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Monster Media 1993 #2
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HARPOON.TXT
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1993-05-24
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Harpoon 1.3 and the Designers Edition
By Thomas Petrocelli
I just love it when someone takes a game that I like, adds to it, and
makes it better. I much prefer a strong upgrade or add-on over a
sequel any day; you get to keep playing the game that you know and
love, yet still get something new and exciting. This is what
Three-Sixty has done with its latest update and add-on set to the
Harpoon naval warfare game.
Packaged as The Designer's Edition, this is really three separate but
interrelated pieces of software. First is the latest upgrade to
Harpoon, version 1.3; it fixes some of the bugs still lingering from
earlier editions and does much better with memory management. If you
will recall from previous articles, Harpoon has always had a nasty
tendency to run out of memory and crash in the middle of your games.
Originally it just dumped you out of your game, sometimes locking up
your computer for good measure. Subsequent upgrades fixed some memory
management problems and at least allowed you to save your game before
heading off into the sunset. This wasn't always so helpful, though:
often, when you loaded up the saved game, the same memory problem
would immediately exhibit itself and crash the game anyway. The
newest release fixes many of these problems, and you tend to get
dumped out of games a lot less frequently.
Some other smaller additions are also part of release 1.3. Torpedoes
are more realistic, especially in the way that they are launched.
Previously, if a sub carried 20 torpedoes, you could fire all 20 at
once; it didn't matter that the sub only had two tubes to fire them
out of. It was possible to fire huge spreads of everything you had on
board at a formation of ships, and then creep quietly away. That bit
of silliness has been fixed: now you can only fire as many torpedoes
as you have tubes, and then can't fire anymore until the torpedo
tubes finish reloading. Gone are the days of the rapid fire torpedo
launchers! Other changes include more accurate and realistic
sonobuoys, gun ammunition and sighting, and spy satellites; these
changes tend to favour the NATO forces (especially the American
forces), who have better equipment in these areas.
The second part of this wonderful package deal is an expanded set of
scenarios. There are a dozen or more new scenarios for each of the
four battlesets. Many of these reflect the changing political climate
in the world, and include conflict in the Balkans and the former
Soviet Union. Some use a "future history" approach as well; popular
among science fiction writers and their fans, a future history is a
projection of current history to some point in the future, and
establishment of an elaborate socio-political-economic model of the
world (or in some cases the galaxy) at that point in time, complete
with historical perspective. It is the ultimate "what-if". Cobalt
Shiva, one the scenario designers, works all of his scenarios around
the Restored Romanoff Empire. In his future history, the Romanoff
Dynasty in Russia is restored to the throne and immediately sets out
to re-establish the Russian Empire's greatness. Other designers
assume a world where the Communists come back to power in the
Commonwealth of Independent States and the Europeans form a true
political union.
Most of the new scenarios are well thought out, interesting, and just
plain fun. Some are set pieces, designed to highlight the capabilities
of a new type of weapon or a tactical style. Many, such as the
European Community intervention in what was Yugoslavia, are very
relevant.
The third prize in this grab bag stems from the second one.
Three-Sixty has expanded greatly the number of platforms available
for use by the Scenario Editor so that the scenario designers had
more to work with. One of the big complaints about previous
battlesets was that you couldn't use platforms from one battleset in
another. If, for example, you wanted to use an AEGIS cruiser in the
Mediterranean Sea, you couldn't, because it was not included in the
original Med Sea battleset. Very annoying! This problem has for the
most part been rectified, mostly by expanding the number of ships,
subs and aircraft available in each battleset. You still can't do
something totally weird, like have an Indian carrier in a North
Atlantic Convoys scenario, but that's only a minor limitation.
Finally, I can put a Nimitz carrier in the Med.
Three-Sixty has also added a bunch of new platforms ranging from the
obscure to the truly interesting. The forces of many small countries
has been added (such a the Yugoslavian units) or expanded. There are
now more types of small patrol boat then you can imagine; they are
getting to be like gnats in the late summer.
What I personally like the most about the Designer's Edition is the
inclusion of all the new weapons systems that are either being
introduced now or may be introduced in the future. Some examples are:
the Wasp class amphibious assault ship, the F-22 advanced tactical
fighter, and the European AMX attack plane. The latter may never even
happen, but it's fun to include them in your scenarios. As Stimpy
from "Ren and Stimpy" would say, "Joy!".
The big problem with all this is that the memory requirements seem to
have increased by an order of magnitude. Often, when I try to display
the information on a new platform (mostly to check out the cool
graphic of the F-22) I get a message telling me I don't have the
memory to do so. Even more annoying is the return of those nasty
"Out of Memory" messages and crashes. Three-Sixty really should learn
how to use extended or expanded memory; this is getting ridiculous.
If you are a serious Harpoon nut, this new package will make you
drool. If you are a beginner, it's still a fun way to start playing
the game. If only they could do something about these memory
problems, Harpoon in its latest incarnation would be perfect.
Technical Requirements
(including Harpoon and all battlesets)
Disk 8.5 Megabytes
RAM 640K+
Sound Adlib, Soundblaster
Video EGA, VGA, TANDY 16 color
CPU 80286 or better