microsoft flight simulator 2020 alpha download

It was the simmer equivalent of a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's factory. 'I've been using flight simulators since 1994 and started for the same reason as most of us in the simmer community - with a passion for flying and an image in our heads of looking up to the birds and wanting to fly.'įellow simmer Tristan ' Novawing24' Ayton, based in NSW-Australia, who in his spare time creates aircraft liveries and scenarios, says that, 'Microsoft may have been notably absent from the last 13 years but the genre has itself been very much alive.' Ayton's day job involves pilot training for rookie aviators in the real world, using desktop simulators.Ĭosta and Ayton, widely known in the simmer world through their social media channels and participation in forums, might have happily carried on forever with FSX.īut out of the blue they, and a small band of other carefully selected simmers, received emails from Microsoft, inviting them to attend a preview event in September 2019 in Renton, Washington, to flight-test a pre-Alpha version of the new Flight Simulator. Costa, a computer programmer, has a home setup with screens, joysticks and foot pedals that replicate the physical interface of helicopters, his preferred mode of transport. 'Flight simulation is huge - it's a universe, with thousands and thousands of people around the world using it,' enthuses Lisbon-based simmer Sérgio ' ' Costa. Within the ever-expanding microcosm of aviation gaming there's even a sub-ecosystem devoted to air traffic control simulation, with people and companies such as VATSIM, IVAO and Pilotedge controlling the world's virtual airliners and flight routes. But 13 years of slumber hasn't dimmed the enthusiasm of a global fellowship of 'simmers' - avgeek devotees who've kept the game alive through their thriving community of desktop jocks and content creators who make third-party add-ons such as new aircraft, airports and scenery.

Microsoft flight simulator 2020 alpha download