Sources close to the matter have revealed to The Wargamer that Advanced Gaming Systems' Harpoon line of products will be re-published by Matrix Games. Two of the classic naval simulation games will be re-released: Harpoon Classic will be renamed Harpoon – Commander’s Edition and will feature improved AI and database elements. It is unclear how this game is related to the "Harpoon Classic 2005" game mentioned on the AGS web site. The more recent Harpoon 3 will be published by Matrix Games as Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare, updated with multiplayer functionality.
Which will be nice if that gets the game a makeover and a wider audience [:)]. Less nice if it means I have to buy the whole game again to get MP upgrade...[8|]
I look forward to see how this pans out. Could be interesting.
I bought Harpoon 3 several weeks ago. There was an offer to give the previous owners a break on buying the new multiplayer version. I hope that Matrix also will consider this. I would have waited if I knew that I wouldnt get another discount for the Multiplayer.
The Harpoon series really got the "pausable real time" thing right with the ability to flag a wide variety of "triggers" to bring up the "staff officer" and inform you of what happened, and give you a chance to address it.
I remeber paying some obsene amount for an 8086 daughter card and a 40 MB Hard Drive for my Apple II GS - just so i could play the original...
Is the speed of battles so fast that it gives you headaches
Well, lets put it this way ...
The Classic Harpoon Battle is a USN battle group against an equal Soviet battle group. Once the vampire calls start coming in, no amount of pausing is enough as you are dealing with multi-mach missiles coming in and multi-mach missiles being shot to kill them.
This game is amazing, but the realities of WW III battles is all about he who spots first wins. The first reality that sinks in is that there are always more missiles then targets. There are also never enough defensive mounts to counter them all. Even the famed Tico with 60+ SM2ER only buys you a couple of minutes of firepower before it is completely out of ammunition.
Is the speed of battles so fast that it gives you headaches
Well, lets put it this way ...
The Classic Harpoon Battle is a USN battle group against an equal Soviet battle group. Once the vampire calls start coming in, no amount of pausing is enough as you are dealing with multi-mach missiles coming in and multi-mach missiles being shot to kill them.
This game is amazing, but the realities of WW III battles is all about he who spots first wins. The first reality that sinks in is that there are always more missiles then targets. There are also never enough defensive mounts to counter them all. Even the famed Tico with 60+ SM2ER only buys you a couple of minutes of firepower before it is completely out of ammunition.
This is why you put your F-14s out at a distant CAP!!!! They are very good at getting those Backfires, Bears and Badgers before they shoot. Great Game!!!
Yes, it is a dry heat... but so is a bloody blast furnace!
I used to play Harpoon for hours on my old commodore amiga. Many a night waiting for the "action" to start. I then moved on to harpoon classic 97, which I enjoyed loads. Have been thinking about trying it again but never got round to it. Perhaps I should wait and see how this develops?
Well folks, I would like to tell you my opinion of Harpoon3 and Harpoon2002. They both are awesome and very fun to play.
Back in the late 90's, there are those of us that remember Harpoon2 AE and the difficulty of getting it to run under Win98 and the frequent crashes. Well folks, that is a thing of the past. The windows version is super smooth and just plain will take ANYTHING your CPU can throw at it and that includes the top of the line Intel and AMD chips.
Here is a letter that I wrote in 2002:
Rebound-Readers speak their mind
This article first appeared in the May 2002 issue of
Computer Games Magazine.
Harpooned
I just knew I liked your magazine, that it's geared toward the serious PC gamer, when I opened it this week and was reading about mods, particularly when you mentioned that the Naval Warfare Simulations Group was working on Silent Hunter II and Fighting Steel mods. I was already smiling big-time when I saw it, Harpoon 3 for the Mac, with a Windows version in the works.
I was a Beta tester for the Windows version and I highly recommend this to any who love Naval Simulations. The amount of detail available is unmatched, and since your own site has Harpoon 4 stretching to the end of the year, it is the only game in town for a while. There is a rather dedicated community on the net called Harpooners and they have many databases and scenarios available that will be compatible with this Windows version. If anyone on your staff remembers how the original game would slow on the large scenarios because of slow processors, imagine what it is like on a 1.4GHz Thunderbird with the stability of Windows XP. That alone should grab some interest, but if not take into account that multiplayer could very well be an option as well as nuclear weapons for some good old Cold War battles.
It would be nice if you would review this game in your magazine, what have you got to loose? This was a small group of people that helped make this possible especially the lone programmer, Jesse Spears. This gentleman is what gaming is all about!
Well MP will soon be a reality and yes so are Nukes. So if you want to experience the good old days of Harpoon2AE with a Windows OS and many new features then Harpoon3 is a lock. The Online community for the Harpoon series and the many addons is top notch and are there to answer questions that you may have.
But if you are new and have never played it, then I highly suggest you go check it out for yourself. It is in my opinion the BEST Naval Warfare Simulator that a civilian can buy.
