Matrix Games Forums

Hi, hoping someone can help. Does anyone remember or have any General Quarters Software Naval games? Great little games released in the late 80s early 90s.

First a bit of background info.

Owen P. Hall Jr. was the owner, developer, and programmer of General Quarters Software (GQS) and was a major contributor to the book PC Bible 1992. He had a Doctorate and was a university professor, a pioneer in the area. of computer studies and released a series of computer Naval War games. His products were largely delivered via a mail order service, which probably explains why they are so difficult to obtain today.

Sadly he passed away in 2021 aged 79.

In respect to the GQS material there were 16 naval games released by GQS. The titles were:

The Rising Sun (the Russio Japanese War 1904-1905)

War at Sea (the cruise of the SMS Emden)

German Raider Atlantis (actually has Penguin as well)

Mare Nostrum (war in the Mediterranean WWII focusing on the Battle of Cape Matapan)

Return to the Falklands (British recapturing of Falklands 1982)

The Warship that changed History (the escape of SMS Goeben WWI)

Action in the North Atlantic (Scharnhorst with a Tirpitz variant thrown in)

War in the Falklands (Battle of The Falklands and Coronel WWI)

Midway (Battle of Midway)

Marianas Turkey Shoot (last major carrier battle WWII)

Raid on Pearl Harbor (what started it all 1942)

Prelude to Jutland (Battle of Dogger Bank 1915)

Banzai (last cruiser of the super battleship Yamato)

Bismarck (last cruise of the Bismarck)

Action off the River Plate (Graf Spee)

Battlestations (Houston saga with British, Dutch, Australian and US forces taking on the Japanese navy 1942)

At least now we know what these games are about, as the titles were pretty vague. Let's hope we can recover these games. Anyone having these games please let us know I would dearly like to purchase these games to share.

Alex Kilpa alexcan@iinet.net.au

Here are screen captures of the games you search
https://www.mobygames.com/game/11078/ac ... shots/dos/
I will search, and if I find something that will be downoladable, I will contact you

You could also search here :
https://archive.org/search?query=%28GEN ... oftware%22

Sometimes, there are downloadable old files on internet archives

But it's very very old^^

If you love naval games, take a look about this one :
https://steamcommunity.com/app/298480/discussions
https://www.gog.com/forum/victory_at_sea#1744358200
https://www.gog.com/fr/game/victory_at_sea

I should add that of the 16 GQS games, 6 have been found on the internet. The 6 games that have been found to date are:

Action in the North Atlantic
Midway
Marianas Turkey Shoot
Raid on Pearl Harbor
Bismarck
Battlestations Houston saga

Sadly, only one of those Midway has a manual.
Both the cracked versions of Marianas Turkey Shoot and Raid on Pearl Harbor are playable on Applewin emulator but it took me a while to work out how to use it. You will be asked by Applewin to swap disks. You do this by clicking on the drive and clicking on the 2nd disk. Bit confusing, I know especially if you are not from that Appl ii generation.

Also, without a game manual you don't know what the victory conditions are, nor the locations of bases etc. Highly recommended you read the Midway manual and play that game first before you move onto the other two carrier games. That way at least you will know how to form your task forces and what the basic commands are. You will at first probably be the worst Admiral in Naval history but after a bit of hit and miss and some geography and history lessons you may get better.

Of course, the easier way to learn how to play these games is to just locate the manuals!

Alex