Considering all the design aspects are already in place, wouldn't it be quicker to just rewrite the game? I'm not sure how complex this game actually is, but making something that looks approximately the same with today's tools is probably a lot easier
It wouldn't be that difficult to re-write the main 3D Game engine using OpenGL. If you had the assets (textures, models) in modern formats, one person could probably do it in a couple of weeks. Using another game engine would be quicker still.
But then there's the crucial gameplay, flight-sim physics, hooking into achieving objectives, the narrative, cutscreens, etc.
Even then, would it have the same feel as the original...
I wonder if it wouldn't be a lot easier to rewrite the game from scratch using a modern engine - it shouldn't be too complicated to reach a similar state as the original game with modern tools.
Or maybe just extend an existing (free) flight simulator like FlightGear.
The game engine, yes. The game itself? Not a chance.
I think you are seriously underestimating the complexity of a game. This would be possible, but as a major open-source project.
Replacing the game engine would be a big undertaking, but it's doable. People did just that with Frontier: First Encounters (http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/glffe.html). The game binaries is run as is, but modified to hook into the new engine.
Using FlightGear is not the same thing. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to get the same feel of the original game. However, this would be perfect for a remake, where the original experience is not expected.
Contrary to what the article states, what Falcon 3.0 focused on wasn't the flight model, but a relatively realistic and more involved representation of a dynamic battlefield, avionics and combat tactics, one of the reasons I still played it during the mid to late 90's.
Nice Project. As someone who already did some reverse engineering of such old games I know the amount of work to be done, but also the fun when it finally works.
I also think it would be great to play some old games with the Oculus, starting from Elite.
I don't know about playing the original Elite with a 3D HMD, but if you don't mind a more modern sort of game, you would appear to have several options. For one, there's an open source Elite remake, somewhat infelicitously called Oolite [1], which could probably be extended to support the Oculus Rift.
There's also something called "Elite: Dangerous", which is a massively multiplayer Elite-style game-to-be, and which appears already to offer Oculus Rift support in its current combat alpha [2].
And, of course, there's Star Citizen [3], helmed by Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame; in essence, he came to the Internet two years ago and said "Here's what I always wanted to build. How much is it worth to you to play it?" The answer to that question has turned out to be "thirty-eight million dollars and counting", and the full alpha release is projected for late this year, with increasingly large bits of functionality releasing between now and then; I don't know specifically when Oculus Rift support is planned for addition, but I'd be astonished if they weren't looking into adding it.
(PS: As an old space sim player who's been displeased by the decade-and-more drought of new titles in the genre, I'm delighted to see such a profusion of new titles. Perhaps space railroading time has come around again.)
Strike Commander was technically a very impressive achievement for its time and I'm very sad that flight and race sims don't get the recognition they deserve for pioneering technology as opposed to Doom/Quake etc.
Anyway, those kind of Commander-like flight games have limited replay value, because of the lack of a dynamic campaign and a hollywood hero story doesn't sit well with most flight sim fans, so we ended up with dumbed down arcade shooters like Ace Combat.
There was a Strike Commander like flightsim back in 1999 called "F-16 aggressor", which had a very impressive flight model and cockpit, but sadly wasted on an even more forgettable hollywood hero story thing.
I loved the game but my favorite was the "Gule, Gule" story in Sudden Death, especially the line, "their high school guidance counselors had steered them into a very deadly profession."
I picture you going "downstairs", your wooden steps creaking as you go down, past the various two-decade old metal cans of cleaning/household lubricating products on a shelf, into your computer room, with the wood paneling on the walls, the small basement window with the hand-crank, the slight smell of mildew and dryer sheets...
