Archived MSN Zone Real-World Weather

RichNagel

RichNagel

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Here's an interesting one:

I download archives of the last real-world weather files for FS2K that hosted were on the long-since gone MSN Zone site:

http://fs2k.zone.com:80/fronts.bin
http://fs2k.zone.com/metars.bin
http://fs2k.zone.com/metars_and_winds_aloft.bin

...on the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) from:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190421053133/http://fs2k.zone.com/fronts.bin
https://web.archive.org/web/20041210200236/http://fs2k.zone.com:80/metars.bin
https://web.archive.org/web/20041210191154/http://fs2k.zone.com:80/metars_and_winds_aloft.bin

...and uploaded them to my web server at http://bhservices.us .

Open your "FS2000.cfg" file with WinDoZe NotePad, edit the following line in the file:

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[Weather]
WeatherServerAddress=fs2k.zone.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

...to read:

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[Weather]
WeatherServerAddress=bhservices.us
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

...and save the "FS2000.cfg" file.

Start FS2K and it will alow you to download the real-world weather from within the sim (the ".bin" files will be downloaded from my web server)... it works just like it did back in the day :)

It's really a shame that there isn't some way to copy and paste METAR data (e.g. from https://www.aviationweather.gov/metar/data ) into a file, somehow convert it to the MSN Zone ".bin" files, and then load them into FS2K.

Anyhow, I thought this was kind of neat :)
 
It is amazing what the wayback machine can bring back. :encouragement: Hopefully people will throw in a few dollars so the service remains available.

Cheers,
Huub
 
BTW, I'm not sure, but this MIGHT work with newer versions of MSFS as well. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't FS2K2/FS2K4/etc... use the same method for downloading real-world weather into the sim(s)?
 
So are these Wx 'themes' to simulate particular conditions, or is it a way to access real world Wx servers?

My WiFi connection is wonky at best, so I don't use real world Wx. Older laptop, burnt out Cat 5 port so no hard wire capability to my router.

I have downloaded some Wx 'themes' I can select to simulate a particular Wx state, which works great for me.

:wavey:
 
The files were used back during the MSN Zone days for FS2K (maybe newer versions as well) to download/retrieve the real-world weather in the sim. I'm not familiar with weather "themes", but back in the day you would download the weather within the sim and it would setup various local weather areas with the real-world weather. That being said, this isn't a way to access real-world weather servers (or a way that 're-enables' the way that the MSN Zone servers used to do their thing back in the day), but rather a proof-of-concept that FS2K can STILL retrieve some old archived weather files from a third-party server.
 
As I recall, MS partnered up with Jeppesen for the real weather updates and I think they used the old NOAA weather format to keep up-to-date weather updates on the MS server.
The end came slowly, especially in the final years when the contract between MS and Jeppesen was timing out (2012-2014?). :dizzy:

It always felt to me that the weather server became a go-nowhere job for MS interns before MS finally shut it down.
New weather updates became rare as the end got closer and the server would work but the weather would not change for months at a time. :pop4:

I started saving flights with updated world-wide weather for FS2002 and wound up with a collection of 12-14 flights over the course of a year.
They aren't the greatest but at least the weather changes a little. I uploaded the .wx files to FS.com but the upload was taken down after a couple of months.
The idea was that you would save a flight in FS2002 using a unique name, then find the .wx file for that flight and rename one of the weather files from the download and replace the that file in your Saved Flights folder.

I never found out why but I'm guessing those files violated the old copyright contract between MS and Jeppesen? :dizzy:

I've never run FS2K but I think the .wx format was the same for FS2002, this ISN'T the case for FS2004.
Also, NOAA made some changes to downloading their text files. You can still see them and copy the text, but I don't think real pilots use them that much now-a-days.

Anyway, I still have my collection of world-wide .wx files for FS2002 and FS2K if anyone wants them. I haven't tried to load them into FS2004, I use FSRealWX for my weather.
If anyone wants to play around with them, just PM me with an e-mail addy. :wavey:
 
You you referring to FlightSim.com (in your reply you mentioned FS.com )? If so, strange that they would have took them down. I found a bunch of old archived WX files over there. Search the FlightSim.com file libraries for "Weather" in the "FS2000: FS2000 Misc" file section, and on pages 2 and 3 of the search results are a bunch of them. I don't suppose that those would be the ones that you uploaded?

In any case, I would be quite interested in the ones that you have, PM sent :)
 
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