ATC:Cleared for Takeoff - Budapest Airport '06

Flights on time. All of them. Can you do it?

In this simulation game you take the position of an air traffic controller in the control tower of Budapest Airport to make sure all flights get to their destination safely and on time.

Key features:

AIRPORT ALIVE

To play this game is like playing model railway with aircraft, while making sure all flights arrive to their destination safely. (Almost) everything is on the move.

HASSLE-FREE

If you don’t want to bother pronuncing tongue twister air traffic control instructions for the speech recognition system, then this is your game. You’re always just a click or two away from issuing an instruction.

IMMERSION

If you like aviation and airports, you will find yourself sitting down for a short half hour stint, and getting up one and a half or two hours later.

EASY TO PLAY

Features like fire-and-forget one-click instructions, instruction queuing, hotkeys, and path highlighting will make your seat as comfortable as possible.

SETTING IT UP

Customization is easy. Do you want the busiest time of the day or just chill? You can get both by choosing a scenario.

REALISTIC RADIO VOICES

You won’t hear any painfully slow robotic voices answering to your instructions in this game. Listening to many hours of real-life ATC recordings during development makes sure the game sounds as realistic as possible.

NO VIOLENCE

In this game you don’t get any points for killing people.

EVOLVING

Development will continue. The game will get more features and content added in the future.

NO HIDDEN PAYMENTS

That's right.

STATS

The game records all your achievements, including the number of flights, passengers, cargo delivered inbound or out.

The plot:

You will take the seat of several different air traffic controllers in one person. You control the approach, designing a steady and well-separated inbound and outgoing air traffic flow. You take tower control position as well, to clear landing and take-off. Also, you take the position of ground control to let aircraft taxi between runways and gates, as well as pushback. Sounds too much? Fear not. The game design will help a lot with features like fire-and-forget one-click instructions, instruction queuing, hotkeys, path highlighting, and many more.

This game is a simulation of Budapest Ferihegy Airport at its 2006 state, using the summer timetable of that year. That was the time when the architecture of the airport was still at an organic, elegant state, before temporary buildings were added to hide its beauty (and handle more passengers). Also that was the time when a lot of now-defunct regional airlines had their flights and bases there, displaying a very colorful apron. Expect several historic aircraft!

Why free?

London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schipol, Chicago O’Hare, Tokyo Haneda, Sydney Kingsford Smith, Beijing Capital, Dubai International, Johannesburg are all great airports, but not included in this game (yet).

Development resources have been concentrated on quality, not quantity.

Currently this is an early access version of the game. Further development will go on.

Tutorial

A full tutorial is available about handling a busy mixed approach and departure situation:

A full tutorial is available about handling complex approach situation:

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Minimum:

Windows 7 SP1+, x64 CPU, GT710 GPU, mouse, keyboard.

Recommended:

Windows 10, x64 CPU, GTX1650 GPU, mouse, keyboard, fullHD screen.

A WORD ON EARLY ACCESS

Although the game already offers a fully enjoyable experience, it is still in early access. There are a lot more features to be added in future versions. A quick peek into the development pipeline: many-many more animations, more aircraft types, more airlines, baggage loading, refueling, catering, lavatory service, external power, frame rate optimization, optional instrument approach phraseology, and many more...

v1.4 key features:

• New aircraft types fully animated: A321, A319, B767-200 (short 767), cargo B767F
• Existing aircraft types, now fully animated: A320, TU-154M, B767-300 
• New airlines based on real-life timetable
• Incident statistics accessible from main menu/controller details (backward compatible!)
• Improved frame rates

v1.3 key features:

• Single runway mode (Temporarily closed runway)
• More options to choose alternative taxiway path
• New incident type: near miss
• Realistic aircraft movements: completely rewritten taxiing engine
• Possible to choose no voice for the controller at game setup
• Bugfix: planes sometimes couldn't crash on runway
• Minor visual bugfixes

v1.2 key features:

• New aircraft type: B737-500
• New aircraft type: F-28 Fellowship
• New airlines according to real-life timetable
• Believable horizon
• Tire smoke at landing
• New job for follow me: place and collect cones. Pushback handles pushback tow bar.
• Revised ground vehicle traffic
• Lavatory service car
• Fresh water service car
• Light/strobe visuals enhancement
• Complete rework of all sounds
• New traffic signs
• Improved hangars area
• Improved frame rates

v1.1 key features:

• Completely new 737 models for better visuals, animations, and better frame rates
• New aircraft animations including takeoff flaps, landing flaps, spoilers, thrust reversers, doors (left and right), cargo/luggage doors, landing gear (737-300, 737-400, F70)
• Ground power unit delivery
• New buildings, fire hydrants, ILS, and vehicles
• Radio and radar screen uses real life navigational points
• More realistic radio phraseology
• Screen size settings, including possible windowed screen choice
• Graphics quality settings
• Improved frame rate