Retro Viator

I appreciate @TonyE pointing me toward this thread. I recently started another asking about Harpoon’s history. I am also close to a complete collection. I’m missing Designers’ Series II and Harpoon II’s Regional Conflict battleset, though I learned from the photos above that the Deluxe package also come in a non-multimedia edition. Sorry for the cross-post, but I’ll pass along a link to a history of Harpoon I attempted at https://RetroViator.com/Harpoon. I’ve included a product timeline—at least as complete as I could piece together.

Yes, this site was VERY helpful! I added a mention to Ed Ladner's original HULL site in my last round of rewrites. No kidding! This has been a blessing. I was not expecting so many of the notable Harpooners in one place. You gentlemen have earned your reputation. I'm trying to decide if Don Gilman would find it enjoyable to read through an attempt at capturing the past, or perhaps he closed the door when he shut down AGSI. Any thoughts?

That makes sense to me. I incorporated these corrections. And, unless you object of course, I snagged your screen shot (described as "courtesy of Tony Eischens"). So, the update impacts the Harpoon Classic and Harpoon Classic 2002 sections--along with adding WinHarp to the product timeline. Thanks for making the post better.

That's good to know! If 1.62 was still Classic, does that mean it was developed by Alliance Interactive prior to Interactive Magic entering the scene? If so, is it safe to say the Alliance was already working on the Windows version of Harpoon before they ran into financial trouble, and Interactive Magic picked up where they left off? Do you know what year that was by chance? I know 1.5 came out in '94 and Classic 97 in November '96. I would guess earlier in '96. Thanks again.

Thank you! I'll look forward to your additions. I struggled to piece together the confusing goings-on in the early 2000s. I would appreciate any help cleaning up that period. I believe I pulled some of my info from a post providing information from Byron years ago: OT-Harpoon 2002 Gold - Front Office Football Central (osftw.com), but looking at that again, I can see I missed some things. Speaking of missing things... You're right about me missing a version of Harpoon between Classic (1.5) and Harpoon 97. I see WinHarp (1.62) is listed in Harpoon Ultimate (thanks to you I see) but it won't run on Windows 10, so I couldn't ascertain the difference between it and Harpoon 97 (1.63). Was WinHarp as beta of sorts? I really appreciate being able to get first-hand info from those directly involved.

Ah, good point… as evidenced by this very forum, of course! I have made the correction. It now reads “By mid-2013, essentially all community-driven Harpoon 3 database and scenario work had ended; however, there was some ongoing contributions for the Harpoon Classic / Commander’s Edition platform.” Thank you all for your kind words. This was an intimidating project because many of you have devoted years to Harpoon, and I wanted to get it right.

Though I'm no expert, I have done my best to put together a history of Harpoon. It's posted at my blog: Harpoon – Retro Viator. I have had a wonderful time pouring through old forums, abandoned websites (thanks to the Internet Archive: Wayback Machine), and reading through manuals and strategy guides. Besides, this gave me an excuse to pick up all the boxed Harpoon software I could find! If you notice any egress errors or omissions, please let me know in the comments. Thank you!