Microsoft Space Simulator - View From A Fan

(Page last updated March 28, 2002)

For a keyboard reference guide, click here!

For TIPS on how to get the Space Simulator up and running, click here!

On October 10th, 1994 a program was released to the public that to me was nothing less than some kind of magic. It was called Microsoft Space Simulator. I drove 110 miles to the store I had ordered it from, paid $54.95 for it on 3.5" floppies, and drove home to Bismarck, North Dakota with it on the seat beside me. I was anticipating something good from what I had read about it before in blurbs in various gaming magazines. I was pleased that the box was heavy, meaning there was a good-sized manual inside.

It was 10:00 pm when I arrived home. My girlfriend was gone with her mother on a trip out of town, so it was just me and the Space Simulator for the night.

It installed easily on my 486/25. I was used to DOS back then. Now sometimes I have a difficult time getting it to work on modern machines with fancy video cards. I pretty much ignored everything in the manual and using nothing more than the joystick, thrust control, and time compression, I embarked on an odyssey that night that I'll never forget!

I visited stars, nebulae, comets, moons, planets, and even left the galaxy, much to my delight. I orbited Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus, tried to follow a comet on its trajectory through the blackness (I lost it though), and tried my hand at landing on Mars (I crashed). I was lousy at all of this, but God did I have fun!! It was as close as I've ever gotten to an out-of-body experience!

One important thing I've noticed is that for maximum effect, it helps to be in a completely darkened room, pretending my monitor is the ship's view port. I even went so far as to go to the local Menard's and pick up a small decorative strip-light that installed just above my keyboard drawer. I aimed it at the keys, providing just enough light to see them without shining up into my eyes. A very dim light is all that's necessary; your eyes will adjust.

My girlfriend came home after 2:00 am and I was still there, my eyes bright with excitement, staring at the monitor with glee.

One other time my friend Scott, his girlfriend, and I voyaged to the edge of the galaxy in the Bussard Ramjet (a ship patterned after a fictional ship created by author Larry Niven). We used that ship because it theoretically would not run out of fuel because it gathered fuel somehow from atoms found in space. Well, after using time compression for a while (about an hour our time), we noticed we were running out of fuel! And we were nearing the edge of the galaxy!

Scott somehow found a way to refuel the ship by messing around with a bunch of things, and we made it beyond the galaxy, and could finally turn around and look back on it. It was really something, and for a second it was almost like it was really happening.

But why stop there? We continued on toward the next galaxy, far in the distance. And, about an hour later our time, we once again ran out of fuel! This time, Scott couldn't remember what he had done to refuel the ship, so we kind of coasted for another good while, not daring to quit now after investing all this time.

I think we finally got it going again, and if I remember right, we finally reached the limit of the simulator. It was upsetting, just knowing the simulator had a limit! I think a little sign popped up informing us that the simulator could not go beyond so many hundred million light years.

In the years since, I have had this little program (it's about 10 megs when fully inflated) on every one of my four computers. I keep going back to it whenever I need to get away from life for a while. And to this day, I have not learned anything else but aim, hit thrust, and use time compression. When I orbit planets, I let autopilot do that; it's enough to sit back and watch the planet come into view and listen to the small rocket blasts from each side as the computer makes the necessary minute adjustments to get you properly into orbit.

I'd love to be able to compare the Microsoft Space Simulator to other space simulators. Unfortunately, there are no other space flight simulators to compare it to. There are lots of space fighting games (like "Descent Freespace" or the "Wing Commander" series) that claim on the box to be space simulators. And there are some astronomy programs (Like the "Redshift" series) that some people could confuse for a space flight simulator. I personally recommend "Redshift 3" as an excellent astronomy program providing you don't need to fly around. The closest you'll get to space flight in that program is using the 'zoom' feature to incrementally jump to certain points. My favorite thing to do in "Redshift 3" is to position the 'camera' in orbit around a planet and watch it rotate. And in the space fighting games, which are great fighting games, you cannot actually travel through their universes. The background planets just hover right there and you can never get closer to them, much less fly past them. Heck, even a fictional universe that you could actually fly through would be nice as far as I'm concerned. Thus far, Microsoft Space Simulator is the ONLY simulator that allows actual free flight. And not only that, but it is through our actual and accurate universe! That's right; you can fly over to Saturn, orbit it, and fly past it into deep space, with the stars around you actually moving past your window as you pass them. While 'space battle' fans will likely find this activity boring, guys like me actually find it extremely exciting to experience this total freedom without worrying about some jerk shooting at you! Undoubtedly, it is this very lack of battle that led to the sim's demise. I know a lot of you are interested in the simulator as a learning or teaching tool, and while it is excellent in that capacity, I also heartily recommend it as pure unadulterated entertainment. The complete freedom it allows can make it both exciting and a calming and peaceful experience at the same time.

Not all of you are here as fans however. I also realize some of you are here because you've heard of it, but have never actually seen it or tried it. Some of you from overseas have told me you've heard of it but were convinced it was only a legend and didn't exist. While this simulator has been long out of print, it does occasionally turn up from time to time. For those of you unable to locate it the sim anywhere else, I recommend checking at some of the internet auction sites. The most common type you will find is the 3.5" floppy version. Don't be scared off by this. Everything I've ever read indicates the CD rom version and the floppy version are identical! Both are version 1.0, and to my knowledge there was never any other upgrade released. 1.0 is as high as it got. The CD version is a more durable medium, but if you have the floppy version, just please make sure you make a backup copy of your disks!

I wrote several times to Microsoft, asking them to re-release this program or update it or something, but I never heard back, and I'm not holding my breath.

And thanks for visiting!!!

This site was done using all-manual HTML code. No 'helpful' software was used. Some of you probably could tell just by looking at it. I admit it's nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. Sorry, I don't do frames yet. I know frames make getting around a site easier, and this one is laid out in kind of a mess. It started out as a simple one-page text site in July, 1999. And thanks to those of you 'fanatics' who can appreciate this one-of-a-kind software, it has grown bit by bit. I have no doubt that there are better sites available to visit, and I thank you for taking the time (and having the patience) to visit mine.