The big releases keep on coming! Twenty years of development across multiple flight sim platforms and the team at Leonardo Software House are celebrating the occasion with a significant update and new pricing for their MD-80 series simulation. Let’s have a look!

Significant updates for the Maddog

Representing a milestone for the developers, 20 years is a long time to work on one series of aircraft but it has resulted in a highly detailed simulation of the MD-80 series of aircraft. This new 20th Anniversary Edition is a new release that includes a significant list of updates.

The newly revised model has all new interior and exterior models, new high resolution textures built to current standards, new material rendering, new animations, and improved external engine sounds. The updates address many of the issues listed by fans of the current release though the developer is direct about how their efforts to improve the sounds are limited. Here’s what they had to say (emphasis theirs):

Some work has been done also on the external engine sounds, and they have been improved compared to the previous version. That said, please do not expect miracles. We are fully aware that sound design has never been the strongest aspect of the Maddog, and while progress has been made, there are inherent limitations. There are also third-party sound packages available, which we know ideally should not be necessary but unfortunately, we no longer have the practical possibility to carry out new real-world recordings, as the MD-80 has effectively disappeared from European skies, making access to the aircraft for fresh sound captures extremely difficult. We prefer to be honest and set realistic expectations, rather than overpromise.

As always, I appreciate a forthright and direct note about what is and isn’t possible.

A new software manager with more modern technologies includes the ability to do updates for the aircraft and load liveries – keeping up with the times!

Pricing and upgrades

The developers have setup an all new pricing scheme for the project. This has been a point of contention recently with PMDG so you may be bracing yourselves, however, this one is a little better.

Previously, the aircraft cost €75 plus VAT for the MD-82 and then an extra €25 plus VAT containing the MD-83 and MD-88 expansion for a total of €100 plus VAT.

The new price will be €69.99 plus VAT for all three models packaged together (with a slight discount until December 31st) or €24.99 plus VAT for the upgrade.

The license includes support for both MSFS 2020 and 2024 and the previous variant continues to work on both sims as well. They even note that both versions can coexist in the same sim and that the legacy variant will continue to receive support especially when sim updates require intervention.

Read the announcement thread here. If it sounds like something you want, you can learn more and do the purchase of the Fly the Maddog 20th Anniversary Edition through SimMarket.