Good sims for an older system?

I haven't been playing as many sims lately as I used to, anyway, I just
picked up a new joystick because I upgraded to WinXP and my old game
port stick doesn't work anymore... I'm running a 700 MHz with 384 MB of
RAM, GeForce 440 MX with 64 MG RAM... I know my system needs an
upgrade, but it isn't in the cards right now. I was wondering what you
guys think are some of the best military sims that will run on my
system. I'm not particularily concerned if I have to turn the graphics
options down, I'm more into gameplay. I broke out the original MS
Combat Flight Sim, and I'm going to have a go at IL-2, which I've heard
is an amazing game. I tried LO-MAC, but was very disappointed with what
seems to be it's complete lack of force feedback support (I thought I
felt the stick rattle once when I flew into a mountain, but that's
about it). I've got a few other older games lying around that I might
dig out, although I'm not sure how they'll get along with XP, notably
Longbow Anthology, Janes F-15 (which is still one of my all time faves)
and MiG Alley. I'm interested in all eras, although I tend to prefer
real technology to sci-fi sims...

So, what does everyone suggest?

Dirk Gross wrote:
> You might try these:
>
> MS CFS3: min req 400 MHZ, 16M Video, 128M memory. certified for XP.

These figures are extremely conservative. I tried CFS3 on my Dell P4,
with 512mb RAM, and gameplay straddled into slideshow-mode for much of
the endaevor. Sys-req. numbers only detail what's needed to make the
game run, and are inadequate to detail just how good that gameplay will
actually be. This is especially true for combat sims which require
that playing systems process at least several aircraft at the same
time. What might have made the difference in my case - a good
graphics card. Unfortunately my system lacked the new PCI-e port, or
even the AGP port that I had on the system it replaced.
>
> IL2 might work, but the min processor is 800 MHZ.

Even the menus for IL2 ran like slideshows on my first P4 system - a
2ghz rig with 512mb of RAM and an AGP card. Replacing the anemic
Savage S4 with a Geforce3 helped immensely, making gameplay much more
accessible. On the newer system above, lacking a gamecard, gameplay
was still acceptable. Even so, CFS2 with its lower sys-req, is also a
viable option.
>
> Janes F/A 18 work in XP

Jane's Hornet may not run on XP at first - just DL the latest patch,
and install in compatibility mode.

> > I upgraded to WinXP and my old game
> > port stick doesn't work anymore...

You mean you upgraded the OS only, or went to a newer machine? My
latest Dell came w/o a gameport - but because I already had GP stick,
throttle and rudder pedals, I couldn't just make the leap to USB.
Instead, I just bought a dirtcheap soundcard (unfortunately, the
dirt-cheapest don't seem to have gameports...hmmmm...) which seems to
work fine on my system. I've been using gameport controls on XP for
over four years - including GP rudder pedals which aren't supposed to
work at all in XP. I doubt that I'm using the setup at their optimum
(I can never get the hat-switch to work) but for my purposes, it's more
than enough.

> > I've got a few other older games lying around that I might
> > dig out, although I'm not sure how they'll get along with XP, notably
> > Longbow Anthology, Janes F-15 (which is still one of my all time faves)

Can't speak for LB, but F-15 ran well on my XP system - which made the
initial problems with F/A-18 harder to understand. Eventually both
games were playble on my XP system - which was to say that they sat
their unused while I tried to find time to learn how to play them.

> > and MiG Alley. I'm interested in all eras, although I tend to prefer
> > real technology to sci-fi sims...

I would pick either Jane's Hornet or Falcon; my personal preference
would be Hornet, because I think there's a definite lack of
appreciation for NavAir sims. While Falcon may have a larger base for
add-ons, I wouldn't put that much weight into my choice - both games
probably have plenty to offer the player right out of the box. With
games like Falcon, that have numerous user-created add-on,s I spend
more time downloading, installing and configuring these add-ons than
playing the game.

I'd also suggest (if you're really into demanding titles) Flanker 2.5.
Flanker is one of those sims in which the basics of flight are so
intimidating, that simply landing the plane requires the skill that
would be needed to wipe out a squadron of enemy planes on other sims.
The original Flanker, was a hardcore sim with basic non-accelerated
graphics. The sequel ups the ante on gameplay and closes the gap on
graphics as well.

Also, the enemy enaged choppers are great sims - perfectly tweakable
for entry-level or harccore driver, just remember to have rudder pedals
available. I never played LB Anthology, so i can't really compare. I
got the first EE game - Apache; I would have prefered the one with the
Kamov gunship, but it's still a great game, one that lacks attention
simply because I haven't been able to give it time.

The beauty of it all is that these games are available for
next-to-nothing on E*Bay if you shop around (there's always some guy
who'll pay over $10 for a copy of FS2000, when many copies are
available for much less than that; In 2002, I picked up a retail-boxed
copy of Falcon 4 for under $5); In the end, I might shell out a few
bucks for a better GF card, like the Geforce3 - they're also available
cheap on E*Bay; I bought one used in September of '02, and it worked
like a charm until my entire system died last April.