Su-25 Stormovik

SU-25 Stormovik is my favorite flight sim from the early 1990's. I still find it more challenging and the gameplay more real than many sims for modern consoles and pc's.
The SU-25 is the ground attack plane, built to fill the “Штурмовик” role of earlier low-altitude bombers. The Russians informally call it “Грач (Grach),” and NATO calls it “Frogfoot,” both unflattering names in English.
You start out as a Jr. Lieutenant (you can be a colonel right away but I wouldn't recommend it) in the year 1991, when generals and officials from both East and West are conspiring to prevent the Cold War from ending by instigating provocations on both sides.

Under this circumstance you will be engaging both Soviet and NATO military units, including f-117's, which I have grown skilled at destroying.
As you work your way through progressively more dangerous missions, you may be promoted and be allowed more and better armaments. Advance to the year 1992 and 1993 for more dangerous and complex missions. If you can succeed at the last mission without dying, you'll have done what I couldn't accomplish in years of trying.
There are three ways to control: keyboard only, keyboard/joystick, and keyboard/mouse. The joystick and mouse are simply your flight stick, on an inverted y-axis. The left button fires the selected weapon, the right button selects the target to track. When I first played, I did well with an analog joystick, but lately I've preferred the mouse as I can make more exact movements.
The bulk of your controls are on the keyboard. Since the versions of SU-25: Stormovik I've seen online lately have left out the documentation, I'll list them here:
Number keys 1-5 control thrust, from -5% at 1 to 100% at 5. 4 is 50%, 2 and 3 are somewhere between 10% and 30%.
function keys control view angle. F3 gets you the map. To see the other angles listed, press “esc” in game, then right arrow over to “control.”
Q and W: scroll through hardpoints
E and R: activate/deactivate radar and infrared jammers, respectively
T: time compression (2x)
G: raise/lower landing gear (you'll see gear lights at the left of the cockpit)
X,C: release infrared countermeasures and chaff, respectively.
P: pause
B: airbrakes
+,- increase/decrease view magnification. The default is 2X.
V flips a switch in the cockpit, but I have no idea what it does.
ctrl-Q: quit mission. If you've achieved your missions objectives you still get credit.
ctrl-c: quit game.
A few quick tips to getting started, now. First, takeoff is easy to master. Simply center the flightstick indicator between the top lines of the “V” above the cannon sight. Press 5, and you'll pick up speed. Move the flightstick down just a bit, and you'll be airborne by the time you reach 120 kph.
Landing is not easy. There's an “easy landings” mode in the ingame menu (hit esc ingame) and beginners should select it. Sight the runway and line up with it. Use only small stick movements, and often press 2 to slow to the lowest positive thrust, G to lower landing gear. When the runway paint is visible, press B for airbrakes, and ease down. Try to touchdown going between 90-120 kph, as stalling speed is about 85 kph. Once on the ground, press 1 for negative thrust.
The max level velocity of the SU-25 is just over 950 kph. In this game at least, there's a trick to reaching that speed. Fly level at least 400m altitude, until your speed reaches 660 kph. Normally you'll max out there. Go into a shallow dive, and your speed will go up to 670, then 680. Once it hits 680 it will start rapidly increasing, and you can level out again.
This should be enough to get a beginner going. Su-25: Stormovik is an honest simulation, and once you've got the controls mastered, you'll be ready to fight – to end the cold war all over again.
Windows users should run the game with moslo or something similar, or dosbox. I run Su25-Stormovik in dosbox under Ubuntu Linux.