Hi all - been quite a while since playing Harpoon - was surprised at the amount of activity here (though in some forums some posts seem very dated - thought the game died awhile back (or almost did?))

 

Happy to find it's still alive in some capacity.

 

Question: I use a fairly decent Windows 7 laptop (64 bit, 8GB RAM)... which version(s) of current Harpoon game play nice on this platform... and what version of Harpoon do you folks recommend? Ideally, it'd be nice to download and play whatever version has a fairly decent loadout of platforms and scenarios, no?

 

I wouldn't ask for the vetting responses if it were simply a $19 game... But I do want to play, and before I plunk down over $60 for a download... it'd be nice to get a few opinions on which newer versions work well with Win 7/64 bit - not to mention a laptop.

 

All thoughts, opinions and recommendations appreciated - eager to get back into the game.

 

Regards,

 

Bob Williams

Bristol, Rhode Island, US

Edited February 13, 201313 yr by TonyE
removed e-mail address

Welcome (back) Bob,

 

The games almost died after 1997 but two community movements brought them back to life (Jesse Spears creating Harpoon 3 from Harpoon 2 and Ed Ladner, Byron Audler, et al brought HC2002 to fruition from HC (Harpoon 1)).

 

HC/Harpoon Classic, which is the HUCE (Harpoon Ultimate Commander's Edition) part of the Harpoon Ultimate Edition currently on sale has been community supported since HC2002. It is a hobby for us. To that end, the only way to keep it alive is to participate and help to improve the game in any way, be it writing AARs, improving documentation, testing, coding, etc. If a person only buys the game and does not participate the game will die, plain as that.

 

H3/ANW is the current development of the Harpoon 3 lineage, Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare (H3 v3.11). The programming of the game is for the most part funded as a commercial enterprise. Database work and scenario creation being more of a hobby effort.

 

Some people play both games, some only play one. As you can see from this site and others, scenarios and databases continue to be made and maintained for both games and for both are very comprehensive (literally thousands of platforms across the databases).

 

My Harpoon time is very limited these days, most of it is spent with HC but a few times a year I dust off ANW and take it for a spin. My machine is a 2 year old Windows 8 laptop, 64-bit, 16GB RAM. I do the programming for most of HC in a 64-bit Win 7 VM and for the scenario editor in a 32-bit VM.

 

Both games will run well on your machine. The HC SE (Scenario Editor) will not run on a 64-bit operating system since it is a 16-bit application and Microsoft decided to drop the 16-bit emulation layer in its 64-bit operating systems. However, if you have Windows 7 Professional you can run the SE in a free copy of XP http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/files/file/718-docs-scenario-editor-in-windows-xp-mode/ to run the scenario editor. Some people just pick up an old XP laptop on the cheap if they want to do scenario editing.

 

I'm partial to HC but I am just one of many Harpoon players.

Thanks for the quick and comprehensive reply.

 

Glad to be back and able to play again - will download in the next day or so.

 

Regards to all,

 

Bob Williams

Bristol RI, US

Welcome, Bob.