Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!noao!arizona!jtgorman
From: jtgorman@cs.arizona.edu (J. Taggart Gorman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: In Defense of Harpoon (was Re: Vette!)
Message-ID: <1339@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 6 Apr 91 07:56:09 GMT
References: <1991Apr4.225837.7179@midway.uchicago.edu>
Distribution: comp.sys.mac.games
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 52

In article <1991Apr4.225837.7179@midway.uchicago.edu> jm13@quads.uchicago.edu (Kermit T. Frog) writes:
>Which brings us to our next point:  What is REALLY good, no bugs, preferably
>sports-oriented or war-oriented, that I should get as a replacement?  I've
>heard a lot about Harpoon, but I don't like the fact that people have mentioned
>bugs and that you have to keep buying battlesets.  One game I have gotten
>recently and I think is really good (if you like golf) is Jack Nicklaus'
>Greatest Holes of Major Championship Golf.  I've enjoyed it immensely and will
>keep going back to it (and maybe even buy other courses).  I do, as a rule,
>trust the net's opinion on these things, and I want to get a REALLY GOOD GAME!
>
  Okay, you say that you don't like the fact that you have to buy additional
battlesets for Harpoon, but you say that you _would_ but an additional course
disk for Golf.
  First, the scenario disks are only $23 with shipping from Mac's Place.
  Second, and even a better reason, is that the additional battlesets come
with 16 new scenarios (at least NACV does, haven't saved up for the Med yet!)
which can be played from both "sides", ie. NATO or Soviet.  And there are
6 boolean flags you set at the beginning of each game that can make it
totally different from the last time you played.  Since you don't have the
game, I'll list those settings :
	Possible Nuclear Release (can be overridden in the game)
	Realistic Weather
	Realistic Maintenance (ie, weapons breakdown)
	Snorkling Subs (makes diesel subs easier to find)
	Start with Full Ordinance
	Auto Formation Air Cover (computer assigns planes and such to CAP, etc)

  So this means that the basic games, which has 12 scenarios, has 144 different
games (actually 24, since the settings above don't affect the game _that_ much)
and the NACV (North Atlantic ConVoy) module has 192 (actually 32) different
games.  That's alot!  I have had NACV for a month and still haven't played all
the scenarios from all the angles.  I spend to much time sinking the carriers
of the capitalist alliance!  :)
  As for all these comments about the game dying all the time, I must say that
on my Si with 5megs of memory, I have had Harpoon die once!  That has to be
a record.  What I did was increase the memory allocated to the APPL to 1000K.
The game froze alot more often on my Plus though.  I think it was to do with
the complexity of the scenario, and not the game, for simple scenarios with a
few ships run without a hitch, but monsterous games with 30 or more subs, each
as an independent unit really tax the computer and cause it to choke.

  As for the game itsself, sure there are some bugs, but there is _NO_
substitution for it.  Nothing compares or even comes close to Harpoon.  It's
my favorite game.  Where else can a CSc major lead the Red Banner Northern
Fleet to a decisive victory over the forces of capitalism?

  No, I don't own stock in 360 or work for them, I just _love_ punching
holes in the US Navy!

|      J. Taggart Gorman Jr.     | "I'm a no rust build up man myself."
|                                |          -Christian Slater
| jtgorman@caslon.cs.arizona.edu |             in 'Heathers'