Harpoon Ultimate Edition Version Info

[thammondwis]

I've purchased the Harpoon Ultimate Edition from Matrix.  There are many different versions of classic harpoon that you can play with it.  I was wondering if there is any info out there on what was changed from one version to another.  I'm sure a lot of it was fixing bugs, but more interested in what features were added from version to the next.

[Tony]

Well depending on what Version you are using will determine what changes have occurred. The latest version is 2020.012. If you have just loaded the game you might be at 2009.50 or possibly 2015.027. The databases have expanded a lot and some scenarios are version and database specific. If you have question just let me know your version and we can go from their.

Tony

[thammondwis]

Thanks for the info Tony.  I have version 2009.0.5.0 of Harpoon Ultimate addition.  I originally bought one of the very early versions of the harpoon game.  1.0 or 1.1 I think.  I don't have the original disks anymore, but I still have some of the manuals and documents including; Manual Supplement Version 1.1, BattleSet #3 manual, and a letter from 360 that came with my version 1.2 upgrade.  I also have Harpoon II including CD and manuals.  So Harpoon Ultimate gives me an opportunity to replay these games.

So my question was more geared to the differences in some of the versions of the classic harpoon series such as what were the changes from version 1 to 1.1 to 1.2 to 1.3 etc.  Not so much as changes to battlesets and scenarios (which are pretty easy to figure out) or bug fixes, but to changes in features.  So that when I decide to play any particular version, I have an idea of what is different between that version and the ones before or after. 

Hope that makes sense.

[Tony]

I think those versions differences are mainly debugging and updating of the Legacy DB. The Legacy version goes up to 2015.027 which is the last official updated version. The legacy version may have some enhanced game play but all run under the same DB. A good place if you want to see what happened in each version would be to read the here is a thread from Harpgamers that might help.  

 

[TonyE]

On 11/5/2020 at 7:02 AM, thammondwis said:

I've purchased the Harpoon Ultimate Edition from Matrix.  There are many different versions of classic harpoon that you can play with it.  I was wondering if there is any info out there on what was changed from one version to another.  I'm sure a lot of it was fixing bugs, but more interested in what features were added from version to the next.

There are a few long-time players like yourself who keep track of their favorite version.  I for one took years to come to terms with the adjustable window layout of Harpoon 97.  I was one of the few to buy the EC2000 add-on for WinHarp (just before Harpoon 97 was released) and played that Windows 3.1 looking version of the game until Byron, Ed, and the gang as a community effort cranked out Harpoon Classic 2002.  Finally the game mechanics changes were so overwhelmingly compelling, I had to give up my legacy user interface.

Some more information sources in addition to the ReleaseNotes that Tony mentioned:

http://harpoonpages.com/h2002faq.htm 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpoon_(series) though it doesn't list features, it does list some of the releases.

There are a smattering of Readme files (READ.ME, README.TXT, ...) buried in the HC20 directory structure under the main game folder that have some details.

 

That all said, the compelling features of the most recent builds (betas here at HarpGamer) is general stability of the game, improved radar and jamming models, and the ability for air to air refueling tankers to offload fuel more than once per sortie.  There are thousands more changes that improve the game and hopefully not many that make it worse!