hi!

i have been looking for an interesting Harpoon scenario set in the black sea region between Russia and Nato and the Porter scenario in the Harpoon Classic section caught my eye. I am though not sure what i need to do to play it. I have the Matrix edition Harpoon Ultimate edition that has HUCE, ANW, 3.6.3 AND 394 and i think i have it all updated to the most recent versions as per the patches on the matrix site.

i am assuming i need to use HUCE for the Porter scenario but where do i put the files for it

 

thank you

regards

agathosdaimon,

Please go to https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/topic/17623-hc-versionsupdates/ to get the latest beta release and follow the instructions to update HUC.

If you installed all of the games from the Matrix download it is already on your PC.

Find the Harpoon Ultimate Commanders Edition in the Start Menu.

There should be a link in that menu for HUC.

If you can't find it there go to the Matrix Games directory on your computer and open the HUC directory and click on WinHarp32 file.

I hope this helps.

Happy Harpooning

thanks for your reply, do you mean Harpoon CE in the menu? - i am familiar with this but how though o i play the dcenarios created and uploaded here in this forum for it? where do i put the files do i need some other program to add them in

the files have strange endings like .Blq, .RDq, .scq, and .Blo, .RDo snf .sco

 

i am interestd in both the 2017-11 asw pacific and porter 2017 scenarios

Yes, Harpoon CE in the menu.  For the Porter scenario you need to take some extra steps like eeustice mentions.  

The first is to update to the latest beta by following the post at https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/topic/29035-current-files/ 

The second is to grab the database listed, HCDB2 which you can grab from https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/files/file/934-hcdb2-170909-1980-2025/  "Download this file" button.  Extract the contents of that zip file to your HUCE directory (by default C:\Matrix Games\HUCE\ ).  It will want to overwrite the existing database file which you can go ahead and do.

Third is to grab the scenario file from https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/files/file/941-porter-black-sea-and-sea-shield-2017-february-2017-historicalalternate-history-scenario/  Extract the contents of that zip file as well to your HUCE directory.

Fourth, fire up the game.  If you get to select a BattleSet, select "EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean" and click OK.  If you don't get to select a BattleSet and are taken directly to a scenario, go to the File menu, then New, Yes to quit game and you will be taken to the BattleSet selector where I suggest you uncheck "Enable Instant Action" then select "EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean" and click OK.

Fifth, click "User Scenario".

Sixth, navigate the Open dialog to your HUCE directory/folder and double-click "PORTER 2017-2.sco" to load the scenario.

 

Let us know how you fare, happy to help more, screenshots, a video, etc.

 

thanks very much for this explanation, as i really didnt know where to start with getting what files - all these files with long strings of digits, and all the time i wasnt clear with what the matrix game already covers

regarding the overwriting of the database, it says the legacy scenarios wont work anymore - all of them? so only new scenarios will work? oh i am not sure i want to make all the others unplayable

i did the three downloads like you advised but now the winharp32.exe file in my HUCE folder has disappeared and so i cant play the game - how and why has this happened?

Regarding the writing over the database.

You can go to the link below and download the official Harpoon HCCW-140314 (1950-1975 era) and reinstall it the same way you did the HCDB2-170909 (1980-2025) database.

TonyE hasn't found a way to have 2 different databases in the HC directory at the same time.

This will allow you to play all the original HC scenario's

https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/files/file/576-hccw-140314-1950-75-era/

In regards to the missing winharp.32.exe file.

Did the winharp32.exe file disappear from the Start menu of the Harpoon directory on your computer.

I have never had that kind of issue when I updated HC. That's kind of puzzling.

When you unzipped the HC update file (HC2019.002GESE.zip file) did you unzip in the HC directory?

HC2019.002GESE is the latest update to HC.

Did you run the HC2019.002GESE file in your HC directory?

On my computer I created a HC Downloads directory and added sub directories. Below is a sample of the directories I added:

Databases

Scenario's

Version Updates

HC Utilities

It made it easier for me to keep track of what I have already downloaded.

If you have any questions please let us know.

Eric

oh this is just getting too confusing sorry, i cant follow this adn the instructions here and in the link aargh sorry this file swapping and the numbers between the patches and dbs -

the exe has disappeared from the game folder itself, so if i select to start it from teh start menu, i get a message telling me itsmissing

Try not to worry, we will get you there.  Please open ReleaseNote.txt in your game directory and post the version listed towards the top of the file.  Example below from mine.  This will help narrow down where things went wrong.

HCE - 2019.002 - 2019-07-29

umm there is no file called releasenote.txt in my HUCE  folder - i am just going to reinstall it all and make a copy and start again

damn it i havereinstall everything as part of the matrix edition

okay i have reinstalled and repatched everything and made a copy of the HUCE folder, but still i am think if you can just tell me exactly what files i need to have backups of

exact;y if i want to switch back to playing the original scenario files -

so as i understand it, there are teh 2 beta-patches i install and then the database update - do those beta patches make the original scenarios unplayable or is it just the database update that does it?

A reinstall wasn't necessary but I understand the haste.  The process could be easier.  

It is only the database update that makes the original scenarios (specifically only those in the EC2003 and new BattleSets) unplayable.  A copy of the original database is in the commondb.bak subdirectory of the game (so by default C:\Matrix Games\HUCE\commondb.bak\commondb.res) so the backup is already made for you.  The beta installers also make backups of the files it replaces, they can be found in the Backups subdirectory of your game (screenshot of mine attached).

 

 

okay thanks - though i looked in my backups folder and none of the files like you show here were in mine - all very strange. so i guess i would just like to know from what folder should i run the beta updates and db update?