Harpoon 3 - Advanced Naval Warfare
eddys...@hotmail.com
It's official now : the multiplayer version of the classic Harpoon 3
will be published by Matrix Games somewhere in Q1 2006
http://www.advancedgaming.biz
http://www.matrixgames.com/news.asp?nid=309
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Giftzwerg
eddys...@hotmail.com says...
I have several questions:
(1) Are they - at long last! - getting rid of that awful fucking
useless garbage horseshit MS-DOS design?
(2) The activation scheme from those useless boneheads at Archaic
Gaming Systems is absolutely the worst activation scheme ever advanced
by sentient (!?) beings in the history of this galaxy. Will this
technological apocalypse be going away?[1]
(3) Have they - at long last! - fixed the bug that prevents a user from
browsing the scenario list?
[1] Memo to Archaic Gaming Systems: When I bought the abortion you
call HARPOON3, you answered my concerns about activation by asserting
that while activation could be cracked, it would be useless to do so
because you'd be updating and patching and revising ... why, the patches
and builds and updates would just be *burying* me! Guess what. The
crack I use for your activation is still working, lo these *two years*
later. That's how long it's been since you patched this shitware. I
just looked. Yup. Still 3.6.2.
--
Giftzwerg
***
"It won=3Ft be long before we see 'Free Moussaoui'
signs at moonbat rallies."
- Charles Johnson
eddys...@hotmail.com
>
> I have several questions:
>
> (1) Are they - at long last! - getting rid of that awful fucking
> useless garbage horseshit MS-DOS design?
Probably not - it's just the cleaned-up previous version + MP according
to what I've read - but it'll run on Win98 -> XP.
> (2) The activation scheme from those useless boneheads at Archaic
> Gaming Systems is absolutely the worst activation scheme ever advanced
> by sentient (!?) beings in the history of this galaxy. Will this
> technological apocalypse be going away?[1]
Matrix Games download so probably just a serial number and no
activation required. As soon as the forum is up this question is bound
to popup soon, probably in a post by that bloody nuisance "sterckxe"
guy :)
> (3) Have they - at long last! - fixed the bug that prevents a user from
> browsing the scenario list?
>From what I've heard of the Matrix Games internal quality controll
that's 100% guaranteed.
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Giftzwerg
eddys...@hotmail.com says...
> > (1) Are they - at long last! - getting rid of that awful fucking
> > useless garbage horseshit MS-DOS design?
>
> Probably not - it's just the cleaned-up previous version + MP according
> to what I've read - but it'll run on Win98 -> XP.
That's a big "No Sale" in my book, then; I already own the MS-DOS
version.
[Yeah, I know, "It's fully 32 bit! It won't even run without Direct X
9000!!!!!" At least, some fanboy generally pops up and breathlessly
informs me of this. But it's a hopelessly buggy, kludged-up application
where someone pounded a square peg into a round hole.]
Vincenzo Beretta
> 9000!!!!!" At least, some fanboy generally pops up and breathlessly
> informs me of this. But it's a hopelessly buggy, kludged-up application
> where someone pounded a square peg into a round hole.]
Uhm, the more pressing questions are if it runs, if it is a good game and if
the enjoyment offered is worth the money asked. I really liked Harpoon 3
under XP even with all the bugs, so I hope that what Matrix offers will be
at least an improvement over the original.
It is futile to bemoan about 2D vs. "evil 3D graphics" if then the choice
about what to buy is determined by the ... er... original operating system.
Giftzwerg
rec...@hotmail.com says...
> > [Yeah, I know, "It's fully 32 bit! It won't even run without Direct X
> > 9000!!!!!" At least, some fanboy generally pops up and breathlessly
> > informs me of this. But it's a hopelessly buggy, kludged-up application
> > where someone pounded a square peg into a round hole.]
>
> Uhm, the more pressing questions are if it runs, if it is a good game and if
> the enjoyment offered is worth the money asked. I really liked Harpoon 3
> under XP even with all the bugs, so I hope that what Matrix offers will be
> at least an improvement over the original.
I couldn't tell if it was a "good game" or not; I don't think I ever
managed to finish a scenario without experiencing a crash-to-desktop.
And given the phenomenal amount of micromanagement necessary to get even
a few hours into a scenario, this made for a particularly painful and
unfun gaming experience.
> It is futile to bemoan about 2D vs. "evil 3D graphics" if then the choice
> about what to buy is determined by the ... er... original operating system.
Huh? HARPOON3 is 100% 2D, and it still explodes like a trick cigar.
What needs to happen with the HARPOON franchise is for the designers to
start with the fundamentals, build a Windows application from the ground
up, and discard all that holdover horseshit from the DOS era. I know
that means throwing out a lot of code, but it also means throwing out
all the kludgey shit necessary to get a DOS application running in
Windows.
Bloodstar
> start with the fundamentals, build a Windows application from the ground
> up, and discard all that holdover horseshit from the DOS era. I know
> that means throwing out a lot of code, but it also means throwing out
> all the kludgey shit necessary to get a DOS application running in
> Windows.
Best Harpoon was anyway on Amiga :)
Mario
The DA
news:1147172033.3...@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Q1 2006 might be a tad tricky to achieve - unless they've included The Final
Countdown scenario!
Dennisb55
The DA wrote:
> Q1 2006 might be a tad tricky to achieve - unless they've included The Final
> Countdown scenario!
FINAL COUNTDOWN! That would be great!. I'd even buy it again if that
was in it. It isn't in the original H3 is it? I'll have to check when
I get home. Anyone know if there ever was a WWII database and
scenarios for H2 or H3?
Rob Pollard
such trivial bugs like the 'mission description screen not hanging around
long enough to read'. Such bugs are easy meat for any coder worth his salt
(this is assuming it isn't coded procedurally). If I had the source code
<evil grin> I would have had most of their so called bugs squashed by now,
hell I could even have ported it as a proper win32 app by now....
"Giftzwerg" <giftzw...@NOSPAMZ.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1eca99664...@news-east.giganews.com...
Vincenzo Beretta
>such trivial bugs like the 'mission description screen not hanging around
>long enough to read'. Such bugs are easy meat for any coder worth his salt
>(this is assuming it isn't coded procedurally). If I had the source code
><evil grin> I would have had most of their so called bugs squashed by now,
>hell I could even have ported it as a proper win32 app by now....
Write to AGSI: they are always looking for free help ^____^
Giftzwerg
roberta...@hotmail.com says...
> I think the code would be easy to update. It really annoys me when you see
> such trivial bugs like the 'mission description screen not hanging around
> long enough to read'. Such bugs are easy meat for any coder worth his salt
> (this is assuming it isn't coded procedurally). If I had the source code
> <evil grin> I would have had most of their so called bugs squashed by now,
> hell I could even have ported it as a proper win32 app by now....
Stop by their forum, and the fanbois will *still* tell you how swiftly
the patches for H3 roll out of AGS. In two years, I haven't seen a
single one, nor a single bug fixed, but, "Who are you gonna believe?
Fanbois? Or my lyin' eyes?"
Vincenzo Beretta
> the patches for H3 roll out of AGS. In two years, I haven't seen a
> single one, nor a single bug fixed, but, "Who are you gonna believe?
> Fanbois? Or my lyin' eyes?"
Yeah, this is the most embarassing part of the whole "Harpoon 3" saga: I
still remember when I nailed down what caused two serious bugs (the
unability to conduct AtA refueling under most situations and the fact that
the local lights conditions doesn't match the hour of the day); it was in
JULY 2004, while I was vacationing on the Med. Ah, the memories! I'm still
waiting for the patch with the fixes (or for any kind of patch anyway).
However, really I do like the game, warts and everything, and Harpoon MP has
always been a dream of mine, so I just hope that Matrix will conduct/has
conducted a VERY SERIOUS quality assurance process. The buglists for the
last published version are easily available from the web (there is a well
mantained one on Strategy Zone Online) so it shouldn't be difficult to check
if the most glaring ones are fixed in this new edition.
Giftzwerg
rec...@hotmail.com says...
> > Stop by their forum, and the fanbois will *still* tell you how swiftly
> > the patches for H3 roll out of AGS. In two years, I haven't seen a
> > single one, nor a single bug fixed, but, "Who are you gonna believe?
> > Fanbois? Or my lyin' eyes?"
>
> Yeah, this is the most embarassing part of the whole "Harpoon 3" saga: I
> still remember when I nailed down what caused two serious bugs (the
> unability to conduct AtA refueling under most situations and the fact that
> the local lights conditions doesn't match the hour of the day); it was in
> JULY 2004, while I was vacationing on the Med. Ah, the memories! I'm still
> waiting for the patch with the fixes (or for any kind of patch anyway).
I stopped sending bug reports to AGS about two months after I purchased
the game; the only response I ever got was, "That's a known problem."
Uh. Yeah. So is acute appendicitis, but if I limp to the doctor and
report I'm burning with fever and wracked with abdominal pain, I'm
really looking for more than the mere *acknowledgement* that my concern
is valid.
> However, really I do like the game, warts and everything, and Harpoon MP has
> always been a dream of mine, so I just hope that Matrix will conduct/has
> conducted a VERY SERIOUS quality assurance process. The buglists for the
> last published version are easily available from the web (there is a well
> mantained one on Strategy Zone Online) so it shouldn't be difficult to check
> if the most glaring ones are fixed in this new edition.
The potential is there, clearly. In fact, unless you want to revert to
the Windows Classic version of HARPOON (which I do...), it's almost the
only game in town.
But even if all the bugs were fixed, it would still suffer from the
awful, painful degree of micro-micro-micromanagement necessary to
accomplish even the simplest thing. That "Mission" gizmo is a
worthless, wretched joke, and the snowstorm of clicks that's absolutely
necessary to play out even some of the simpler scenarios is far beyond
even the wildest bounds of tedium.
I guess nobody is going to redesign it properly, so I'll have to settle
for getting in the checkout line behind you and just hoping that all the
known showstoppers get some attention and a clean product can be
produced. I'll probably pop for the Matrix edition (so long as it loses
activation and actually fixes the bugs...), but I'm still looking for
something that does this right.
eddys...@hotmail.com
For completeness sake : the forum for it is here :
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=278
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
HermanH
Giftzwerg wrote:
> But even if all the bugs were fixed, it would still suffer from the
> awful, painful degree of micro-micro-micromanagement necessary to
> accomplish even the simplest thing. That "Mission" gizmo is a
> worthless, wretched joke, and the snowstorm of clicks that's absolutely
> necessary to play out even some of the simpler scenarios is far beyond
> even the wildest bounds of tedium.
You are going to be really unhappy about this, but would you believe
that you require even MORE clicks than before? (at least with the
current Beta release)
That 'snowstorm' has turned into a 'Blizzard' in some situations.
HermanH
Dennisb55 wrote:
> The DA wrote:
> I get home. Anyone know if there ever was a WWII database and
> scenarios for H2 or H3?
There are a couple of WWII databases developed for H2 and H3. The
latest effort is by Tom Herron. I tried out a couple of the scens, but
found that, with the current crop of H3 bugs, it doesn't work all that
well. This might have changed with the bug fixes under ANW.
Johnny Bravo
wrote:
>uh? HARPOON3 is 100% 2D, and it still explodes like a trick cigar.
>
>What needs to happen with the HARPOON franchise is for the designers to
>start with the fundamentals, build a Windows application from the ground
>up, and discard all that holdover horseshit from the DOS era. I know
>that means throwing out a lot of code, but it also means throwing out
>all the kludgey shit necessary to get a DOS application running in
>Windows.
The good news is that someone was doing exactly that. The bad news is that
the project publishers kept going under and the new publisher would cut the
budget; Ubisoft was the 5th publisher to acquire the project. Then Ubisoft
dropped the hammer on Harpoon 4 at the end of 2003 and I doubt any other major
publisher will take the risk of making a new Harpoon game with such a small
potential market when they can spend 1/5th of the money making Monkey Knife
Fighter 9 and sell 200 times as many copies (even if they are $9.95 instead of
$49.95)
The only ray of light at the end of this tunnel was that Ubisoft said "Here,
take it; we sure as hell aren't going to do anything with it." and agreed to let
a third party have the partially completed source code for Harpoon 4. So if
someone could actually complete the project and they could hammer out a
licensing deal with with the copyright holders there was a chance, just a tiny
fraction above "no fucking way", that Harpoon 4 would get released someday.
Unfortunately completion of the project wasn't deemed possible so you're left
with Harpoon 3 or playing on your floor. Your choice. :)