My first flight simulator was the Sublogic Flight Simulator. I believe Microsoft later bought that.
Wikipedia which I despise for anything remotely political has a thorough article on the history of the Microsoft Flight Simulator including its purchase from Bruce Artwick’s Sublogic Corporation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Flight_Simulator
I have a lot of storage space and throw away very little. I have several versions of the early iterations of this excellent software for various platforms. I was very impressed with the performance I got from the DOS version after I put together an XT compatible desktop computer with an EGA adapter and monitor.
I put together a lot of PC's over the years and the latest Flight Simulator's performance was always a consideration when picking components.
Long before we had high speed internet in our area my neighbor and I ran cat5 cable between our houses so that we could play Microsoft Combat Simulator together. This started a bit of an “arms race” between the two of us where we each purchased higher and higher quality computers, joysticks, control yokes and rudder pedals. I could always tell when he had upgraded his system; suddenly he would be shooting me out of the sky in every game.
Microsoft purchased substantially all the assets of BAO, Ltd. in November of 1995. That purchase from Bruce Artwick included all the code for Flightsim and all rights to allow continued development of the Flight Simulator product.
By 1989, Sublogic Corporation had split off from Bruce Artwick and BAO, Ltd., to form a separate company. In 1995, Sublogic Corporation sold to Sierra and came out with its last Flightsim-related product in 1997 under the Sierra brand. The split obviated any need for Microsoft to purchase any Sublogic Corporation asset(s).
Wikipedia says BAO, Ltd. was acquired in December, 1995, but technically, the purchase agreement documents are dated 11/4/95 and the closing was November 30, 1995. I can say that confidently because I was BAO's point person for negotiation of that sale.
As a former member of Sublogic Corporation and BAO, Ltd.,I was always pleased at how well the product sold and was received thereafter through tens of millions of hours of use. I believe its sales averaged over a million copies per year, making it the most popular non O/S software in the world, at least through 1995.
