The very first IL2 demo....as this website launched partly in memory of the OG game.

[Mysticpuma]

The original demo of IL2 Sturmovik was uploaded to Mission4today a long time back, but as this forum has been created due to the anniversary of it.... here's the OG link:

https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=downloads&file=details&id=3564

[LuftManu]

We've come a long way for sure! Thanks for sharing MP.

I remember trying this demo on my brother's PC. It ran at like 20 fps with the lowest settings possible. But in my mind I was blown away! 

[Dash,Polder_Colonel]

Remember getting the disc in a gaming PC magazine that month, installed it and the initial take off of the P-39 in the heavy rainfall had me instantly hooked, that classic whine of the 39 and sound of rain picking up in intensity as the speed built.  I could smell the rain.

[kraut1]

I can remember I was the first time in the forum in autumn 2000, 1 year before IL-2 was released.

At this time my absolute favorite flight simulator was European Air War by Microprose.

[Avimimus]

I remember buying a magazine to get the copy of the demo... then convincing my fiddle teacher to let me install it on his machine... the FPS was terrible but beat the 2 fps on my home computer... I somehow used the keyboard to put a 37mm round from the P-39 into the engine of a Fw-189 and watched the engine be torn off and fall away...

People today don't realise what a step forward that sim was.

The forum was full of people diving to tear off the main landing gear of the P-39 and then do touch-and-goes with just the front wheel and marvelling at how the aircraft would gradually transition in its loss of lift (they could then throttle up and raise the tail again). The physics was unheard of - and this was even before the update (AEP era?) that doubled the number of physics calculations and increased the fidelity of the flight model. Also, people were really impressed by having damage to a wing lead to reduced lift for it!

We were also shocked by the frequency of development updates, the fact that the devs interacted with people, and the amount of free post-release support - it was really game changing... things which today are assumed (or even treated as being an entitlement) but were really innovative then.

It was such a big deal I think a couple of people named their kids Oleg.

Another thing which is often forgotten is how the tech bubble had led to the purchase and then disbandment of almost all flight simulator product lines. CFS3 was in development around the time Il-2 was, and was released slightly after... and I think Jane's USAF came out slightly after as well... but basically flight simulators died out except for Maddox Games and Eagle Dynamics... two Russian companies which rebuilt the hardcore flight simulator. The one other survivor of that era was X-Plane (and I think one of the professional glider simulators).

[15[Span.]JG51Costa]

I remember flying the Demo against a guy called Oleg! 😅

[Jaegermeister]

5 hours ago, Dash,Polder_Colonel said:

Remember getting the disc in a gaming PC magazine that month, installed it and the initial take off of the P-39 in the heavy rainfall had me instantly hooked, that classic whine of the 39 and sound of rain picking up in intensity as the speed built.  I could smell the rain.

I got the same disc out of an issue of PC Pilot and loaded it on my laptop computer at work. I still remember trying to take off in the same P-39 you mentioned with keyboard commands and wrecking over and over again. I have been looking for a better sim experience ever since and still have not found it.