Another Step Closer To The Cockpit - PRESS RELEASE
Ralph Zimmerman
For more information contact:
Ralph Zimmerman, Ral...@www.realatc.com
Another Step Closer to the Cockpit:
Flying, in Real Time, from the Comfort of your Desktop
Simulated flight has reached new heights, now providing desktop pilots
animated scenarios with actual tower-to-cockpit audio. GSG Entertainment has
launched Real ATC Software and "Three Real FlightsT", a significant add-on
product to Microsoft's Flight SimulatorT, first introduced in the 1980's.
The new Real ATC Software product represents a quantum leap in flight
simulation technology with actual audio, mixed from flight recordings-an
audio experience that puts the user visually, audibly and mechanically in
the cockpit with real flight situations in a myriad of flight scenarios of
his/her choosing.
This exciting new add-on product includes three separate flights, with
choice of aircraft and scenery, along with 22 hours of digital recordings.
In addition, Real ATC Software will make the flights compatible with
existing third party sceneries. Free modifications will be available to the
program's users with further enhancements to the flight experience. The
product is available for purchase on the web at www.realatc.com for direct
sale, at an introductory price of $19.95. A free demo is available for
download at the site and at key flight simulator sites on the Internet.
To celebrate the product launch, Real ATC Software will offer two contests:
one for FS2002T users and another for those with FS2000T software. As users
fly the "Three Real FlightsT" they will be introduced to a unique grading
system that will allow them to achieve a rating of how well they did
matching skills with real pilots. Top pilot awards will go to the highest
total ratings for all three flights. Up-to-date contest details are
available on www.realatc.com.
Product creator, Ralph Zimmerman, is no stranger to the Flight Simulator
community. In 1999 he was the master programmer behind the huge success of
Lauda 425, a first in the industry: real flight designed for Microsoft
Flight Simulator. It offered the first ever totally real in-flight
experience, giving the end user the opportunity to fly not only in the pilot
's seat, but the chance to hear everything that happened and the challenge
to match technique with a real airline cockpit crew.
Zimmerman developed a passion for aviation at a tender age, studying
weather, flight dynamics and navigation before passing his private and
commercial tests while still in his teens. In the early 70's, he soloed in a
Cessna 152 after barely four hours of flying lessons. Distractions and
eventual health issues put his dreams of flying on the back burner for many
years, but the passion remained.
When simulated flight emerged in the 80's, Zimmerman was able to answer the
call through virtual flight--but, from the start, it was always more than
just a hobby. He was determined to make it even better. His goal: more
reality for simulated flight through real time flying and live audio, all at
an affordable price as a supplement to an established product.
At 58, Zimmerman is among the veterans of flight simulation. "My first
experience with simulated flight was Sid Meier's Solo Flight, along with
Andy Hollis' Mig Alley Ace, both published by Micropose," says Zimmerman. He
kept pace with technology, always hungry for the newest products in the
marketplace. "I remember Sublogic's Flight Simulator II for the Atari, then
moving up to IBM compatibles. Each advancement moved me closer to creating
my own software innovation."
These days Zimmerman flies AMD Athalon 1800 with 512 Mb DDR RAM and a NVIDIA
GEForce 4 TI 4600 AGP 4X graphics card. Among his personal favorites,
FS2002, Fly!, X-Plane, Flight Unlimited, both II and III. "I own many of the
combat sims, but buy them mostly for the graphics - I'm a civil aviator at
heart!!"
Zimmerman was reluctant to sit back and just accept what the marketplace had
to offer. To maximize the experience, it simply had to be more realistic!
His vision evolved to the first Turboprop SGA sound for MS FS4.0T, praised
as a significant enhancement to flight simulation technology. Zimmerman
helped designed the Las Vegas scenery for the FLY-IN 11 held on CompuServe
in the early 1990's. This enhancement package was on the iup server for
several years, and proved compatible with FS98 when adapting the Las Vegas
scenery to work with FS2000.
By 1996, Zimmerman had produced the most realistic flight simulator
experience ever for Microsoft Flight SimulatorT. He had created the first
Real ATC .wav files for use with BAO Flight Shop, overwriting the
rudimentary 30 enroute files that played.
A new era had emerged: RealATCT was born in the CompuServe flight simulation
forum as a $5 shareware concept. This led Zimmerman to the development of a
commercial product: RealATCT, creating adventure coding and the low altitude
sound files for the product. The original RealATCT was developed on a 486
DX4 100 with 16 Mb of ram and initially written for MSFS 5.1T.
"My program to turn the real flight recordings into an immersive, real time
interactive flight experience is unsurpassed in the level of realism it
brings to flight simulation," says Zimmerman. "But the real credit for the
product's success goes to the pilots who flew the flights, and to the people
who brought me the tapes and shared my vision of bringing a new dimension to
flight simulator."
Zimmerman has participated in the adventure coding and sound editing for
several other commercial products as well. They include Airfield, Flight
Academy and Fly Lauda. After many years in the works, he formed Real ATC
Software and introduced "Three Live FlightsT."
Zimmerman grew up in New York State, but spent several years in Florida and
Las Vegas before finally settling in Colorado. After ten years in Denver, he
currently resides in Colorado Springs and can be found at his daily place of
business, the Rack & Tap, a bar and billiard hall, when he isn't busy
working on new RealATCT programming efforts.
"This is a great hobby," adds Zimmerman, "challenging, affordable and just
plain fun. Just when you think you've got it down, somebody comes along with
something bigger and better and you get to be the 'student' all over again.
I'm proud to be among the pioneers in this hobby, taking simulated flight to
new heights."
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Ralph Zimmerman
Colorado Springs, CO USA
Real ATC EMAIL :Ral...@realatc.com
Real ATC Software: http://www.realatc.com