zimerman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Jacob Ben-david Zimmerman) (12/02/90)
Well, with all these folks putting in their two cents about Harpoon, I
figured I might as well also. This is a somewhat random bunch of
comments on the game after a few hous (read 20) playing it on a Mac II
with System 6.0.2, 8-bit color, 5 megs, lotsa inits, multifinder.
First of all, the game structure. Harpoon offers you the player a
number of preset battles, in a file called a 'battleset.' The game
comes with one battleset, the GIUK (Greenland-Iceland-UK area.) This
set contains I believe 13 (?) - don't know offhand - different
scenarios. You are free to play each scenario from either side, and the
manual claims that it shifts your opponent's setup as well as your own
each time. I haven't verified this. There is only one player play, and
no user-constructed scenarios that I could see. An inset in the package,
however, claims that there is a Scenario Editor forthcoming from 360
software.
The Game comes with a numer of items: two disks, a mail-order card for
the color version ($15 from 360, requires you to send in your master
disks) a short article by Tom Clancy describing his tour of two Soviet
vessels, and a short introduction to strategy in Harpoon by the author
of the original board game. There is a manual, however, the manual
appears to be for the IBM version of the game; the setup section
describes all sorts of MessyDos nastiness. There is a manual
corrections sheet for the Macintosh.
On to the game. The game gives you control over naval battlegroups,
either NATO or USSR. You make decisions at a level that changes with
each scenario, but never really at a unit level. During large-scal
scenarios, you would be something like a nosy CINCLANTFLT I suppose.
You can define which units go in which battlegroup by spliting or
joining them, and then control the movement of each group. A group may
consist of subs, surface ships, aircraft, or any combination of the
three. If you have more than one ship in a group, you can specify what
formation you want them to use with a Formation Editor and specify what
type/pattern of air cover or CAP you want. You have control over shore
installations when applicable.
You have a Staff officer(s?) who take care of nitty gritty details for
you: tracking how much fuel units have, when to recall aircraft who are
low, warning you of vessels running aground, getting damaged, etc,
warning you of each new contact and generally keeping you abreast of
developments.
A sample action: Your Staff notify you that a sub contact has been made
by passive sonar, and they give you which units made the contact. You
could then, say, form an Attack air battlegroup (say 3 Lynx helos off a
carrier) to prosecute the sub. If there is no exact contact, your staff
will warn you of this, and ask if you want the attackers to locate and
engage. If you say yes, they will go off and start flying patterns and
dropping sonobuoys and the like independent of your action, only
stopping to get you to authorize weapons releases. When out of ammo,
they will return without your intervention.
There are nukes. They make life interesting. You don't have to have
them if you don't want 'em.
My main problem with the game is its painfully IBM interface. Buttons
have IBM hotkeys on them. eg:
---------------
| [U]nit map |
----------------
(Sorry for the crude image) and *really* annoyed me. The display is
divided up into windows which must be activated but which cannot be
resized or moved or closed. The unit map, for example, displays a
blowup of a section of the Group map. The area displayed by the Unit
map is represented by a small rectangle on the Group map. The *only*
way to move this rectangle, which won't follow your units around, is by
clicking on a *&^#$( compass rose, making sure that you have the *unit*
map active first. You can't grab and move it, and it is slow as *** to
move around. Really inrritating. The Course Editor, which is used to
tell groups where to go, is extremely IBM-ish. You can designate a
course by using 'legs' ie click on a destination for the first leg,
click again for the second etc etc. You can insert and delete
individual legs of a course. Well and good, but you can't do it by
mousing on the graphic representation of the course you just created;
you have to use buttons at the bottom. Yech.
I love the game. As a simulator, it's lovely. Well worth the $39 I
paid. I would only wish that they would spend the time before the next
releease (hint hint) working on the interface and bringing it more in
line with what (well OK, my own image of) a Mac interface should be.
There are a few minor bugs I noticed, like there are somtimes small
inconsistencies with designating enemy units, which can get really
annoying. The game crashed once on me while I was asking it to
calculate a range and bearing (this happen to anyone else?). Nasty
crash, too. Other than that, no troubles.
Again, I recommend it. Any more detailed info wanted, my email address
is below. THANKS 360!!!
:-)
"Madman, madman, smoke away, smoke away!"
-My Type 22/2 helo pilot
"Vampire, vampire, incoming!"
-My Type 22/2 lookout, three minutes later
-JBZimmerman!
___________ |-Here comes your father.
|| | -Henry V
|| ||acob Zimmerman!+> <zimerman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> INTERNET
=== | <zimerman@PUCC> BITnetplague@milton.u.washington.edu (Jack Brown) (12/04/90)
In article <4431@idunno.Princeton.EDU> zimerman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Jacob Ben-david Zimmerman) writes: > >annoying. The game crashed once on me while I was asking it to >calculate a range and bearing (this happen to anyone else?). Nasty >crash, too. Other than that, no troubles. Yep. Completely locked the machine up. As in hit the reset button on the side. Then boot off floppy because it didn't recognize the HD (disk with ? stayed up). It also has an annoying tendency to bomb out in "The Duel" scenario whenever the Slava shoots at my helos. It does seem to crash less on the other scenarios though. I don't know why... Jack Brown aka plague@milton.u.washington.ed