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Harpoon
From AGSI
Contents |
Introduction
Harpoon is a series of the world's most accurate unclassified simulators of modern air and naval warfare. The simulators enables you to control all elements of a modern naval task force and explore the intricacies of 21st century combat. The Harpoon series is, in fact, considered to be close enough to the real thing that it has been in use for years by various military branches around the world as a training and what-if simulation tool. For a more intense battle experience, you have to be in the navy.
Harpoon Classic
Harpoon Classic was the first computer Harpoon game. Although it lacks the sophistication of the newer Harpoon II and Harpoon 3 simulators, it was probably the world's best naval game when it shipped from Three-Sixty back in December 1989. Three-Sixty continued selling and updating the product until early 1994 when the rights reverted back to Applied Computing Services Inc., the original developer and rights holder. Alliance Interactive licensed the code and rights from ACSI in mid 1994 and developed Harpoon Classic for Windows 3.1. In 1996, Alliance licensed Harpoon Classic '97 to Interactive Magic, which developed the game further to Windows 95.
Harpoon II
Harpoon II was the most complex, most realistic and most accurate strategy-simulation of air and naval operations available to non-military users at its time. It was first released in 1994 on six 3.5 inch floppy disks and contained the battleset Global Conflicts One. The Global Conflicts Two and Three, Cold War, Westpac, and Regional Conflicts One battlesets were later released as add-ons. The next version, Harpoon II Deluxe Multimedia Edition, an improved version released on CD-ROM, contained the three battlesets Global Conflicts One, Two and Three as well as many new video and audio clips. It also included a printed manual and a scenario editor which allowed you to build your own scenarios. The final version was Harpoon II Admiral's Edition. This had all six previous battlesets plus a new one, Regional Conflicts Two. However, being a MS/DOS application, Harpoon II suffered from severe stability problems on Windows 95, 98, ME platforms and would not run at all in pure 32-bit operating systems like NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Because of these shortcomings, Harpoon II was ported to Windows and renamed Harpoon 3.
Harpoon 3
Harpoon 3
Harpoon 3 is the vastly improved Windows (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP) and Mac (OS and OSX) version of Harpoon II. Harpoon 3 for PC was released in mid-February 2002 while Harpoon 3 for Macintosh was released back in 2001. It is the most complex, most realistic and most accurate strategy-simulation of air and naval operations available to non-military users today. The simulator is being actively supported and maintained by the developer and the community, and new upgrades, features and scenarios are released on a regular basis. The simulator contains a myriad of new features and bug fixes too numerous to mention all.
Harpoon 3 Multiplayer
Harpoon 3 MP is the first multi-player version of Harpoon 3. It is currently in closed Beta testing.
Harpoon 3 Professional
Harpoon 3 Professional is another development of the Harpoon 3 game engine, which will have extensive changes made to it for use by the defence industry. It will not be available to the general public.
Harpoon 4
Harpoon 4 was supposed to be the next installment in the Harpoon legacy. The game was under development for nearly seven years (!) until it was finally killed off on 26 November 2003. Harpoon3 (see above) will thus remain the king of 'Poon for the foreseeable future.
Harpoon Products
| This article was produced courtesy of the Harpoon Headquarters. |
