I just purchased HUCE and installed it, with the intention of designing some realistic scenarios based on the current naval market (I work as a naval analyst, for a provate company). I installed HUCE, using the download. Low and behold, when I installed it, there was no Scenario Editor. I clicked that option, but it doesn't open. Has anyone else ran into this issue? If so, how did you correct it?

 

Fair Winds and Following Seas,

 

Greg Emerson

- - - - -

DM1(SW), USN-Retired

I'm guessing that http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?showtopic=2449 applies to you (i.e. that you are running a 64-bit version of windows)? If so we can help you get going with a virtual Windows XP installation if you have Windows 7 Professional/Enterprise/Ultimate.

Tony,

 

He also may be having the problem you helped me out with some months ago, spaces in folder names and whanot. If you recall, you solved my situation by having me install HUCE to the Games folder, as opposed to the Matrix Games folder.

 

I can't claim I fully understood why that worked, but it did.

 

Buddha

The problem in this, confirmed via e-mail is trying to run the scenario editor (16-bit application) under a 64-bit version of Windows 7 so I laid out a couple of the virtualization options.

The problem in this, confirmed via e-mail is trying to run the scenario editor (16-bit application) under a 64-bit version of Windows 7 so I laid out a couple of the virtualization options.

Apologies for intruding Tony.

 

Buddha

Buddha and Tony,

Thanks for the input and the quick responses!

 

Fair Winds and Following Seas,

Greg

Tony, through work I have access to my PC at work that is already a W7-Prof. How do I determine whether it is 32 or 64 bit? It was set-up for me in Nov 2011? Where could I look in the Control Panel.

Once I get the XP VMW set-up on it, can I access it virtually, when I work from home and this laptop (with W7H)?

 

Fair Winds and Following Seas,

 

Greg

Tony, through work I have access to my PC at work that is already a W7-Prof. How do I determine whether it is 32 or 64 bit?

 

Type 'system' in the Start Search box, and then click 'System' in the Programs list.

 

System type will be displayed there.

Welcome to the forum, Greg!

Tony, the problem is corrected. I loaded HUCE on my XP home PC and it works fine and the ScenEdit feature is operational! I'm currently working on the first of a series of scenarios. Bravo Zulu, for your quick assistance.

 

FWFS,

Greg Emerson, DM1(SW), USN-Retired

Renton, WA, USA

Thanks Silent Hunter!

 

Greg

Hi and perhaps presumptuous from a first time poster. I must excuse myself from not being a native speaker either. I also hope you won't crash down on me me too much for asking questions that have been asked a million times before.

 

I come from a background of software development and I have not played harpoon really since the Amiga. I have dabbled with it, I have tried it out at different times. Now I feel that it is time for me to get back into harpoon. I find the game I loved as kid in a bit of a disarray. I find out that only the most willing is able to create scenarios, not only has the 32 bit era passed the editor by... but also now the 64 bit era is killing it.

 

Reading around forums I see it has changed some but from my understanding it has not kept pace with Harpoon in general. So I just have some simple questions and a few hard ones

 

Is there an alternative to the harpoon editor?

 

If not. Why haven't the powers to be updated it (I have read about the 16bit issue. That is why I am writing this )?

 

If they are not interested have they published the specs to the scenarios?

 

If specs are not available and no interest why not publish the "Win16" source code. The editor will not give anyone much insight into how harpoon works so no trade secrets would be divulged (I use this word in the loosest of senses, 10-20 or so man years are sold to governments and someone has invested in it, but the editor no one seems to care about). I have a hard time thinking that 3rd party libraries with source code that would be invoved in the editor so it would be easy to open. The comunity could get a chance to get involved. Probaly rewriting it from scratch figuring out the formats and interfaces from the code.

 

Is the harpoon community too small to support something like this?

 

I am just asking because I see a problem that I might be able to help fix. Hopefully with others. Even if absolutely no one does anything I can't for the life of me see the harm or even the slightest problem.

1. Is there an alternative to the harpoon editor?

 

2. If not. Why haven't the powers to be updated it (I have read about the 16bit issue. That is why I am writing this )?

Welcome back to the game(s)!

 

First the quick answers as I see them:

 

1. There is no alternative to the 16-bit scenario editor (SE).

 

2. The quick and present answer is that running the SE on machines with a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 isn't all that difficult. It is immeasurably easier than running it on Vista x64, XP x64, Windows 2000 x64. Since Windows 7 makes virtualization via Windows XP Mode available to the masses, the need to port/re-write the SE to run on 64-bit versions of Windows became almost moot. In the Vista days a 32-bit SE was a much higher priority for me since there was no easy alternative solution. It is much cheaper for 1,000 players to each buy or upgrade to Windows 7 Pro to get XP Mode than it is to fund development of a 32-bit SE.

 

 

More detail :

from my understanding it has not kept pace with Harpoon in general

. A true and astute observation. It was also intentional that the HC (Harpoon Classic) SE did not receive as much development time since 2001 as the GE (game engine/winharp32.exe). HC2002 was the first community effort to revive development of the game and the focus was to squash bugs and fix only the most glaring scenario and database issues. I became a part of that effort as a beta tester after being a fan of the game for the previous decade. HCGold came next and the focus was introducing an editable database. Again the focus was not the scenario editor though it did receive a lot of attention to be able to handle the editable database. These community-based teams have always been small. I became first an alpha-tester and then apprentice programmer for HCGold. The lead programmer was Bret McKee with Jon Reimer making the PE (Platform Editor). In other words, small teams where everyone had full-time jobs, HC was and is a hobby for those of us writing code, editing databases and supporting the game. I've long used virtualization and have never had a problem running the SE. Other features and fixes have in general weighed more heavily than bringing the SE up to date.

 

The powers that be, here's a crude org-chart...

Larry Bond (Harpoon creator, rights holder)

|

Chris Carlson -- Don Gilman (aka Uncle Harpoon aka Computer Harpoon rights holder)

|

Matrix Games -- Tony & Brad (aka CV32)

|

Players - Testers

 

Bond, Carlson, and Gilman are known as the Admiralty so the next person's org chart might have all three at the top. The point is that, while Brad and I are the caretakers of HC, we are only in some ways 'powers that be'. I can't give anyone access to the source code without approval from above and there has been no interest from those parties in releasing source code. As part of Brad & my & Scott's agreement with Don Gilman I requested and received permission to expose some game data to a DLL interface which to my knowledge only I have taken advantage of so far .

 

why not publish the "Win16" source code

Tied in with the above paragraph's reasons, I'll venture that over half of the code is shared between the SE and GE so there is not a separate 16-bit and 32-bit codebase so almost all of the GE and SE code would have to be released in order to build a new SE.

 

The comunity could get a chance to get involved

This is where I get rather disheartened. There is a revolving community of capable testers and scenario authors. Database editors are few and far between, we're pretty much down to Brad (with a ton of help from Enrique) since Rene moved pursuits and even then it was only two public database editors. But where are the coders? I've been open since day 1 and have encouraged interested parties in a variety of ways. The code is not available for everyone to peruse so you have to earn your way in by writing add-ons, by being the kind of tester only an experienced coder can be, by supporting the community. One person almost got access to the code after taking such a tactic but he dropped off the face of the earth. But I know it is possible, that's how I eventually got access to the code and my first contact with the team (years before getting that code access) was me being chastised for trying to participate in IRC chat.

 

Is the harpoon community too small to support something like this?

Apparently, but I'm hopeful a community organizer will wander by one day and take up the torch! Is it too small? The one programmer on the project just spent about a quarter of his Harpoon time for the week writing this one message, does that help answer your question? (and it should indicate the value that a few tech support specialists would have in freeing me up to write some code)