"Flying Circus" & "Red Baron" (the original)

Dear Fellows,
*A few months ago, a Mac user asked about Red Baron 2 & 3 and how this game compared to a Mac WW1 flight sim, Flying Circus (from Bullseye Software, about $30 US). I don't believe there were all that many responses...
*Personally, having used both platforms and downloaded a Flying Circus demo, I can tell you, with as much objectivity that a PC-to-Mac convert can muster, that there is absolutely NO COMPARISON... on the side of Red Baron, that is. While Flying Circus is a "nice" game, fun to play, and with a good interface, it just doesn't compare to Red Baron, in any of its versions, especially in regards to graphics and gameplay. But, if you insist on playing in the minor leagues, there is a website that might be of help, community- and patches-wise: www.FlyGirlonline.com -- and please don't look at me that way...

*Getting back to Red Baron, THE ORIGINAL, -- which is still one of my favorites -- would anyone at the good old Forum know if anyone at anytime had made any patches for this particular game? Perhaps something that added aircraft or aces, flight characteristics, or improved graphics?

*I'm surprised that there wasn't more of a following, or even a 'community' surrounding this sim; for so many of us, wasn't this the breakthrough game, the 'fuerbach' in computing between advanced technological device and Toy for Big Boys? I wonder if anyone even remembers who Damon Slye was?

VBR,
Capt. "Dynamix" Lewis

*

[Ron_F]

ill respond!

i should still have on disk some extra files for Red baron 1. (im guessing thats what ure reffering to). i do know there is a file to help with the joystick centering etc. but right now, i dont remember all the add ons.

i used to get it from a guy named Maverick, who had a sight up for RB1.

i dont think there were any corrections ala UOP's like Rb2/3d...as i look at the sticker on the disks, just looks like some exe files and calibration files... i can send them if you want, if they still work...

[Lufbery]

I really enjoyed the original Red Baron. I remember, though, that when I went from a 386 to a 486, the game started having some problems. On today's Pentium III, I can't even play it.

Regards,

Dear Ronbo,
*By all means, old boy, by all means, please be good enough to send me those patches; what shall it be, snail mail or modem? And tomorrow, around noontime NYC, I'll be sending you an article that I'm sure you'll enjoy. Can't say what, don't want to ruin the surprise...

Dear Drewbery,
*May I compliment you on your lovely wife? I was going to post a MIA Report concerning your nuptials, as in "Married in Action"; that you were last seen over Bruton Parrish Church in Williamsburg before being shot down in flames and captured by someone hiding IN the church (as opposed to the church's steeple). I was going to call it HIGH IN THE EMPTY DREW; but it's a good thing, too, that I DIDN'T post it, for another title that came to mind was UNDER THE BUNS OF THE GERMAN ACES... and I'll leave it at that...

*Well, I did manage to run RED BARON on my Windows 95 rig; I'll tell you how I did it in an all too short essay entitled, "How I Did It". Ahem --

HOW I DID IT,
by
Captain Lewis, RFC (ret'd.)

*When the crimson cyber-skies called to me, I had to answer...
*My rig was a COMPAQ 9547 -- damn good machine, did everything I ever asked of it... 8 megs of RAM; 100 MHz Pentium chip; no L2 cache, didn't need it; bus speed -- HA! Bus speed didn't matter! Let me explain:
*Like anyone else with a machine that "fast", RED BARON performed erratically... who could ever forget the arrow-cursor moving quickly through the choices under its own power... or how the joystick would then act up? (Ah, the dear dead days...)
*At times it was IMPOSSIBLE to play...
*Until I stumbled upon a way to, how shall I say, circumvent the higher speed of that Pentium rig...

*Upon a midnight, dark and dreary, I cracked the COMPAQ's * *case;
*And with a flashlight -- to see more clearly --
*I examined the COMPAQ'S inner core...
*Was it sleepiness, or something more,
*That drove me further,
* Further into the COMPAQ's core?
*(Well, actually it was a desire to pass the 'A+';
*only this, and nothing more)
*What I found there struck me as novel,
*(upon that midnight, in my hovel)
*With artificial beams I spied, then with fingernails I pried,
*Jumper pins -- 50, 40, 60, 66 -- it wasn't consecutive,
*I know not why;
*Prying loose, I juxtaposed them; *
*And all the time, was grounded I.
*Bus speed, bus speed, ever lower...
*Finally stopping at the number forty;
*Touching iron all the while,
*I began to secretly smile,
*Smile at my little game...
*
*Well, enough of this; I set the bus speed at lower and lower increments, AND THEN RE-INSTALLED THE GAME. And, believe it or not, RED BARON ran fine: no more speeding cursor, no more wacky joystick.
* Further, when I would later UP the bus speed, the game STILL RAN FINE. So, installed at one speed; run at that speed or higher...
*Two things I will swear to until my dying day...
* One, that the above method DID work;
* And two, I'll be damned if I know why... *
* Good hunting...

VBR,
Capt. Lewis
*
*
*
*

[Ron_F]

Cap'n Lewis, ole boy!

by all means, i shall try to send the files via your email listed here at the 'drome. tonite i shall try to access those disk, just to make sure they work.... they shouldnt be very big.

is the suprise something to do with BB? *

addedum:
apparently, mavericks site is still up!
ck here:http://www.volcano.net/~themaverick/rbfiles.html

try that for size!