How did you find Orbiter?

[Quick_Nick]

I was bored during the 2004 winter break from school and googled for a free flight simulator/combat flight simulator. My computer stopped working some time not long after I found Orbiter and I think it didn't work until June 2005. I still use that computer and it still stops working for some reason...(hardware, likely connection, issue is all I know)

 

[NukeET]

I was checking the Eagle Lander 3D page on Yahoo for the latest news about 2 years ago, and someone had posted about Orbiter. Googled it.

Never went back.

 

[Missioncmdr]

I was trying to look for a Mercury simulator when I came across an old add-on of that.

 

[Andy44]

Back in the 90's, I used to use MS Flight Sim, (2 maybe?) and SubLogic's Flight Assignment: ATP. I saw MS Space Simulator on the shelf at Babbage's one day (does anyone else remember that store?) but it required a better computer than my 386, and being a poor college student, I put it off for a future day, fully expecting that by the time I had a real job, there would be plenty of space sims, with lots of cool graphics and features. I didn't know at the time that computer flight sims were already dying in the marketplace. Sure enough, MS Space Sim vanished, and I put my interest aside to get on with my career.

Fast forward to early 2005, and I decide to google MS Space Sim and see if it's downloadable like so much other abandonware. I actually found it and DL'd it, but I couldn't get it to work right. So I followed the link to Orbiter, which said "free" in it somewhere, and as the bounty hunter in the Firefly episode Objects in Space says at the end of the episode, "Well, here I am".

 

[Keatah]

looking for ms space sim upgrades

Yeh, I was looking for space sim upgrades when I ran into orbiter..
:speakcool:

 

[YL3GDY]

One of my schoolmates said someday, that he knows a "super realistic space sim". In the same day he showed Orbiter on his machine. After that I became an Orbiteronaut...

 

[roblin]

Almost four years ago I was googling for something to explore the solar system. A close friend was teaching kids about the solar system and I thought there must be something to show the kids on screen how the planets move.
In the end I ended up with Orbiter, and my friend got nothing

 

[Dogsbd]

It has been so long, I don't really remember. Maybe I was searching for MS space simulator or Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space related "stuff" or maybe I found a link to Orbiter at "Underdogs" site.

 

[Enjo]

My friend who is also interested in space showed me Orbiter. He wasn't using it at all, and was only storing it on a CD. I on the other hand, apart from making dreams come true etc., later found a new way of expressing myself - through the code Yes, Orbiter is not only a sim, but also a great field for expressing creativitiy.

 

[McWgogs]

Years ago when i didn't have internet connection, i used to go to a Internet café with a bunch of floppys and download old freeware games, eventually I've found orbiter on The Underdogs.
So i bought a cd-r and with excitement I've burned the base package on a cd and that's how the addiction began.

Orbiter is not only a sim, but also a great field for expressing creativity.

Very true!

 

[Adam]

I was loocking for MSFS addons 4 or 5 years ago and googled Orbiter by accident, I fought "It cant be real sim, propably not working" but I gave it a try and I dont regret it

 

[Hartmann]

i was looking for the microsoft "space simulator" which was my first space sim when i found an orbiter download.

After this , all was different :speakcool:

 

[Pilot7893]

Umm.. except maybe porn:lolol:

You know what they say. "Internet porn is the best cure for homo-sexuality"

 

[jedidia]

It was after being heavily disapointed by "X-beyond the frontier", becuase the game made being in space feel like being in walmart and driving from shelf to shelf with a ridiculously slow spaceship. So I went out to see if there wasn't anything anywhere that would at least give me a bit of a space feeling. I browsed the Underdogs-page during my search, and found the Link to Orbiter. And there I was.

 

[Xantcha]

Was reading a game review (on Freelancer or some other *spacesim*) and there was a mention of Orbiter. Never really liked flightsims, never was really interseted in space, but an idea of realistic spaceflight was intriguing. And I tried it. Never though that interest in this *little freeware sim* %) could last so long.

 

[cljohnston]

Like many of you, I was Googling "free flight simulator", and got hits from both The Underdogs and HobbySpace.
This was in 2001, when Orbiter looked like this...

My, how we've grown! :woohoo:

 

[Marcel]

Three or four years ago, I remember discussing my adventures in Frontier First Encounters, an early space sim, with a coworker. I explained how spaceships in most games maneuver like aircraft, whereas this game used realistic, albeit simplified physics. It was also completely open ended. You could pretty much go anywhere and do anything. One day he invited me to stop by after work to check out a cool free space sim that he just installed, Orbiter 2005. He had no sound and nobody could get the shuttle into orbit, but I was impressed, and a little intimidated. Compared to this, Frontier was easy! My interest in Frontier faded after that, and I spent my sim time with Flight Simulator. I'd been flying around the world in small planes, low and slow. I traveled down the west coast of North and South America to Antarctica and back up the east coast. I loved downloading various aircraft and sceneries along the way. Somewhere along the coast of Brazil I decided to go island hopping up to KSC, and see if I could figure out this Orbiter thing. Ever since I've been a virtual space cadet!

 

[ryan]

I found it how all of you guys found it, i was searching for an online space flight simulator on Google and then Orbiter came up, first i thought you had to pay and i cancelled it and then it popped up again and i saw it was free.

 

[n0mad23]

I finally got a used computer that's CPU was greater than a gig in November. I've always wanted to play around with CAD modeling, and went browsing for freeware CAD programs. Specifically, I wanted to play with the scenes I'd been writing about in a 3D environment.

I tried several demos (read 'crippled ware') before discovering Anim8or. The freeware page that had Anim8or also had a plug for Orbiter. Later, in going back to that page to find resource links, I ended up downloading Orbiter.

Frankly, I was a bit suspicious (which is why I didn't download it at the same time as Anim8or) of the quality of a Space Simulator that was free.

I got the best of both worlds - I made my bondVaga space station over winter break and applied all the orbital mechanics I'd been teaching myself through long-hand equations in playing with Orbiter. In the end, not only did I have my scene study, but I got to experience it in the Orbiter simulation environment.

Too cool.

 

[mrspacely]

Haha Ive used Orbiter on and off over the years.. Every time I would get 'into' it again I would learn something new but would usually get hanged up on something I couldnt understand, so I put it off. It's only recently ive mastered Earth-Moon flights so now Im way more motivated to play! Its cool because every time I cam back there would be a cool new addon like a new DG or now its the XR-5! Great program...