Harpoon

Did anyone used to play the video game Harpoon?  I had it for my Mac SE back in the late ‘80’s (the one without the 20 megabyte hard drive so I had to keep switching disks).  It had different scenarios but all were naval conflicts between NATO and the Warsaw Pact members.  The graphics were virtually nonexistent, but all other aspects of the game were solid.  I used to stay awake until the sun came up kickin’ some Rooskie arse.  Ahhh good times, good times.

I’ve never heard of anyone else who used to play so I was curious if any of you were familiar with it.

Really?  That is quite an interesting tidbit, considering that I’ve both read the book and played the game but was unaware of the connection.  If I recall correctly the largest scenario was very similar to the book so it makes total sense.  That was back when I was to eager to get to the punch to take the time to read the preface of books…that has since changed ;)

Apparently Harpoon was even more realistic than I thought.  I just did some google searching and found out that they have a current version for the military:

“H3 MilSim embodies the latest in naval warfare simulations for analysis, education and training. Among the new features are programmable mission behaviors, a new mission type allowing for boarding of ships by helicopter simulating special operations. Users may simulate situations taken from today’s headlines, such as fighting Somali pirates or interdicting drug runners who use submersibles.  Customization is available, and both the databases and scenarios are open for end-user editing. AGSI has former Defense experts available to assist in training, configuration, design and execution.”
-www.computerharpoon.com

I wanna play! I wanna play!

And yes, it was a miniatures board game first in the early eighties before it was made into a computer game in the late eighties.

I had the Mediterranean expansion too, but most of my memories are from the Atlantic scenarios.  I got pretty good at ‘working the system’ myself and toward the end of my time playing it wasn’t a matter of if I’d win, but how long it would take.  The only scenario that kept kicking my ass (50% of the time) was the largest.  It was basically the entire US Atlantic Fleet vs the entire Russian Atlantic Fleet.  If I played as the Russians I had no problem, but as the US it was an entirely different story.  The Russian guided missile cruisers had WAY too many missiles.  They would launch huge volleys that presented too many target to shoot down at once.  1 or 2 would ALWAY get by my defenses and after several volleys I would lose enough ships that I couldn’t mount an effective defense let alone turn the tables and bring the attack back to them. The American fleet’s Harpoon and Tomahawk cruise missiles had great range, but they traveled MUCH slower than the Russian solid fuel missiles and there were far fewer of them.  There slow speed made them easier to shoot down and, having less of them, I would always run out before I did any significant damage.  The Russian ships, in general, were better than the American ships, but the American air power made the Russian air force look like a joke.