Hello all,

I'm something like an old noob. I've played with Harpoon (classic only) on and off since 1994. Mostly off, truth be told, but I always think that someday I should get back to Harpoon since it's really challenging and fun. I found a HC97 manual when I moved my computer workstation the other day and this started me Googling. I was thinking that HCE sounds pretty good. But...

 

Although there are still links and pages for various sellers, it seems that HCE is no longer sold, but the "ultimate" package (HUCE) is available for ~$60 for a huge download. That version includes HCE, and there is a recently validated, time-limited demo version of HCE. Is all that correct?

 

I've been pleasantly surprised when I've installed some older games on my newish Win7 (64 bit) laptop. Recently I installed Dangerous Waters and B-17 The Mighty Eighth. Both installed and run fine. Is HUCE likely to run ok on this system? I would most likely stick with HCE since there are still many of the old scenarios I never mastered.

 

Thanks!

 

Bruce

Hi Bruce, welcome back!

 

Your surveying of the landscape is correct, the only HC version being sold these days is in the Harpoon Ultimate Edition package that runs about $60 from Matrix Games.

 

Your machine can run everything except the scenario editor. If you use some sort of virtualization to run a 32-bit operating system you would then be able to run the scenario editor as well. The easiest (and generally cheapest) way to do that is to do a Windows Anytime Upgrade to Windows 7 Professional (if you don't already have Pro) and then use the Windows XP mode included in Win7 Pro to run the scenario editor. See http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/files/file/718-docs-scenario-editor-in-windows-xp-mode/ for the low-down.

 

Speaking of the demo, I should update that one of these days too but it is still pretty recent.

 

If you do grab the game, consider playing new scenarios here from HarpGamer. They make much better use of the updated capabilities of the game over the last decade.

Thanks Tony! Very helpful advice. I just started playing a bit with the demo. It's cool but I'm VERY rusty. I checked my simulator bookshelf and found that I still have the old Harpoon Battle Book, as well as the H2 Strategy Guide, and several manuals from HC versions and H2 (which I must have had but don't recall playing - many home computers and work laptops ago).

 

So I will do some reading and playing and see if anything clicks. I will also try to find my old paper notebooks. In the days before blogs, I used to keep journals on my various interests. Maybe those will help me reconstruct whatever limited naval strategy skills I once had!

 

-Bruce