A POLE: How long have you been flying IL-2

[JG52Uther]

2001 I think, long time anyway. Thousands of hours over the years, in its heyday, with the online wars, I spent around 40 hours a week flying missions.
It was a complete and utter obsession, and I have not touched it since CoD was released.
I hope the new series will keep me going for the next decade.

[Chivas]

I've flown IL-2 since the first beta test days. To long ago to remember exact date. I haven't flown IL-2 too much for the last few years, at it has gotten old. Still waiting for COD to be completed to get back into flying alot. I really like the new game engines features and it should eventually develop into the next benchmark in WW2 aircombat simming.

[6BL Bird-Dog]

Since the Demo,Dawn of Aces before that.

[kendo65]

I was quite a late-comer. I was aware of the game when it came out and desperately wanted to play it - I couldn't because my computer was below spec - it only had a 4MB videocard (recommended 16MB I think) !!

I spent a really frustrating couple of years as I wasn't able to upgrade the PC. Finally got into it when 1946 came out and then seemed to do without sleep for 2 years as I investigated every facet of the game and made up for lost time!

[Dano]

Since the demo, I remember buying the game in my local John Menzies on the day of release, those were the days when even small town branches of newsagent/office supply/media stores still carried pc games. Remember struggling to get the IL2 off the ground and keep it airbourne as it had a very limited ground speed I seem to recall.

[III/JG53_Don]

I'm into the series since the Il2 Demo 2001 as many others obviously.
I was around 13 and installed it from a pc games magazine CD together with a school mate from mine.
Funny enough I had a pretty crappy joystick without rudder control and we were at first wondering why the Il2 keeps steering right during the takeoff.
We thought it was a wrong calibration issue from my joystick and after this didn't help, we thought that the game has still some bugs
Anyway soon after that I bought the full version and we spent hundreds of hundreds of hours flying il2 with my class mates (I convinced three other guys to fly with us) online after school.

[SlipBall]

For me, it was early 2003 or so...Oleg was like some type of guru to me. Tried to read all that he wrote, to get a sense of the future developement plans that he had in his mind...I don't mind saying that I miss him being with us, but I hope his child become's what he dreamed it would be.

[ATAG_Dutch]

My mate Eddie gave me a copy of IL2 in 2001, which I tried to play on the wife's laptop at very low settings. I flew the MiG 3 v FW189 mission about 350times before it twigged how to use airspeed to gain height. Shot the bugger down eventually though.

I used a really cheap joystick by saitek which folded up for convenience into a tube, and which had the throttle control on top of the stick.
Then I got Forgotten Battles and subsequently 1946, and finally got an internet connection at home (didn't feel the need before!), tried the online play at Ubi.com, which ran at about 3 fps.

I'd managed to scrounge a really bad IBM Pentium 4 workstation PC from work and upgraded it with some more RAM and a ATI 3850 512mb card (AGP). Didn't even know I'd need a new power supply, so just ran it as it was.
(I've still got the card, in it's original box, in pristine condition, if anyone wants it?!)

The play at Ubi.com led me to Hyperlobby in a very steep learning curve about conf.ini files and the alteration thereof.

Then I actually bought a pc of my very own from Dell, and then realised it wasn't good enough, and replaced the Nvidia GT220 with a ATI 5770. Then I realised that wasn't good enough either and bought a power supply and a GTX570.

This game has cost me a bloody fortune. I sometimes wish Eddie had never given me the damned game in the first place (not really!).

Sorry for boring you all!

[GOA_Potenz]

2002 when i was working in a friends computer shop, one evening i was bored and said i want to play a WWII planes game, took il2 cause i remembered the amazing DM, in those times the only i knew it was visually amazaing, started that evening and stoped mostly after become a modder, and spent most time on java files than flying, and after CloD i never even install it again

[Richie]

I started with the Demo in August 2001. I flew online play right from the start as I had been doing for four years already with other sims. Pope Herr_Spay SR_Aces UHOH7 Joshua Willie Stigler Joshua Fritag those were the main guys I flew with to start with. Pope now Graf is the only one still around that I know of. Those were the days when everyone flew until your head hit the joystick. Sometimes I would hook up the VCR to the PC and record us. I still have those tapes. They're a panic to watch and listen to now. I have Graf on tape saying to me "I'm gettin the bleep away from you" in his Texas drawl...I had a habit of smashing into him on the runway. Other things like Herr_Spray screaming "AHH YA GOT ME HACKL" as he smashes into the ground. I was Hackl back then. Of course I ordered IL-2 way before it came out. When it did come out it came out a week earlier in the States than it did here in Canada. I actually thought about driving my beat up rusted out K car down to the States to get a copy. That thing was so rusted out your feet would get soaking wet if it rained. I thought better of it and suffered for a week. I can't remember the exact day Nov 27 2001 I'm pretty sure. Anyway I still have the big huge box it came in and the disk of course. Everyone downloaded the no disk crack so I'm guessing everyone's disk is in great shape. As the years went by I always kept up to date. I remember in the best years 2003 - 2004 you would see 1000 people in the Hyperlobby on a Saturday. On another note I remember watching the CFS3 movie online and thinking this Sim looks great. I brought it home installed it at took it back in a couple of hours. What a piece of crap and it probably out sells IL-2 100 to 1. I've converted two people from CFS2 over to IL-2 and one actually payed me threw paypal $30 for a case of beer the other one was thank you thank you thank you for a few days. As far as this one goes it's fine on my system and I know it will continue to improve. Eleven years and I'm still having a great time with IL-2.