Combat Flight Simulator - Joystick fix!

Microsoft Combat Flight Simualtor - Word War II Europe Series, otherwise known as Combat Flight Simulator 3 or CFS3 is in my opinion the best combat flight simulator ever. Newer simulators may have superior graphics but I find in general are too complicated and the games engine itself just is not as nice as CFS3.

CFS3 really makes you feel like you are flying an old Messerschmitt or an old Spitfire. The engines cough, splutter, backfire and vibrate with the full character of the original aircraft. Each aircraft handles according to its own unique charactersitics. The missions and the campaigns are excellent and really enjoyable. I love this game.

Most of this video is about how to get your joystick working with CFS3 on Windows 11.

SOME CFS3 TIPS
1. Go to settings and set your pilot to invincible and unlimted ammo. Make all related settings to the easiest option. This will allow you to focus on learning how to fly and enjoy the game at the same time. Once you have mastered the basics you can go back and update the settings for more realism/challenge.

2. When taking off press F7 to extend the flaps. Once airborne press F6 to retract the flaps.

3. During flight press X to advance to the next way point.

4. During flight press P to pause then press F2 for the quick menu commands. No need to read the manual really.

5. During flight press P to pause then press the Alt key to access the menu and change settings if desired e.g. change screen resolution.

URL to Joystick Fix
https://www.flightsim.com/forums/topi...

URL to Hex Editor
http://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?p...)

IMPORTANT!
After making this video I found a link (see below) that has a pached executable COMBATFS.EXE that is already patched for the joystick as well as a NOCD patch. It says its for Windows10 but I tested it and it works just fine for Windows11. This means that you can simply download it and avoid having to patch it yourself:

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/mi...

Get this game from MyAbandonware:

1. Internet search for "abandonware cfs" and click the link. Or click here: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/mi...

2. At the bottom of the page you will see a recommended "Download" button for the iso and also a "Fix" button for the joystick and NoCD fix. Download both these zips and unzip them.

3. Mount the iso from the first download, in File Explorer by right clicking the iso file. If yiou do not see the "mount iso" on the right click menu then see here: https://www.minitool.com/news/mount-i....

4. From the mounted iso drive in File Explorer find the setup.exe and then install it. It will install to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Combat Flight Simulator". You may need to create the Microsoft Games directory yourself if the installer complains that it cannot find it, then run the installer again.

5. From the "Fix" download copy the COMBATFS.EXE to the game path at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Combat Flight Simulator". It will overwrite the existing the COMBATFS.EXE.

6. Delete the COMBATFS.CFG file from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Combat Flight Simulator".

7. Run the game from the desktop icon shortcut or from COMBATFS.EXE in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Combat Flight Simulator".