Combat Flight Simulator WWII Europe Series

Combat Flight Simulator World War II Europe Series (CFS1) is the first version of combat flight simulators from Microsoft Game Studios, released November 1, 1998. CFS1 is set in the European Theater of World War II.

Game design
CFS1 utilized a new flight sim engine when it was released in 1998, with superior graphics. The graphics and game engine were actually a preview of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 (FS2000), and NOT Flight Simulator 98 (FS98) as many believed. Combat Flight Simulator could incorporate scenery from either Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 or 3rd party scenery and also numerous 3rd party developed add ons were created. CFS1 is designed with an Open architecture so that third party Add-ons can be devolved without risk of violating copyright infringement laws. The CFS1 ground scenery was very limited and used .BMP files for the entire ground so many designers expanded this game with Freeware to encompass: World flight; Hundreds of Flyable Aircraft; Varied flight utilities; and many other additional files and upgrades for this game. Several websites are devoted to the free distribution of these add-ons. Online multiplayer games are posted at Tradeip Flightboard Network (see 'external links' below). Internet play is very possible with only a dial-up connection, and broadband connection works very well.

CFS1 today
CFS1, is out of print but still available on various internet sales outlets. CFS4 was on the drawing board, and Microsoft even hired designers for this game, or at least were recruiting them when the plug was pulled on the series due to lack of interest in CFS2 and CFS3, coupled with the growing capabilities and popularity of CFS1's main rival IL-2 and its upgrade packages.

Online multiplayer in 2008- amazingly, there is still a small but dedicated community who fly together online. They can be found at Sim Outhouse http://www.sim-outhouse.com/ under the CFS1 forum. Games can be set up for direct play via IP address, either through forums, or using Trade IP (see 'External Links' below). There is also a replacement for the now-defunct CFS1 area of Microsoft's Gaming Zone: the World Gaming Centre http://wgcenter.com/ cd-ROM client software (this requires that you install Microsoft's ".Net framework").

Microsoft currently only produces Microsoft Flight Simulator, the latest being Flight Simulator Ten (FSX) the tenth version of the commercial flight simulator from Microsoft.

Games in the series

 * Combat Flight Simulator WWII Europe Series (1998) by Microsoft Game Studios
 * Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater (2000) by Microsoft Game Studios
 * Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe (2002) by Microsoft Game Studios