CFS1 death is greatly exxagerated but... who cares?

[hubbabubba]

Certainly not Microsoft.

Yesterday, I went to my daughter's home in the suburbs. Her boyfriend has a "gamer machine" under W7 and one of the tabs on his browser was set to M$ compatibility page for Windows 7. Out of curiosity, I checked CFS1 (or Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator WWII Europe series), and, without surprise, saw the "red mark of death", a cross in a circle with the ominous mention; Not compatible. Of course, I know this to be wrong, and three advices out of three said the same on the very same page.

So, back home, I decided to repeat the experience but, whatever I tried, I couldn't get to W7 compatibility page. The closest I got was through googling Combat Flight Simulator compatibility with Windows 7. This is what I had;

OK. CFS3 is compatible with Windows 7, good for them. The drop-down menu let you choose between Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. So I typed;

and this is what came out;

So, to resume;
- CFS1 plays under W7, according to me and three other fellows who unanimously said so;
- but M$ won't let you see that, compatibility with W7 is no longer relevant, I guess (the gamer machine tab was probably associated to a search engine that is no longer available for new queries, and so was the Google link...);
- you will note, incidentally, that not only W7 was left out of the list, but so was W8! Apparently, the "end of user services" mentality is seeping out to compatibility issues as well...;
- I don't know if CFS1 plays under W8.1 but, if it did, I would be out of luck, and comments button, to say so. No more Community rating, no more Give us your vote.

I will not tell you how I feel because, if I did, SOH moderators would probably banned me for extremely coarse language (and they would probably be right!).

Shame on M$

P.S.-
Just to make things clear; I installed CFS1 from the disk, no compatibility mode whatsoever, on my W7, installed the fix I made available, and went into a QC game against two FW190A in a Spitfire MkIX. Shot one down while the other escaped. Got out of the game. No problem, not one.

And sorry for my exaggerated misspelling; too many Xs, not enough Gs...

[hubbabubba]

Since my "blowing a gasket" comment above, M$ has reshuffled its compatibility pages, W7 is now back. They were probably eager to showcase their W8.1 offspring.

To see W7 compatibility with CFS1, go HERE.

It is still marked as Not compatible with 3 of 3 people saying otherwise. They did made an addendum to say that "This product is compatible on 32-bit Windows 7".

Funny thing; the "basement" (CFS2) people have a Compatible No Action Required... which 1 of 3 people agree with... (see HERE)

go figure!

[Ivan]

Hi Hubbabubba,

Don't you realise by now that CFS1 was never intended to be a lasting product?
That would explain all the little shortcuts and lack of foresight in some of the choices that were made.
As it turns out it is probably the most enduring of all the Combat Flight Simulators....

Who'da thunk it?

It certainly has a most devoted following here.
- Ivan.

[papingo]

papingo here
half stirred and half baked is the way Iwould describe
the original cfs1. But it is truly editable and it is robust.we have a
very wide selection of graphic opcodes from simple seed/r8 stuff
through to stuff like interpolate and fancy terrain structure techniques.
we have learned to throw intellect at it not limmitless reasources!
thank goodness for bill potvin!