The Hawaii scenery disk

(at least the Atari version)

One of the separate scenery disks I had was the Hawaii disk. There were 12 disks covering the USA in more detail than the default FS version did (Chicago was a big improvement), then there were a Western Europe disk, and one for Japan (which featured a lot of VOR's, NDB's and ILS-es) and there was Hawaii.

Hawaii was completely different. There were all islands, ranging from Hawaii in the east to Niihau in the west. Normally you could fly around, use the ILS-es, NDB's and VOR's for navigation, and also some airfields had the fuelbox, the square with an F painted in. Park in there, hit the fuel gauges and you got filled up again. So far so good. But there were also some other "boxes" at several airfields, squares with an X painted in. Now, if you'd taxi through them, or fly straight across one, you would "trigger" the "weird part" of the disk. At several points in the scenery there would appear huge arrows painted on the ground or at sealevel and if you would follow these you would end up at the "final trigger", which would in turn trigger the final stuff, which was w-e-i-r-d indeed...

The trigger box, or startbox at Lihue on Kauai Island

It didn't matter which box you triggered, in case you "hit" one it would at least trigger the arrows. Follow the arrows and you'll get to the final one...

Each island had one airfield with a startbox: Hawaii at Gen. Lyman Field, Maui at Oahu, Molokai at Hoolehua, Oahu at a small strip near the coast and Kauai at 2,2nm from the airport Lihue. Like hunting for eggs...

Best of course was to start at Gen. Lyman and then follow the arrows. Of course initially you had to climb to 10,000ft in order not to crash into the mountains, but at times it would be nice to go really low. Like between Kauai and Niihau there would appear an old sailing ship at sea. At around 40nm from the Lihue VOR there would appear a "gate" floating in the air, climb to 4500ft and fly through it. If you don't, you would miss all the other fun.

The arrow is above the mouse-arrow on the ground. Also shown in map view

The gate floating at 4500ft

Fly through it, or.... also shown in map view

One huge black void. Turn on map view, or you'll be missing things

After entering the gate, you are suddenly flying at 8500ft. Make a right turn of 180 degrees and get down. You will be flying into a pyramid, where a white beam of light enters and all colours emerge from the other side. Be sure you'll plunge into the side of the pyramid, don't fly over the top. From here situations differ into which direction you will be flying and how low or high you go.

Enter the pyramid and you are over Egypt at the three pyramids. You can land, have a look see or carry on into any direction.

over the pyramids in Egypt

Sometimes in a situation you may be flying on forever without getting out

In another case you'll get to another one, which could be:

-flying across a huge piano. You can land below it, but not on top. Near the piano is a wall with an open door. Once through, you'll enter a giant kitchen, you can leave through the door again but also climb to around 8000ft and leave through one of the two windows.

-flying at a floating aircraft carrier. You can also land below it, but not on it. This situation also features a floating airfield around. The carrier deck is at 3750ft.

-flying towards a "wall" with 7 openings. One has opening and closing doors. If you pass it while the doors are closed, you'll crash. End of special stuff. In case you make it you'll get into another situation. The center opening is a "tube" which spirals gradually down. The entry is at 5500ft, the exit is 3500ft. Near the end you can also make a sharp turn to the right in this tunnel, which needs right turns but leads you back into the main one. In case you want to extend your adventure...

-you're approaching Chicago, but it is tilted 90 degrees and keep flying straight on. Get to the right which means closer to the ground and you'll crash: end of fun.

-you will be spit out by Mauna Loa (the highest crater on Hawaii). From there you have three options:

-get safely away from the crater and land at either Kailua Kona or Hilo (beware, you are spit out at 15 ~ 20,000 ft and are plunging down like hell!

-turn back towards the crater which is still below you and dive straight into it. It brings you to a new situation... Crater level is around 14,000ft

-turn away from the mountain and go down and find the other crater at Hawaii. This one is around 4000ft high. Once in, you will be transferred between Kauai and Niihau islands at 800ft and you can climb towards the gate again.

Be sure to have map view turned on or you might miss stuff, simply because you don't see it at first.

Spit out by Mauna Loa, at almost 20,000ft. Dive back in, or...

land safe at Keahole airport

Believe me, this disk has kept me busy for hours!

Actually, in 2013 I tried to figure out more about it. I still own an Atari STf, one Mega ST and a TT. But on the modern PC under Windoze (I refuse to call it different) one has Steem, which does all Atari modes as long as you also have the TOS images. So back to the ancient Hawaii disk.

There was another situation, another "floating airfield" at around 2500ft which was surrounded by a wall with one opening in a side to fly through.

And finally, there was a situation into which you would fly level towards a tilted "Chicago" like you were plunging in from outer space. This one would finally crash the system.

The other thing I found was that you could also enter the "weird stuff" by diving into Mauna Loa at 13,500ft, which in turn also triggered like you flew over a "startbox". Without doing that, you could also plunge in the other crater at 4000ft, which is called Kilauea. That would transfer you also to between Niihau and Kauai, but there would appear no floating gate, so there would be no further adventure. The old sailing ship as well as the huge glider at 6700ft on the south coast of Maui would appear always, whether or not you "triggered" the odd stuff.

The ancient sailing ship between Niihau and Kauai

In the tunnel. To the right the entry to extend the trip

The piano and the wall, which later turns into a kitchen

Well, there you are. Land at the floor which is 0ft or leave through the window at 8000ft...

 

 

Page revised 03.04.2013