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PRESS
CONTACTS:
Lauren Tascan/Cristina Raigosa
212-772-3900/317-275-2275
[email protected]/[email protected]
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WILCO
UPS THE ANTE IN ‘AIRPORT 2000 VOLUME 3’ WITH 7 REALISTIC NEW AIRPORTS &
BEST-YET FLIGHT ADVENTURES Third Volume of Flight Sim 2000 Add-On Set To Soar
End of May
LOS
ANGELES, CA (May 16, 2001) E3 Booth 7620, Kentia Hall — After scoring big
with the first and second volumes of its Airport 2000 series, Wilco Publishing
is going for a hat trick with Airport 2000 Volume 3, its new add-on for
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000. Set for May 23 release, the new edition will
reprise the precise airport recreations that originally put the series on
simmers’ radar–this time with seven new airports. It will also add greater
interactivity for each flight adventure, the ability to insert flight plans
into the Flight Management Computer (FMC) included for the first time in this
volume, and evaluations of desktop pilots’ performance on each flight.
Airports
As They Really Look
Airport
2000 is still the only series of its kind that is based on actual visits to
and photographs of the airports in question, and Airport 2000 Volume 3 is the
latest product of Wilco’s painstaking efforts to obtain behind-the-scenes
airport visitation privileges. The result is that San Francisco International,
Denver International, Seattle Tacoma, Paris Orly, Kastrup Copenhagen, Berlin
Tegel and London Gatwick are recreated in precise detail. The satellite
terminals, actual hangars, office and maintenance buildings, radar towers, and
taxiways with corresponding ID signs replicate the real thing. So does the new
gate numbering system.
The
verisimilitude extends to the ambient traffic. Dozens of aircraft liveries
populate the tarmac. Cars,- service vehicles-and monorails are in constant
motion, as are the passengers walking from building to building in certain
terminals. Birds swoop around select runways an industry first. Trees and
fences have also been added.
A
new docking system requires simmers to align their aircraft properly at the
airport gate to allow passengers to disembark. New dynamic jetways move up and
down to adjust to the height of the aircraft as it approaches the gate. Tire
marks now appear on the tarmac as well as the runways, along with a special
new texture that simulates oil leaking from the gear.
Bigger
and Better Adventures
The
10 new adventures in Airport 2000 Volume 3 have been built with the ProFlight
2000 adventure generator and include a special co-pilot interactivity module.
It is also now possible to insert Flight Sim flight plans into Volume 3’s new
FMC for more realistic adventures, and there are more voices and tower
messages than ever before. Each adventure is ranked according to complexity,
with levels for both intermediate and advanced players.
Seven
of the adventures involve flights between the airports in Volume 3; three
others link airports between the new edition and Volumes 1 and 2. All
adventures feature fully interactive ATC and internal announcements, and crew
announcements and cabin calls ("Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, may
we remind you that this is a non-smoking flight"). All communication from
tower to ground control and departure control is audible as well, including
instructions from multiple air traffic control centers, vocal captain calls
and readbacks.
From
Turbo Prop to Jetliners
Three
new aircraft have been created for this edition, including a Boeing 737-800,
Airbus A320 and Dornier 328 Turbo Prop. In addition to the new FMC, each has
moving flaps and ailerons, rotating fans and propellers, animated retractable
gear and flap sequences, detailed 3D gear doors, and illuminated landing and
navigation lights.
Each
instrument panel replicates its real counterpart down to the positions and
sizes of the gauges, and details are more readable than in earlier volumes.
Also included are transparent windows, 3D pilots, multiple high-resolution day
and night textures, and 360-degree cockpit views with front, overhead and
pedestal panels for visual variety.
Simmers
have the option to increase the number of aircraft taking off, landing or
taxiing according to their PC performance to allow a better frame rate.
Players can also opt to decrease the building complexity if the default
setting slows the sim down too much.
Pricing
and System Requirements
Airport
2000 Volume 3 will be sold through computer stores and carry an MSRP of $39
(U.S.). It comes with a multilingual manual, is fully compatible with
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000, and requires a minimum Pentium 400 MHz with
64MB RAM. A 3D graphics accelerator card is recommended.
Wilco
Publishing is the publisher of the Airport 2000 Volumes I and II, 767 Pilot in
Command, Tahiti Scenery and Grand Canyon add-ons to Microsoft Flight
Simulator, Wilco’s 737 for Fly!, and Hangsim, a PC-based glider simulation.
767 Pilot in Command has received the SimFlight Achievement of the Year Award
for Best Aircraft and Best Panel, the AVSIM Award of Excellence, and top
honors from FlightSim.com and PCPilot. Wilco takes its name from the
aeronautical abbreviation for "Will Comply." Founded in 1997, Wilco
is based in Belgium and can be reached at www.wilcopub.com or via phone at 011
32 2 331 32 90.
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# # #
Lauren
B. Tascan 177 E. 75th St., #15D New York, NY 10021 212/772-3900 phone
212/772-9922 fax
For
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