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| Harpoon | |
|---|---|
 The logo used forLarry Bond's Harpoon Commander's Edition. | |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy,Wargame |
| Developer(s) |
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| Publisher(s) | |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS,Amiga,Macintosh,Windows |
| First release | Harpoon 1989 |
| Latest release | Larry Bond's Harpoon Ultimate Edition 2015.027 December 15, 2015[1] |
Harpoon is a series of realistic air and navalcomputer wargames based uponLarry Bond'sminiatures game 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 United States and the Soviet Union. Missions range from small missile boat engagements to large deep sea 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).
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 offirst-person shooter andreal-time strategy games.Advanced Gaming Systems, Inc. (AGSI), developers ofHarpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare andHarpoon Commander's Edition (with HarpGamer), currently distributes the simulation as aHarpoon 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 byThree-Sixty Pacific 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 offeredHarpoon 3 Pro, which is tailored for customer specifications. There was a Macintosh version that lies between theHarpoon II andHarpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare called "Harpoon III v3.6.3" aka "H3"
Commercial development of both versions has ceased. The most recent release ofHarpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare aka "ANW" is V3.11.1. (January 2013). While the most recent commercial release ofHarpoon 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 Harpoonpage. In Jan 2023 Matrix Games released the 2022.027 Patch for Harpoon Ultimate Commander's Edition. The patch brings any version of Harpoon Ultimate Commander's Edition from the very earliest 2009.050 to the 2022.026 beta up to the current official patch version 2022.027.
Harpoon Commander's Edition has been under development by volunteers with new beta versions available via theHarpGamer HC Beta Current Files. All beta versions install on top of v2015.027.
TheH3 MilSim (akaHarpoon 3 Professional) product is still available.[2]
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 asradar ducting, sonar bottom and surface bounce, andCOMINT/SIGINT.
Computer Gaming World said thatHarpoon II's long delay helped the game, approving of the Windows-like interface for the DOS game.[3] The editors ofPC Gamer US nominatedHarpoon II for their 1994 "Best Wargame" award, although it lost toPanzer General.[4]
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
Original release date(s):[5]
| Release years by system: 1989—DOS,Macintosh[5][6] 1990—Amiga[7] |
| Notes: | |
Original release date(s):
| Release years by system: 1991—DOS |
Notes:
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Original release date(s):
| Release years by system: 1994—Macintosh 1995—DOS/Windows |
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Original release date(s):
| Release years by system: 1994—DOS |
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Original release date(s):
| Release years by system: 1995—DOS |
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Original release date(s): | Release years by system: 1996—DOS |
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Original release date(s):[8]
| Release years by system: 1997—Windows[8] |
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Harpoon III Original release date(s):[10] June 1, 2001 | Release years by system: 2001—MacOS 2002—Windows |
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Larry Bond's Harpoon 3: Advanced Naval Warfare Original release date(s):[11]
| Release years by system: 2006—Windows[11] |
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Larry Bond's Harpoon Commander's Edition Original release date(s):[12]
| Release years by system: 2007—Windows[12] |
Notes:
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Larry Bond's Harpoon - Ultimate Edition Original release date(s):[13]
| Release years by system: 2010—Windows[12] |
