This game had two layers of DRM. The Steam version, one of those layers still exists, and I'm wondering if it does here. I know they removed the check for the plane identification, but the second layer was that you could not save your pilot data unless you were using the original discs. On Steam, it seemed that the pilot data wouldn't be saved, that you had to make a new pilot every time you logged into the game. Is that still true with this version?

The game (bought here on GOG) will save your progress, although the triggers for the saves seem a bit strange. I'm not 100% certain but I think it only saves pilots and pilot-progress on mission-end. So if you make a pilot, then immediately quit without doing anything, it'll lose it, but if you make a pilot, fly and complete a mission, then quit, go back in and it'll have saved the progress. From my own experience, if you quit the game (Alt-Q) when you're in the middle of a mission, it won't save anything to do with that mission on the pilot's record.

What I can be certain of is that I do have a pilot and the progress is being saved on that pilot, score, mission count, medals etc. are all saved.