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An item to keep in mind, if you already own Harpoon Ultimate, you have Harpoon 97 already (and a lot of other versions) via the 20th Anniversary launcher pictured below.

Below is an installer that should bring any copy of the game purchased from Matrix Games up to the current build. https://www.harpgamer.com/downloads/HC2025.025_ComprehensivePatch.zip When you get to selecting an installation directory and Start Menu group, please double-check that they are correct before proceeding.

AAR for this scenario, I hope it's in the right place. Thanks for this, it was very fun. I got Minvic with 60 A/C shot down, and 5 ships sunk. After that, it seemed like I was just making the rubble jump, so I moved on. What I found out is that the F-35 is almost invincible, even with the shorter range C7 AMRAAM.

Following a suggestion from someone else on the Steam forum, I was able to find an almost 30 year old fix! Dr. Who's Harpoon Pages https://www.harpoonpages.com/harpoon1.htm The 4/04/97 update can be downloaded and imported into the Harpoon Classic 97 folder to replace the NAVC.res file (I created a backup of the original file just in case). When I ran the scenarios using that updated file, the ships all appeared correclty as Okean class instead of Kalinin class. The website also includes an update for the EC2000 scenarios. Were there any old bugs you can remember from those scenarios - anything I should look out for before deciding whether to apply that update as well?

There aren't many sims that can claim the longevity of Harpoon. As TonyE has said, the community has been the key factor to both its success and long life.

I like that the Discord link is more visible but to your point, Downloads are less visible. I see them in a Browse menu.

Yeah, in general I think that as long as the annex ceilings exist, more focus is better. For example, e.g. a battleset that focuses on the Persian Gulf from 1990 to 2002. And its usually easier to be backward looking in historical context when developing a DB (and a battleset that employs it) than trying to predict the future.

Demo version 2025.025 has been uploaded.

Thanks for the idea, but the possibility of a Russian convoy clearing the Kattegat against even light opposition is zero. However, how about a Russian convoy to reinforce Kaliningrad from St Petersburg while NATO (with no USA) is distracted elsewhere? I could cook up something like that pretty soon.

"And this brings on an even bigger question, how many people still want to play this game? " That's something I sometimes wonder. Certainly the download of new scenarios isn't what it used to be but there is still obvious interest. Also time will tell but the Steam addition to the equation might well bring a new surge. I think HC is still a unique simulation, where the new programs are more a game. Taking into account current limits to database size when pondering this question I've wondered whether there's now a need to start a new (series 3?) DB from a more recent start date - an issue is that many nations still use quite old platforms. The main issue to my mind is the sheer size of the job of starting from scratch.

*** SPOILER ALERT*** Well while I got my total victory, the sinking of a damaged merchantman in reprisal for a UAV incursion on my airspace, I suffered a large loss and the opinion rating in the polls are pretty bad I spent about 4 hrs for 10 hrs game time. I decided to try and occupy the mid and east Black Sea and to weed out and sink anything that Russia had in the area. Maintaining air cover by F-16 proved costly. Keeping up good surveillance without AC loss proved difficult (OK I didn't manage it). Not waiting for Poland to bring in better AC for ASUW attacks proved costly, in the end a flight of three F16 and a pack of mavericks was all I needed. Well trimming the number of Russian fighters patrolling the area before hand did help but at a worse than 1:1 loss ratio. I'm going to have another go at this gem, after a bit of wound licking, and with a much more conservative strategy. I'll certainly be trying tho dodge their Su-35S Flanker E and maybe let their naval patrols have their end of the Black sea for themselves Thanks heaps for this Patrick. Stats: [Victory Summary] Time=05 Jan 2026, 06:14:02 The RED side has met their minimum victory conditions Time=05 Jan 2026, 10:50:02 The BLUE side has met their minimum victory conditions Time=05 Jan 2026, 10:50:02 The BLUE side has met their total victory conditions [Kill Detail Blue Side ] F-16CM40 Falcon 15/Plane=6 MQ-8C Fire Scout 17/Helicopter=3 F-16CJ50 Falcon 14/Plane=5 CN-235MSA/Plane=2 Super Lynx Mk110 05/Helicopter=1 Heybeliada/Ship=1 S-70B28 Seahawk 12/Helicopter=5 Gediz (FFG7/11)/Ship=2 E-737 Peace Eagle/Plane=2 [Kill Detail Red Side ] MiG-35 Fulcrum F 18/Plane=8 Il-38 May 92/Plane=4 Ka-27M Helix A 17/Helicopter=3 Ka-29RLD Helix E 95/Helicopter=1 MiG-31BM Foxhound 15/Plane=1 Buyan Pr21630 06/Ship=1 Su-35S Flanker E/Plane=4 Steregushchiy Pr2038 07/Ship=1 Su-34 Fullback 16/Plane=12 Gorshkov Pr22350/Ship=1 Grigorovich (1135.6)/Ship=1 Soobraziltelny Pr20381 11/Ship=1 Merchant damaged/Ship=1 MiG-29KR Fulcrum D 15/Plane=2 [StoresConsumed - Blue] Blue Weapon=Tally AIM-120C7 AMRAAM=41 AIM-120B AMRAAM=29 AGM-158A JASSM=32 Taurus KEPD350=24 AGM-88B HARM (ARM)=28 AGM-84K SLAM-ER=26 SOM-A=16 SA-10c Grumble (S-300PMU)=22 SM-1MR Block VIB=29 RIM-162B ESSM=12 UGM-84C Harpoon=8 DM2A4 Seahake=2 SM-3 Block IIB=16 RGM-84G Harpoon=4 AIM-9X Sidewinder=10 AGM-65G Maverick=6 [StoresConsumed - Red] Red Weapon=Tally AA-12 Adder B (R-77-1)=12 AA-13 Arrow (R-37)=6 SA-21 (9M96E)=43 SA-N-12 Grizzly (Shtil-1)=36 AA-12 Adder C (R-77M1)=26 AA-10 Alamo C (R-27RE)=26 AA-10 Alamo D (R-27TE)=6 SA-N-11a Grisom=3 SS-N-26 Strobile=8 SS-N-27 Sizzler (3M54)=8 Sosna-R (9M337)=3 AA-12 Adder A (R-77)=8 AA-10 Alamo A (R-27R)=11 AS-4 Kitchen D (Kh-32)=24 SS-N-25 Switchblade=8 SA-24 Grinch (Igla-S)=14 SA-6b Gainful Mod1 (Kub-M4)=12 AA-11 Archer (R-73M)=4 SA-23b (9M82M)=4 AA-11 Archer (R-73)=2 [Damage List Red] ZZa: 00 Yeysk damage=265/2500 ZXp: 00 Novorossiysk damage=1067/2500 ZYS: 02 Grad Sviyazhsk damage=33/36 [Damage List Blue] ARS: 00 Anadolou damage=303/425 Time (well) spent: [Session Summary] Session Game Start=5 Jan 2026, 01:00:00 GameTimeDuration ThisSession=3Hrs23 Mins TotalGameTimeDuration=3Hrs23Mins GameTimeToGO=68 Hrs: 36 Mins Session End RealTime=4/02/2026 22:00:00 RealTimeDuration ThisSession=1:09:59 ==== ===== Session Game Start=5 Jan 2026, 04:23:54 GameTimeDuration ThisSession=3Hrs21 Mins TotalGameTimeDuration=6Hrs45Mins GameTimeToGO=65 Hrs: 14 Mins Session End RealTime=5/02/2026 13:01:14 RealTimeDuration ThisSession=1:39:00 ==== ===== Session Game Start=5 Jan 2026, 07:45:18 GameTimeDuration ThisSession=3Hrs20 Mins TotalGameTimeDuration=10Hrs5Mins GameTimeToGO=61 Hrs: 54 Mins Session End RealTime=5/02/2026 17:51:41 RealTimeDuration ThisSession=1:18:20 ==== =====

Turkey2.zip Here is a revisit of Don's excellent take on Turkey vs Russia. What if you had no F-35's? Victory conditions and order of battle are very much the same. You'll get a few more fighters, a small carrier, and two tankers. This might be hard. DUCK Patrick Howard

Progress is slow. The yanks must be running low on TLAMs, they've lost important surveillance, fighter and bomber AC and we're getting our bases stocked. But it still looks dodgy. Having lots of fun!

Yes, the publishing agreement allows for updates and upgrades.

In a few weeks you should start seeing signs of the current Harpoon Classic build being published on Steam. Apparently, the publishing process has been prioritized again.

Thanks broncepulido, Merry Christmas all!

Those are some powerful AGIs! I can confirm that the HC97 we published with Matrix Games also has/had that flaw. I suppose that would mean it is a known issue since for nearly 30 years <g>. The same flaw is present in the most recent builds so was not corrected. What we did with some similar situations is programmatically override bad BattleSet data when the BattleSet (which in those old ones included the platform database specific to each BattleSet) did have issues. The tools to re-generate those legacy BattleSets were lost to time. MicroProse has the ability to fix in a couple of ways (via programmatic override or painstakingly re-building the BattleSet). I suggest the time is much better spent re-making such scenarios in newer BattleSets that do not have the flaw, something you can do without any exotic tooling. I'm 99% sure I wrote a utility that could at least view but possibly update some of the legacy BattleSets but haven't located it yet.

I don't for certain but does the steam hc97 have a scenario editor that would let you edit the battleset scenario and replace the units with something more suitable. It sounds like a clerical error in putting the database together. In these old games the database is built into the game,so fixing it is a major item that I'd guess isn't likely to happen, but who knows. Someone else might very well have better ideas.

Yes, MicroProse is a small operation at present. You also hit upon an important additional consideration, they are not as intimately knowledgeable about Computer Harpoon as many of their consumers. The next six months or so should be informative, how they handle the growth in their catalog, communication with players about roadmap, etc. but in my dealings so far there has been positive intent and a desire to learn.

Taiwan Straight 2nd Crisis Escalated View File Scenario Background: On 24 and 25 August 1958 Chinese Communist (PRC) forces and Taiwanese (ROC) forces clashed in the vicinity of Dongding Island, which the Nationalist (ROC) troops controlled. The action was seen as an attempt by the communists to land on the island. This was the only naval and amphibious landing action during the crisis. ROC had begun to build military installations on the island of Kinmen (Quemoy) and the Matsu archipelago, very close to the Chinese mainland. The PRC shelled the islands of Kinmen (Quemoy) and the Matsu Islands in an attempt to take them from Taiwan, governed by the Kuomintang (KMT), and to probe the extent of American commitment to defend the Republic of China. The conflict also involved air, naval, and amphibious operations. Then U.S. secretary of state Christian Herter reportedly described it as the "first serious nuclear crisis". The USA provided military assistance in both material, especially aircraft and artillery, and a strong naval presence including naval escorts for island repleshments. The Communist Chinese government announced a unilateral ceasefire on 6 October 1958. However, on 20 October the PLA resumed artillery fire on Kinmen because a U.S. Navy warship had breached the PRC-declared 3 nautical miles exclusive zone from the coast of China that they claimed was a stipulation for their unilateral ceasefire agreement. In this scenario we play with the idea of the situation escalating, rather than subsiding. Use Database HCCW 140314 and for best play Game version 2025.023 or newer and ErrataGE.dll (download from harpgamer.com forum). Submitter donaldseadog Submitted 08/25/2025 Category WestPac  

This released on the weekend. It's H97 version 1.60.

Confirmed in 2025.024 This can be fixed with the aid of an ExportDLL. In other words, it doesn't absolutely require a change to the game code itself.

PS, the 'Capture' feature has a better algorithm for calculating success, and I'm now looking at a repair system so once you've punished a base and captured it you can get it back to operating 100%. The long term goal is to be able to run a long term strategic scenario including expansion of territory and ammunition logistics.

That is what is known as a pre-commondb BattleSet so it does not use the user modifiable databases. I strongly suggest players only play the EC2003 and 'newer' BattleSets as they use the user-created databases and also don't have sub-optimal (i.e. compatibility) logic.

Well, al least it all means Harpoon still has some future.

Since this is in theory the last build of the game related to the Matrix Games publishing of the game, we will list some workarounds here for serious issues that arise. Errata: 1. 2025-07-02 The Scenario Editor (SE) has multiple issues in the release build. Rather than using Wscenedt32.exe, please use Wscenedt32dbg.exe which does not show the same issues. An even better idea may be to rename Wscenedt32.exe to Wscenedt32rel.exe then copy Wscenedt32dbg.exe to Wscenedt32.exe so that you don't accidentally use the more troublesome build. a. This is resolved in the HC2025.025_ComprehensivePatch.zip installer. 2. 2025-07-02 The BattleSet Builder makes very washed out maps so we need to go back to an older version 2015.027. a. This is resolved in the HC2025.025_ComprehensivePatch.zip installer. 3. 2025-08-23 The HDSR.RSR file (for Malacca Straits BattleSet) was not included in the installer. a. This is resolved in the HC2025.025_ComprehensivePatch.zip installer.

AutoTesting results. This is a process that runs every built in scenario in autoplay mode (game plays itself) from first the Blue side, then the Red side. 2025.022 Release Build GE Original 4 no crashes HDSI no crashes HDSII no crashes HDSIII no crashes EC2000 no crashes EC2003 no crashes WestPac no crashes USNINew no crashes This is perhaps the best results ever. There were three crashes but upon re-running the scenarios they did not crash.

Last night i had a chopper landing on my frigate and the target of an enemy SAM (sm-2 I think) and was delighted but surprised to see the information "point defense got 'em all". Looking at my weapon ammo i deduced it was the 3" otto gun that got the kill. I've previously seen in a similar situation where the chopper lands before impact the sam hits the ship so really a nice result. Unbelievable shooting, maybe.

The aerial drones in particular, or more to the point their loadouts, would be a demand on our database if treated individually, so that was mostly where I was thinking, and some well thought out generic platforms would be beneficial. For the type treated as weapons I'm thinking there is much more space availability in our DB annexes, maybe a few new specialised platforms and mounts and modified existing platforms but for the most part it would just be additional weapons?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-06/adf-helicopter-evasive-action-chinese-military/106426388?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

(linked from our current events sub forum) https://defence-blog.com/russia-warns-of-possible-military-action-in-baltic-sea/

China’s AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group has officially presented a new vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle known as the Yunying (Cloud Shadow in Chinese), a tail-sitter drone featuring a ducted-fan design closely resembling the V-BAT system developed by U.S. company Shield AI. The Yunying-25V UAV was officially showcased during the 2026 CCTV […]View the full article

Just few hours ago, in a FB group:

If you're considering writing a scenario for the Black Sea that covers current (ongoing) events, this might be helpful: Know Your Enemy: Russian Military Aviation in European Russia and Temporarily Occupied Crimea

I recently picked up Harpoon Classic '97 from Steam, having never played Harpoon before. I've played the tutorial scenario and am excited to play through all 250 scenarios in due course. I fire it up each evening with a hot cup of decaf coffee in hand and a copy of The Hunt for Red October next to me. 😉 I have a few questions based on what I've read online and heard about. From what I understand, Matrix had a much bigger, more robust version of "classic Harpoon" that was discontinued and removed from digital store shelves last year. Several months later, Harpoon Classic '97 was released by Microprose and quickly updated to v1.63b. After incorporating Steam cloud saves in September, radio silence. Has anyone here been in contact with Microprose about potentially bringing the game closer to where the community brought the Matrix edition over the last couple decades? Will custom scenarios here work with Harpoon Classic '97, or do they require the Matrix edition that has now disappeared? Why do you continue to play Harpoon when Command Modern Operations exists? (I have never played). How different does Harpoon Classic '97 play from paper Harpoon V? What advice do you have for a newcomer not only to Harpoon but also to wargaming in general? Thank you and have a good one!

Upcoming simulation game, perhaps of interest: https://airdefendergame.com/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3985030/Air_Defender/

Played today, another demostration of a fine and funny scenario with few elements. Chinese CV sunk with three torpedoes (and many escorts) after few hours of real time, riding out those J-15 pest! Only strange remark, after sinking the first Chinese SSN, the other keeps running continuously at full speed towards South fleeing my SSN, and at last she changes courseEast and can catch her with one of my last two Mk48 torpedoes (after I did open the scenario editor and of course that strange course and speed was not scripted!). Again, interesting and fun scenario, thanks Don!

Puzzling thru this with eeustice on Discord... case 18: /* event processor */ if (dllexEffect18() == FALSE) ProcessEvents(); break; The ExportDLLs are called before the built-in ProcessEvents logic. To avoid re-creating all of the harpoon event-processing logic (which is a ton), an ExportDLL can cheat by cherry-picking the events it wants to process then returning False so that the built-in ProcessEvents is still called. The negative side effect is that the order ExportDLLs are called is not nicely sorted by filename (See c++ - How can I get FindFirstFile to sort files - Stack Overflow for a nice explanation) so using this approach is somewhat risky but it would still be a valid approach.

Flight International's World Air Forces Directory 2026 available now at: https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/2026-world-air-forces-directory/165267.article

You should ask questions via https://groups.io/g/AdmiraltyTrilogy .

This might be getting close save game ...B1 should be 1 or 2 secs before the red group (2 ac unit) fires on blue group (single ac unit). I believe AI wants to fire 4 missiles but only fires 2, 4 out of 8 are remaining. save game ...B1.0002 is shortly after and in one or two seconds the red group expends all LR missile but none are fired. Using DB HCDB2-170909, westpac BS, GE vers 2025.025 pacMissTest-B1.zip

View File Operation FRUKIS For play with Harpoon Classic vers 2022.027 or newer, Middle East Battleset and HCCW 140314 Database. Israel invaded Egypt on 29 October 1956, having done so with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage. After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 5 November, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal. [from wikipedia Suez Crisis Suez Crisis - Wikipedia ] In this scenario I've used as much as possible the platforms in use then by each country, but much reduced in numbers and non historically correct locations, and a very simplified strategic plan. The platforms of this era (and upto say late 60's) are interesting to use with usually radar controlled gunnery as primary AA defense and non guided short ranged rocket or bombs as primary aircraft launched surface attack weapons. The lack of terrain following ac equipment prevents close formation multi ac attacks instead requiring either high exposure to detection multi ac formation or multiple effectively single ac wave skimming attacks. Even in the early 70's non formation but close proximity wave skimming attacks by A4 skyhawks was still practiced by RAN fleet air arm. Submitter donaldseadog Submitted 10/13/2025 Category Middle East  

That looks like the optimal fix to me Does it launch SA-N9s from SA-N9 launchers ? Well not the Badger but Baku

I used the ALQ 99 from raven etc, just one. I think the ALQ 131 isn't an offensive jammer but purely defensive same as the Mig 19 pod. They have a range of 'horizon' while the ALQ 99 has a distance range, from memory that is the indication of the two different actions. anyway give this one a spin (only working in NACV original) and see if they work, I did a quick test but didn't seem to see any indicatin of effected enemy radar (there should be the little lightning bolt ) I just got shot down ErrataBS2.zip

good so far

Open the save, there's a group of planes in the south with dozens of nuclear anti-ship missiles. Use them to attack the blue surface group to their south and the AI automatic choice wants to dump all ~65 missiles into the first ship in the list. This might have impacts on the AI, even though as humans we can de-allocate and retarget then launch. Incidentally, is there a way to add a button that de-allocates every weapon attacking a fleet? nuketarget.hp2

I don't think we can afford USA beef, too dear, that's why we can sell ours to them.

Running 2025.023 I get a good nuke blast in the animations, a kill of the destroyer and loss of my sub (shock wave from the nuke blast I guess). I tried both saves a couple of times and same result for all. I'll browse the Release Notes to see if any changes since 2025.019 might make the difference, there was an issue regards nukes not killing a while back but I thought longer ago than that, but that's my guess. BBS Nope, I can't see anything in release notes that looks like a change that would effect nukes. *scratch head*.

Seems like a winner to me, it may have to do 1DP of damage but with a super short range the chance of a hit could be minimal (and speaking of that a low Ph).