May 2, 200916 yr Ok. I got the Harpoon Signature Edition (HSE) converted from 5.25 floppy to 3.5 (CD) and it installed perfectly and runs great (15,000 frameskip) in DOSBox! I also have original boxed Designer Series I (HDSI) and II (HDSII) on 3.5 in floppy and they installed perfectly over the HSE. Haven't had time to tinker yet, but the HSE is v1.31se and the HDSII updates to v1.32a and also installs a "harp386.exe" that runs v1.386a. Not for sure the difference between v1.31se and v1.386a, but I did boot up both and the graphics on the v1.386a are sharper. I think it esentially is an ega addition with little changes (if any) to game mechanics. Another neat thing, the HDSII installeda complete Harpoon Data Annex of all platforms, weapons, bases, sensors, etc used in all battlesets that opens nicely with Word/Excel! Didn't play with these files much, but looks to have all the flags set for each weapon/platform and a glossery explaining a bunch about the flags and system calculations. Could be pretty cool info! Welcome discussion on Classic Harpooning and I'll add any particularly interesting things I find while relieving Harpoon's formitive years.
May 2, 200916 yr Welcome discussion on Classic Harpooning and I'll add any particularly interesting things I find while relieving Harpoon's formitive years. There are several places to start from: Google groups - looking for "Harpoon" starting in 1991 http://groups.google.it/groups/search?hl=i...=N&start=10 [Keen eyes will spot a report for a bug that still hasn't been fixed ] Then "The Convergence Zone" mailing list archives (1990-1997). http://firedrake.org/harpoon/cz/ Then the HULL (Harpoon Users League List) mailing list archives (1999-present) http://www.teuton.org/mailman/listinfo/hull In the latter you can find my "homage" to Harpoon's early years (written in 2003) * * * I spent last week-end putting order in my collection of HC/97 scenarios, in anticipation for HC2002 (yes, at the moment I'm single ), and in the proceedings I re-read almost all of the fictional storilines/"probable futures" created by the designers of the scenarios in the early '90s. PC Harpoon choose a bad time to come out, with Perestrojka on the rampage and the Cold War almost over, so many of them were quite creative! What follows is a collection of the most recurring, interesting and funny themes. Specific scenarios' references are obviously omitted - if you are one of the designers, please don't be offended: I did the same myself when creating/refeering games for Harpoon Third Edition on paper. They were times when: - Gorby got couped/killed/exiled by "Old USSR hardliners" in about 75% of the scenarios. - Said "hardliners" then proceeded to rebuild the WHOLE Soviet military machine in about ten days or so, and on the eleventh day they lauched a surprise attack on Europe. - Optionally, ex-Soviet Union "disintegrated", and rogue newly-formed republics attacked NATO/whatever with immense and totally unrealistic assets. - Sometimes the war broke out for no discernible reason ("We are at war for reasons which are not of your concern. Your mission is...") - It could happen that the surprise was SO total that the US had NO assets in the Atlantic, and UK had to go against the Soviets all alone. - If so, USA actually had no assets available for WWIII due to the turmoil caused by the Second Civil War. - NATO/BLUE orders usually started with "FROM THE THEATRE COMMANDER TO TF COMMANDER YYYYYYY". SOVIET/RED orders where missing three times out of four ("Blue side only...") and one third of the times they where present they started with "FROM THE KREMLIN: TIME HAS COME TO KICK OUT THE IMPERIALIST DOGS FROM EUROPE!" - One out of five of the (very rare) order file for the USSR/RED side when opened said "This scenario is for the blue side only". - There were more submarines in the Baltic than in the Atlantic - but all diesel ones. - "Red Storm Rising" reigned, and if the scenario didn't start with Keflavik already controlled by the Soviets, then NATO had to race to Keflavik before the Soviet got there... - ...Meanwhile, US subs where attacking the Kola Peninsula with Tomahawks... - ...This, of course, if NATO wasn't "resurging" and sending one to three battlegroups into the Barents Sea. - One scenario out of three had a convoy in it. - Captains escorting UNSPEAKABLY VITAL convoys to what-the-place were actually advised to ignore the "ships running aground" messages. - The USA had good reasons to be nervous about the Northern Front, since Norway used to seceed from Europe and join the Soviets/CSI at random times, and for no discernible reason. - Once a week a submarine from either side defected, and had to be hunted down/protected until the defection was complete. - If "Red Storm Rising" didn't reign, then "The Fleet Series" by Victory Games did, and Beirut and Naples received a convoy every other day. - For reasons unknown Qaddafi launched AGAIN random missile strikes against Lampedusa/Sicily, calling the full fury of Italian Navy upon him (the first part was realistic, the second wasn't). - Norway was either fully occupied by soviet forces on W+1, OR still hanged by a thread on W+45 - On W+40 or so there still were three US carriers and two Kievs in the Atlantic, all with a full complement of airplanes and hi-tech weapons for their battlegroups. - George Bush Sr. was serving a second mandate, and a Second Confrontation with Saddam erupted for some reason or other. - Saddam had NO weapons of mass distruction. - WWII battles from Midway to the Battle of Britain used to be refought regulary. - Soccer World Cup "classics" like Italy vs. France, Germany vs. UK and France vs. UK didn't happen on the pitch but on the battlefield . - If France was not "the only ally left to US" then it was US bitterest enemy. - Conflicts between Peru and Ecquador were fought in the Indian Ocean! - China and Japan didn't exist. North and South Korea existed on paper ONLY if UK had to go alone against the Soviets AND if the USA weren't split by a new Civil War (event which had allowed to them to send ALL, and I mean ALL, their assets to take part in the new Korean War). - Guidelines from the "Harpoon Scenario Wharehouse" stating "There should be an ASCII text file associated with the scenario. This text file should have the victory conditions and some background information and anything else you wish to add" were the ONLY text file to be found in the .ZIP
May 24, 200916 yr Do you have a Vista machine? I've been able to run Harpoon DOS on my wife's XP machine, but I can't get it to run on the Vista. Any tips?
May 24, 200916 yr That is absolutely fascinating. Great research! I, too, seem to be in my retro phase right now, focusing on HCE´s old classical battlesets and even writing scens using the classic battllesets and their stock database. Maybe it´s just the midliefe crisis, but I´d like to call it scientific interest or R&D Fact is that I get "that same old feeling" when playing the old classical GIUK, NACV, MEDC and IOPG scens under HCE; it is like in 1991. Oh well... Regards, Ralf
May 24, 200916 yr Do you have a Vista machine? I've been able to run Harpoon DOS on my wife's XP machine, but I can't get it to run on the Vista. Any tips? Is it 64-bit Vista? 64-bit Vista will run 32-bit software, but it won't run anything 16-bit or lower, which unfortunately includes all DOS software. To run the old stuff, you'll need emulator or virtual machine software.
May 24, 200916 yr Do you have a Vista machine? I've been able to run Harpoon DOS on my wife's XP machine, but I can't get it to run on the Vista. Any tips? Get DOSBox here: http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1. Before I finally got fed up with Vista and went back to XP, I ran the old 360 Pacific DOS version under DOSBox with no problems. It's also good for any other old DOS stuff you may still want to run. It solves all the sound problems with old stuff under Windows as well. Best of all, it's totally free. Buddha
May 25, 200916 yr Quick question- when did we start finding out the real names of Soviet stuff? As far as open source intel goes, it pretty much started to trickle out once the Cold War ended, post 1991.
May 25, 200916 yr Quick question- when did we start finding out the real names of Soviet stuff? I think we never will know the actual name of russian equipment. I remember in the SALT-II talks, the soviets designate the soviet warplanes with the NATO names, for sake of no reveal the real names. Another question is the connaisance of the confuse GRAU numbers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRAU And in WWII, the names applied by the germans to soviet equipment was more complete and rationale than the russian names !!
May 26, 200916 yr Oh, that's brilliant. Can I repost that somewhere please? Feel free to do it - everything I post on the internet is for free
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