Matrix Games Forums

MY HISTORY WITH HARPOON

Back in 1989 I purchased a computer game called "HARPOON" and I believe it was made by 360 Pacific or something like that. It came on several 3.5" disks and also 5.25" disks so that shows you how old it was. I loved the game and thought it was fantastic. I think it actually worked in DOS, I'm not sure now.

Later on the company added various modules to it like "North Atlantic" and "Mediterranean" and these also came on 3.5" disks.

OK, Fast forward many years. I had long abandoned Harpoon when games now came on CD and 3.5" disks were no longer viable.

I saw in a "Sale Bin" at a computer store my old "Harpoon" game and since it was something like $8.99 I purchased it. Bingo, it was my old "Harpoon" game with all of the modules and it worked, although I swear some of the options were slightly different. There was no reference to 360 Pacific nor the name Larry Bond and the disk was made by Softkey Multimedia.

OK, fast forward again and I HAD HEARD that there was an un-official new Harpoon game out there but rumour was that I should avoid it. So I did. I don't know what version this was. Could it have been Harpoon 95???

OK, then I went and purchased HARPOON ADVANCE NAVAL WARFARE from Matrix and immediately disliked it intensely. To me it was a mess, played slow, clunky and bore little resemblance to the original Harpoon. I later sold it.

OK, now I would like to examine where Harpoon is today but frankly I am completely lost. Could someone in a paragraph or so please sort out for me once and for all what the damn different versions of HARPOON out there???

I feel like perhaps getting something newer than the original Harpoon that I like so much, the same one that came on 3.5" disks and that I still have on CD. As far as I can tell here are the versions BY NAME only and even here I could be wrong.

I'm excited that 'some version' of Harpoon is going back to releasing all of the old scenarios but the info out there fore someone trying to return to the fold after a long absence is pretty bad.

OK, here is my list and my uncertainties.

HARPOON - The original one from 360 on 3.5" disks (Dos and Windows, I think)

HARPOON 95' - Unknown, I don't know what this is or was

HARPOON ADVANCED NAVAL WARFARE - The one by Matrix still in print

HARPOON CLASSIC GOLD - No idea what this is

HARPOON COMMANDERS EDITION - No idea what this is

HARPOON CLASSIC - My guess is that this is my original 3.5" disk game but who knows?

Can somebody out there please clear up this mess???

Here's the short and simple of it:

The original Harpoon from 1989 (now referred to as Harpoon Classic) is currently being sold as Harpoon Classic Commanders' Edition.  If you try out the HCE demo, you will see that it is very much like the original HClassic you knew and loved.  There is a specific forum for it tt.asp?forumid=305

http://www.harpgamer.com/downloads/HCEDemo-2009.020.zip

The one you call "Harpoon 95" is probably Harpoon II that was released in 1994.  It looks very much like the ANW version sold by Matrix.  If you hated ANW, it hasn't changed much.  IMO, it is still as buggy as it was the day it was released in 2006.

As Herman suggests it seems you are looking for the Harpoon 1/Classic line of games more than H2/3/ANW.

Herman already linked the Matrix HCE forum: tt.asp?forumid=305

HarpGamer is where the beta testing occurs and where those of us working on HCE hang out: http://www.harpgamer.com/

I can't agree that ANW is so awful but everyone has their preferences (I happen to be one of those folks that likes em both).

ORIGINAL: XLegion
HARPOON 95' - Unknown, I don't know what this is or was

You're probably thinking Harpoon Classic 97, which was, of course, a version of Harpoon Classic.