I’ve just learned that Ilan Papini, the chap behind thoroughly likeable sims such as Virtual Sailor and Vehicle Simulator, died in February from injuries sustained in a plane crash. The ICP Savannah piloted by the 60-year-old developer, suffered a bird strike over Israel’s Jezreel Valley, and Ilan pranged while attempting an emergency landing.
He left behind a wife and two children, a brother, and many admirers of his sims.
I first encountered Ilan’s work circa 2002. After enjoying the Virtual Sailor demo, I persuaded my editor at PC Gamer UK to commission a review. Said review – sans daft intro – sheds light on why VS and VSF gained such a loyal following:
“With wind strength and wave height slider pushed to starboard, this endearingly idiosyncratic maritime sim from Micro Flight designer Ilan Papini serves up squalls so ferocious even the saltiest seadog may find himself sluicing the deck with stomach soup and cursing the omission of a flare gun. No sim has ever captured the drunken waltz of a heavy swell or the deeply furrowed fury of a storm-tossed ocean better than VS. It also copes admirably with more clement conditions. Plying the placid Aegean – the single supplied scenery – with a pod of playful dolphins lends literal meaning to the word ‘becalmed’. It’s also a salutary reminder that a simulator doesn’t need to carry more weight than Marlon Brando’s espadrilles to conjure up a convincing environment.
A minimum install of FS2002 tips the scales at 650Mb. The vanilla version of VS is around 98% lighter but does implicitly assume that users will augment the five official boats with a few of the finer freeware vessels moored at www.hangsim.com/vs/. There you can find everything from nimble jet-skis and svelte yachts to yellow submarines and supposedly unsinkable liners.
A feature that many sims would do well to emulate is the loose camera that allows skippers to explore their surroundings. Whether sunbathing on the foredeck or whale-watching from the crows-nest, your location affects flotation.
Also refreshing is the fact that you can go from desktop to deck in around five seconds and once aboard – assuming you’ve activated the automated sail management option – rely on an elegant mouse-controlled tiller, ignoring the keyboard almost entirely. Astral navigation, multiplayer racing, and bizarre camera-guided cannon combat are among several interesting if slightly underdone elemnts of VS that will hopefully be polished by Papini in one of his future free updates”.
In 2008, Ilan delivered the initial version of Vehicle Simulator, a groundbreaking fusion of Micro Flight and Virtual Sailor. As I said at the time “Don’t expect the realism or polish of an MSFS or X-Plane. Do expect intuitive mouse steering, luscious sunsets, great framerates, and lots of opportunities for acting the giddy goat.” Accessible, atmospheric, and splendidly mod-friendly, VSF managed to make its contemporaries feel awfully staid and bloated.
Ilan might be gone, but thanks to VS and VSF, he still has the ability to generate joy and contentment. What a magical legacy.
I’m often so impressed by what one talented developer can create compared to a studio with hundreds of people and millions of dollars. The studio can give you more features and more polish, but not always more fun.
RIP to such a talented and passionate man. Condolences to the family he leaves behind.
Much respect and love to Ilan Papini’s family. I liked his work very much, sadly missed.