Yeah, the menus in those games really helped immersing the player in that virtual world. Microprose was a master of this technique with titles such as F-19, Gunship 2000, F-117, F-15SE3, Harrier Jump Jet, there were other who also got this right. EA with USNF and later Jane’s titles. Or who could forget Jet Fighter 3 with its virtual carrier. Current sims with all the technolgy behind them seem a lot sterile.
That’s one thing I like about ArmA, the tools are there to essentially make an immersive custom interface for a mission/campaign, outside of the stock interface. If we could do something like that in DCS, I think the immersion would be boosted a hundred fold.
In the 90’s I purchased two PC’s just so that I could play the latest and greatest sim available.
In 1993, that was Tornado. I played it on a colleague’s 386 PC and it was so far ahead of anything I had on my Atari ST. I was not making a whole lot of money at the time, but I soon found myself in a computer store, financing a mighty 486SX with IIRC a 177Mb HDD. Then, a quick walk around the corner to a small computer software store to buy a joystick (my first analog stick), sound card and a copy of Tornado. The computer alone was about 1400 GBP, which in today’s money is about 2800 GBP. That’s about $3600 USD in today’s money. My PC was worth a lot more than my car at the time. Not the most sound financial decision, but I was thrilled.
Then, I did it all over again when EF2000 came out.
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My favorite thing in Tornado was the JP233 runs. I had better success than the real ones in the Gulf War thanks to the much lower amount of AAA around airfields. 
I had GS2K but I didn’t play it too much, I was into some other sims at that time. I played the original Gunship until I got sick of it, though, due to it being my only sim when it came out. That Ride of the Valkyries intro was awesome for the day.
The triangle graphics weren’t so much.
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Since I’ve been replaying Gunship 2000 lately, I wanted to showcase less known port of this game that came out in 1996 for Playstation - don’t run away, it’s pretty decent. It retains pretty much everything the game offered back on Amiga and first release for PC but adds a new coat of paint. Even the translation of controls to the gamepad was made admirably.
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Cool! I didn’t know they ported it to PS…
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Slightly off the subject but can anyone remember on the Sega mega drive a helicopter game that had an apache in it? I have a feeling the commanche was the other chopper but I really can’t remember. I do think I remember it being awesome fun but again it’s pretty hazy and @damson’s post jogged my memory
Desert Strike? Or one of the other Strike series?
I think you have this one in mind (though it didn’t feature Apache nor Comanche - it was fictional chopper):
First one was released for Amiga and PC:
Then was that Sega CD version, and finally Thunderhawk 2 for Sega Saturn, PSX and PC:
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No that wasn’t it. That looks far better than the one I was thinking of 
*found it! LHX attack chopper
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Ah yes, indeed it was available for Sega Genesis/MegaDrive. It featured Apache, Blackhawk, Osprey and titular LHX. Played it on PC, actually it was a hidden undocumented “bonus” on one of the Jane’s Fighters Anthology CDs .
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Oooh wow I didn’t realise it had an osprey in it. Was very young I played it. I remember loving it but honestly cant remember much lol
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Yes it had Osprey with fully working tiltrotors. It was good for rescue missions. Get in fast in fixed-wing mode, tilt the rotors up, land vertically, make a quick pickup and dust off ASAP.
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Oh yeah, LHX and its sister program Su-25 Sturmovik (same engine, just a fixed wing CAS plane instead of a bunch of helos).
Even for its day the graphics were never advanced, just acceptable. But it didn’t matter, it was a lot of fun.
The Osprey was pretty much useless in forward flight, though. I left it in helo mode because it went too fast, climbed too much (had to pitch like 15 degrees nose down to NOT climb), and turned like a truck when converted.
Another helicopter classic from the 90s - Novalogic’s Comanche 3 (DOS version).
It wasn’t as arcade-y as Comanche 1, 2 and 4 but was still fun as hell to fly and fight.
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Comanche 3 and the follow up Gold was one of my favorite sims in the 90s! It was a bit more accessible and on the fun side compared to Longbow 1 and 2.
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After beating 2 campaigns on Amiga version I have switched to PC version with Islands & Ice Expansion Pack which takes us to Antarctica and Philippines.
Updated PC version introduced some nice additions like more complex controls (separated tail rotor from cyclic, proportional collective), allied support assets during missions like artillery or fast movers. Mission objectives can now be changed during flight.
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Talking about nostalgia…
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I seem to remember a couple of years ago I mentioned that I had a collection of type-in programs of the type that computer magazines used to publish and one or two of you expressed a wish to have a copy - but I couldn’t find them.
I’ve since discovered where I stashed them, so if anyone still wants them, let me know - or I might just upload them to Google Drive, but not sure about the copyright situation with that.
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Could you take a pic of the covers?