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Senior Member
I started with the demo as well. 2001. Those were the days my friend
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Senior Member
I had a friend who was a Beta tester for the original IL2. Even though she couldn't disclose much in the way of details, what she could talk about sold me. Downloading the original "leaked" demo the day it popped up on the web was just icing on the cake for me.
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Senior Member
There another topic like this buried in the forum ... somewhere.
I'd being doing Dynamix's sims for yonks - refused to do MSofts coz of the extreme price tag. So was browsing the shops and saw this wierd Russian plane on the cover of a CD Box.
It's distinctive shape, I could remember from a brief 5 sec clip from the volumes of World At War series - A flight sim tooo. Who was 1C and Oleg Maddox ???. Price is good so I bought it for fun. I had a powerful PC and a 4MB ATI graphics card, so I thought. The year 2001.
Installed it.. Hah it has demos... I'll start there. Run demo... wait wait Sturmovik appears. 4 seconds later = 1 frame.. plane moves, another 5 seconds... plane moves again..... WHOOOOOAAAAAA - WHAT IS THIS. uninstall.. throw the disk and box into the corner - go back to Dynamix.
6 months later my Gcard broke so I got a new one with 64MB VRam. Same PC... curiousity got the better of me - Reinstalled IL2...Whammo I've never looked back, then realising that I need good graphics cards to run good games.

edt: The funny thing is that Msofts sim prices have all been around the R500 mark down here - I think they upped the price coz of the name brand. Yet next to these incredibly big MSoft boxes, there was an unknown small DVD disk with a Russian plane on it going at R200. Unknown to the moronic shop owners (which is good), they had a 'gold mine' in a smaller box at a cheaper price. That little DVD box was SOOOOO much bigger than that empty MSoft box
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Senior Member
Flew CFS 1 & 2. Liked CFS 2, but when my room mate bought CFS 3, I balked. What a pile of junk that was. No more Microsoft, but being a WW2 & flight fan, I was looking. Found the origional IL2 in 2001 (I think), liked the graphics so I gave it a try. Discovered damage models and that hooked me. PF really got me into it, after buying every upgrade along the way.
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Senior Member
I remember seeing it on display several times in the PC games stores during the period of 2002/3.
I kept ignoring it because I didn`t know what an IL2 sturmovik was (couldn`t even spell the word then) and it was made by Russians/East europeans. My Western prejudice made me think that it would be rubbish. 
Then when I applied to join a Squad that flew European Air War, they told me that they never flew that any more and they recommened IL2 if my system could handle it. Reluctantly I bought it and installed...
First thing that got me was the graphics of the intro. The aircraft were fully 3D, even the pilots and the wheels actually rolled on take off, slowly stopping after take off! It seems small, but I`d never seen such attention to detail. I was impressed by the Stukas as they attacked a Russian target.
Then I started my first mission and on takeoff heard sirens wailing in my ears! wow! I`ve always hated the fact that you never had air raid sirens on the airfield when under potential attack, even EAW never had it. This had always bugged me.
And then the whole Eastern Front war became like a complete new 2nd World War experience from me. I was not only hooked, but learned a lot since then about that war and how aircraft should fly.
It`s the longest running game ever on my PC too. Amazing.
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Senior Member
I used to fly Jane's wwII fighters and Red Baron 3d online and offline. I saw a review in PC Gamer on IL2 Sturmovik. They gave it a really good score, so I hunted everywhere in town till I could find it. Never looked back ever since.
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Senior Member
I discovered it at the bombs away forum for B 17 II. Someone posted a video of the sturmovik attacking a tank. Man that was many moons ago.
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Member
Just like someone above, I liked the fact that a well-reviewed sim was made based on a plane that only I knew about, set in a conflict that is largely ignored in the west. It looked different, none of the same old BF-109 vs Spitfire and P-51 that the covers of all the other WWII flight sims had.
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Senior Member
I was in a pc world, just looking really, after having got a new comp, an athalon 1900 with a geforce 3 titanium 500, which was the mutts nutts then, from a pentium 400/450ish. All i'd been playing was medal of honour, and was just looking to see what else was around.
The last WWII air sim game i'd enjoyed was back on an atari st, battle of britain, by lucasarts. i'd tried 1942? and just didn't like it, and to be honest, since tiefighter, which was the reason i bought my first pc, a dx 66, and was i proud, come on, it had a voodo3? card in it to, plus an awe 32!!. Anyway from then on xwing v tie, and finally x wing alliance were my 'cockpit sim fix'
Anyway, of all things it was the box of the original il2 that sold me.
I picked it up, and there are 4 pics on the back, a 109 chasing something down, a ju88 with smoke trails from a plane to its right, a he111 with its left engine on fire, and a 109 flying low over a city.
Of all of them, it was probally the 109 over the city that sold it to me, i just didn't expect the game to look that good. It did, and while i can't claim to be in from the demo, i do remember the first patch being released, and what a unexpected joyous suprise that was, as was every other to this day, save 4.02, which if i'd of been a girl, would of made me cry. For weeks.
When i first bought il2, if somebody had shown me a screenshot of what say il2 1946 modded would look like, 7 years down the line, i quite simpely wouldn't of believed it.
SoW looks amazing already, 7 years down the line.....
cheers,
fruitbat
PS, i wish i'd found here (ubi forums) earlier, instead of whatever my reg date is, because i have learned a great deal here
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Other than red and blue being important in some way?
I also wish i'd not played on arcade settings/cockpit off as i did to start with. For the first year (2 maybe) that i played this game, i played it acrade, xwing style, missing the depth of it completely.
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Senior Member
Same demo on the mag as Bo after somebody told me about it, got the full version some months later. EAW and SDOE before that as far as getting totally involved. Numerous other titles, but those two + IL2 were my only biggies combat sim wise.
IL2, immersion was what sold me.