake Forest, you can find FighterTown, run by a friendly, dedicated crew on custom simulators. Unfortunately for most of us, these locations aren’t convenient. Each is trying to expand operations, but these sites are expensive and not stunningly profitable, so capital is hard to come by.

Various manufacturers also sell product directly to sites like Dave & Buster’s, a restaurant/entertainment chain, and even theme parks, so you might check these sites for the latest offerings. But this is an uncoordinated effort to penetrate the market, and so far hasn’t delivered the goods to where the average Joe or Jane can get to it.

Should we just happily resign ourselves to the home scene, waiting patiently for the next incarnation of PC games? Nah. Intel and Microsoft have plans that will help us out. They have undertaken initiatives that aim to place leading-edge PC components in high-end configurations, suitable for arcades and other public entertainment. They want to leverage the same good content that is already being developed for the PC, only place it in higher performance packages. Some arcade companies will help make this happen, and some new companies will take the concept and expand the market (ahem, self-serving plug for my company, Airplay, at [url]http://www.airplay.net).[/url]

Applying PC mass market hardware and software will take the best product to customers quickly, at the lowest cost. Given the inexorable march of PC technology, the graphics and features available on these machines will soon surpass all but the latest military simulators. In truth, given the quality and depth of some PC flight simulation software, they will often be superior. Ditto for the other simulation genres. Throw in the best tank and naval simulations, and we’re talking serious fun.

So, if you recently bought the latest top-end system specifically for flight games and are already salivating over an upcoming tidbit of technology you just read about, have hope. In the coming months and years you will be able to grab a friend and hit a public location to satisfy your highest fidelity urges. Your home system will still be your staple, but you’ll have an alternative to complement it --one that lets you get out of the house for a higher thrill.

Ah, now the cold water. Lest you combat sim jocks think the world is about to completely solve your problem, bringing upscale combat simulation technology to a location near you any day now, I’d like to set some expectations.

First of all, it will take a bit of time for this effort to pick up a head of steam, and reach the point of truly national saturation. Secondly, don’t expect miracles, no matter what hype is foisted upon you by marketeers. Current computer, graphics, and display technology –at any price-- don’t do justice to the magnificent capabilities of the human eye and our brain’s cognitive system. Even the most expensive system available today only hints at realistic visual fidelity. But the threshold for effective training and entertainment has been crossed, and we are all promised an exciting future, with both incremental and revolutionary products. Though we may desire the capabilities of Star Trek’s Holodeck, I believe we will all happily await and eagerly use each improvement in the meantime.

Additionally, there is the issue of ‘mass market’, and how that affects your desires. Now, there are some of us who think the P-factor has something to do with sitting too long in the cockpit. Those of you that are experts will have to forgive casual players, who no doubt will be the focus of a lot of the early efforts in the public mass market. Remember, the reason so many big-ticket public simulators have failed is the old market maxim: you need to create a profit to sustain a business.

We all love capitalism, right? The mass market thrives on simplicity of operation. This means you may not see rudder pedals in all units. Or HOTAS. But look on the bright side… you will certainly see networked multiplayer games, and not only are the uninitiated sometimes entertaining opponents, but their dollars will help expand the market and speed the rate of innovation and improvement. Some of these games will be the exact same as your favorite home games, only running on superior hardware. The best game developers will target both the home and location market, to the delight of all.

In summary, better simulation gaming platforms are on their way. If you enjoy combat sims at home, you will love cutting edge products in public locations, where you can share your fun with friends, in person. The two markets should grow and complement each other throughout the coming decade.

So toss one back with me in honor of the brave few who have dared the maelstrom of true air combat, those with the Right Stuff. Then join me as friends and foes in the future of simulation and multiplayer entertainment at home and in public locations, uniting all who love flight, including those of us with the "Approximate Stuff".

[Frank Christofferson is a founder of Airplay Entertainment Technologies, and can be reached at [email protected]. He flagrantly pilfered the phrase "Approximate Stuff" from one of the 4 Christofferson partner/brothers, Carl, a veteran of the military simulation industry.]

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