''Harpoon'' is a series of realistic air and naval

computer wargame A computer wargame is a wargame played on a digital device. Descended from board wargaming, it simulates military conflict at the tactical, operational or strategic level. Computer wargames are both sold commercially for recreational use an ...

s based upon

Larry Bond Lawrence L. Bond (born June 11, 1951) is an American author and wargame designer. He is the designer of the ''Harpoon'' and ''Command at Sea'' gaming systems, and several supplements for the games. Examples of his numerous novels include ''Dang ...

miniatures game Miniatures games are a form of tabletop game which prominently features the use of miniature models or figures. War games One of the oldest and most popular miniatures game genres is that of war games, where figures are arranged into competing " ...

of the same name. Players can choose between either the Blue or Red side in simulated naval combat situations, which includes local conflicts as well as simulated Cold War confrontations between the Superpowers. Missions range from small missile boat engagements to large oceanic battles, with dozens of vessels and hundreds of aircraft. The game includes large databases containing many types of real world ships, submarines, aircraft, and land defenses (i.e. air bases and ports).

Overview

The simulations have a dedicated fan base with several websites offering a varying styles of scenarios and discussion forums, especially as the latest edition includes a feature to allow players to create their own scenarios. Often described as a "niche within a niche market," development of the simulation has progressed steadily through the years despite the overwhelming graphical details of

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...

and

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...

games. Advanced Gaming Systems, Inc. (AGSI), developers of ''Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare'' and ''Harpoon Commander's Edition'' (with HarpGamer), currently distributes the simulation as a ''Harpoon Ultimate Edition'' through Matrix games with technical support handled on a co-operative basis by AGSI, HarpGamer, and Matrix games employees. Harpoon was originally published by

Three-Sixty Pacific Three-Sixty Pacific is an American video game publisher and developer. Founded in the late 1980s by avid wargamers and military history enthusiasts, they were acquired by IntraCorp Entertainment Inc. in 1994. Games They have developed the most ...

and has had several development paths and publishers. Despite the widespread success of the game, Three-Sixty Pacific experienced financial difficulties and went under in 1994. Currently all computer rights rest with AGSI, who continues to improve the series with new developments and releases. In 2006, AGSI released Harpoon Advanced Naval Warfare (ANW) which allowed players to compete with human opponents for the first time in the game's history. Harpoon's interface emphasizes technical accuracy over graphical polish, with simple 2D symbols to simulate a warship's radar display. There has been considerable debate in the game's user community about the decision of the developers to utilize 3D graphics in later versions of the program. Since March 2009, two releases are available to AGSI civilian customers. ''Harpoon Commanders Edition'' is an updating version based on the game engine of the original series. ''Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare'' is the current civilian edition of the product. Military customers are offered ''Harpoon 3 Pro,'' which is tailored for customer specifications. There was a Macintosh version that lies between the ''Harpoon II'' and ''Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare'' called "Harpoon III v3.6.3" aka "H3" Commercial development of both versions has ceased. The most recent release of ''Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare'' aka "ANW" is V3.11.1. (January 2013). While the most recent commercial release of ''Harpoon Commander's Edition'' aka "HCE" is v2009.097 (October 2010), Matrix Games makes available version v2015.027 (January 2016) as a direct download from its Harpoo
page
''Harpoon Commander's Edition'' has been under development by volunteers with new beta versions available via th
HarpGamer HC Beta Current Files
All beta versions install on top of v2015.027. The ''H3 MilSim'' (aka ''Harpoon 3 Professional'') product is still available.

Gameplay

The games play in real time, with time acceleration capability in case the action slows down. The player can control single or multiple platforms (thousands if the computing power is available). The game is extremely comprehensive, although certain elements of naval warfare are not modeled, such as radar ducting, sonar bottom and surface bounce, and

COMINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...

SIGINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...

Reception

''Computer Gaming World'' said that ''Harpoon II''s long delay helped the game, approving of the Windows-like interface for the DOS game. The editors of ''

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games mag ...

'' nominated ''Harpoon II'' for their 1994 "Best Wargame" award, although it lost to ''

Panzer General ''Panzer General'' is a 1994 computer wargame developed and published by Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI). It simulates conflict during World War II. The designers of ''Panzer General'' were heavily influenced by the Japanese wargame series '' ...

''.

Titles

References

External links