| Celebrating SUBSIM's |
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YEARS ON THE WEB! January 2007 |
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A Brief History of SUBSIM Review |
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| Celebrating SUBSIM's |
|
YEARS ON THE WEB! January 2007 |
|
A Brief History of SUBSIM Review |
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What do you get when you cross a love for computers, submarines, and journalism? A submarine simulation website that strives to be the best and most informative on the web. On Jan. 26, 1997 one bored naval enthusiast collected a batch of online game reviews he had written for a newsgroup and some pictures of the Galveston WWII memorial submarine USS Cavalla, opened Notepad and slapped together some crude HTML, and the Deep Domain was launched. The game reviews were bunched as Neal's Subsim Reviews, which eventually became Subsim.com. Now, 9 years later, Subsim can rightfully claim to be the biggest and most visited sub and naval game website online. Thanks. You made it happen by taking a few moments to read our reviews, post in the forums, and add our URL to your favorites. SUBSIM TEN YEARS DISCUSSION TOPIC IN FORUMS
History of Subsim.com
1965 -- 1970 - As a boy, Neal Stevens enjoyed reading about submarines and U-boats. His Uncle Frank had been at Pearl Harbor during the attack and served throughout the war in the Pacific on a destroyer. Neal's favorite pre-computer games were Stratego, chess, Battleship, and Risk.
The Submarine Game
19721970 - Neal begins making alternative Battleship scenarios. Some center around one player with the two subs and the other player controls all the surface ships. The sub player is allowed to move during his turn. The surface player gets 3 shots per ship. From this evolves "The Submarine Game", an unwieldy and complex submarine battle wargame he created using two 4x2 cardboard playing surfaces. After weeks of work, the Submarine Game gets very little playing time--no one can learn all the rules!
1971 - Neal and his father travel to nearby Galveston to tour the newly opened
Seawolf Park. It will be years later on a subsequent visit that Neal learns the WWII submarine there is named the Cavalla, not the Seawolf.
1982 - Das Boot is released. It was nominated for six Academy Awards
1984 - A friend's TRS-80 personal computer makes an impact on Neal's life. They begin writing BASIC programs and playing text-based adventure games. Neal wonders when a submarine simulator will be made for a computer. With pictures, of course.
1987 - Blue Max and Silent Service are the first simulations Neal tries out.
Dec 1995 - After upgrading to a Pentium 120, Neal began writing reviews for his submarine sims and sending them to various fan websites. For a time, four of his reviews were posted on Moto-Dude's Website; Wolfpack, Silent Service II, SSN-21 Seawolf, and Aces of the Deep.
Jan. 26, 1997 - Neal creates his first website, The Deep Domain, a collection of submarine related pages, including the USS Cavalla webpage. Neal starts getting e-mails from other subsim devotees. Among them is Jim Atkins who runs the well-designed Silent Hunter Home Page. As a new section of the Deep Domain, Neal's SUBSIM Reviews debuts on the Internet. The entire website consisted of six subsim reviews and an e-mail link. A few weeks later the first of what would be thousands of e-mails trickled in. It was a question about getting Wolfpack to run on a 486. First letter to the new website was from longtime reader Josi Manuel Batista who would later write of his experience aboard a Portuguese submarine:
Jan, 1997
First of all congratulations for your idea and your page. For me that i'm addicted to subsims this is the heaven page. I agree with you that Silent Hunter is for the moment the best subsim with excelent graphics. It is better than Aces of the Deep (I don't have Command: Aces of the Deep to have an opinion) because of the old graphics. The others games is just a good try! (excuse my english).
Josi Manuel Batista
SUBSIM Review - Feb 1997 Feb 1997 - The website expands to nine reviews. Ron Martini's website gives SUBSIM Review their first link exchange. Eventually, Ron Martini's Submarine Bookstore will be SSR's longest running sponsor.
April 28, 1997 - First known mention on the use-net of Subsim Review.
From: CAP - view profile Date: Mon, Apr 28 1997 12:00 am Email: CAP <c...@clark.net> Groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.naval, alt.games.command-n-conq.red-alert, alt.games.command.and.conquer,
Topic in alt.games.command-n-conq.red-alertReply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse | Find messages by this author
On the subject of game reviews, here are a few sites I've found with good stuff in them. And to answer the question of Jane's 688i Hunter/Killer... It's in there.
http://www.pcme.com/ http://www.cdmag.com/ http://www.ogr.com/
688i HUNTER/KILLER http://www.cdmag.com/simulation_vault/688_preview/article.html
SUBSIM REVIEWS http://www.computron.net/users/neal/SImreview5.HTML
c...@clark.net CAP on CoolTalk/NetMeeting MERC on Kali/ICQ
Aug 1997 - Neal pens his Jane's 688(I) review and agrees to share it with his friend Frank "Crimson" Morrisette, founder and visionary of SimHQ. Crimson is joined a few months later by Eric Berns and John Miller. SimHQ was on their way to achieving the best respected all-purpose sim website on the net. The 688(I) review remains one of the oldest in SimHQ's catelog. Other news: Neal heard from his sources that a sequel was in the works for Silent Hunter. Expected release date-- Summer 1998. One could hardly wait.
Jan 1998 - Neal's SUBSIM Review has been on the web for a year. A new feature is added; Reader's Comments, consisting of a sampling of the mail the website has attracted. Attempts to get on new product beta lists are met with silence. Yours truly, Jason Dorris, is talked into a game of Jane's 688(I) one night by Neal and a new passion is born. I begin helping with some news gathering duties.
March 1998 - Neal's SUBSIM Review moves to a hosting service in Connecticut. With 25 MBs of disk space and 1 whopping GB of file transfer available, it looks like it will be a while before SUBSIM Review will use it all up.
SUBSIM Review - Aug 1998
June 1998 - Following the example of the Silent Hunter Home Page, Neal's SUBSIM Reviews website is redesigned using frames for easier navigation. New sections include the SUBSIM Updates and a couple articles. The review index has grown to thirteen.
Aug 1998 - SUBSIM Review gets their first interview: Mike Jones of Aces of the Deep answers a series of belated questions about his groundbreaking U-boat sim. Also, the Fix My 688(I) Campaign begins, designed to urge EA/Sonalysts into producing a no-cheat patch for Jane's 688(I). Noted Command Aces of the Deep programmer Brian Danielson pens a SUBSIM History, detailing the pioneer subsims from the early eighties to the early ninties. Other news: A new Russian subsim in development--Akula: Red Hunter--slips into oblivion.
Sept 1998 - To convey a more professional appearance, the website's title is shortened to SUBSIM Review. J. Graham Fuller - Columbus, OH; Patrik Nordberg - Mariehamn/Finland; Lane Goodman - Linton, IN; Mark Allen, Owasso, Oklahoma; Kristian Maenpaa - Yliharma, Finland; Bram M. Otto - Netherlands; EastWest - South Africa are the winners in the Summer '98 Giveaway.
NOW GET 10% OFF - LIMITED TIME ONLY
Nov 1998 - In an effort to better serve players with questions about their games (and slow the growing tide of e-mail requests for help), Neal begins collecting tactics and tips from newsgroups, forums, and players' experience. The section is called, oddly enough, Tactics & Tips.
Dec 1998 - SUBSIM Review is featured in the New London Day newspaper in an article about the Fix My 688(I) Campaign. An excerpt: "Kim Castro, a vice president at Sonalysts who was heavily involved in the game’s design, said he is aware of the campaign — and the company supports it." "We would love to do an upgrade. We’ve been in discussions with Electronics Arts about it, and I think the people there would also like to do it," Castro said. Right now, he said, Sonalysts is putting the finishing touches on "Fleet Command," which it is also doing for EA, but he is keeping track of some of the proposals made at Stevens’ web site and other Internet sites.
Jan 1999 - Fion Kelley and John Channing begin collaborating on articles and news to SSR. A bulletin board is started. Other knowledgeable players begin pitching in to assist with the tech support. Among these are Ken Hinds, Troy Whigam, Justin, Hatchet, Hawk, Hondo, Paul Powell, Alex, Brian, Der Teddy Bear, Bram Otto, Jose, and many others. A true subsim community begins.
SUBSIM Review - May 1999 Feb 1999 - John Channing begins what becomes an annual event with SUBSIM Review--an interview with noted sub fiction author Michael DiMercurio.
May 1999 - Traffic to SUBSIM Review grows from 200 hits per day in the beginning of 1998 to 2000 hits per day. Neal begins getting overage alerts from the hosting company. He upgrades to the business plan. To offset the costs and keep his marriage solid, he begins a store to sell games. Extra money is used to fund the increasing number of prizes for contests.
Sept 1999 - SUBSIM Review now runs on a dedicated server to handle the growing traffic (we're not complaining!) and sports a new domain name: www.subsim.com .
SUBSIM Review - Sept 1999
Jan 2000 - Rick Martinez of Mattel Interactive agrees to an interview to update the players on the status of the oft-delayed Silent Hunter II. "Aeon (dev team) has now assembled a talented team, and the look of the game is outstanding, but it took about three times as long as we thought to get the right people in the right places, especially in regards to the 3-D world." In a few months we would learn it would be even longer when Aeon would be booted off the project for not meeting their milestones. To everyone's relief, SSI remained committed and Ultimation and Troy Heere picked up the ball.
Feb 2000 - SSR initiates the Mystery SUBSIM contest, where twice a week players get a shot at identifying a naval/subsim screenshot to enter a drawing for a copy of Silent Hunter II (slated to release behind schedule in the fall of 2000). The competition is fierce and the surge of traffic prompts the website to acquire a second dedicated server account. Hits soon top 100,000 a week.
April 2000 - A new contest yields new winners: David Cael, Seattle, WA; Petri Raatikainen, Helsinki, Finland; Cory Antosh, Tuscon, AZ. Mystery SUBSIM Contest expands to include trivia and questions about submarines. We ran out of different screenshots!
July 2000 - Navy Chief Frank "Torpex" Kulick signs on with SUBSIM Review. Frank's role and contribution is destined to grow.
Aug 2000 - Max is the winner of the first Mystery SUBSIM contest. SUBSIM Review launches a spinoff website--the Wolfpack League--designed to rally future players of Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command.
Sept. 2000 - Sonalysts finally releases a new patch (by Tod Swain) for Jane's 688(I) to disable the 3D viewer in multiplay. Cynics whisper that it's because they are working on a new sim and want to stroke the players. We wryly disagreed and with the help of Vice-President Kim Castro launch a 688(I) Revival and contest.
Nov 2000 - SUBSIM Review get our hands on an actual beta copy of Silent Hunter II. Neal is the only member authorized to see or comment on it so we're kinda jealous. He has good things to say about it in the Beta Preview. Release date gets moved back to April 2001. We're outta jokes about that.
Dec 2000 - Isaac is the winner of the second Mystery SUBSIM contest.
Jan 2001 - SUBSIM Review's fourth year sees a redesign of the title page, some overdue file cleanup, and a review of Akella's pirate game Sea Dogs, along with the usual contest.
Feb 2001 - Subsim gets our hands on beta copies of Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command. Both titles are well on their way to completion, could be any decade now. We publish our SILENT HUNTER II AND DESTROYER COMMAND; INTEROPERABILITY PROGRESS REPORT: Two different games, one multiplayer battlefield. The WPL Wallpaper contest nets three winners and over 60 great submarine wallpapers.
March 2001 - Frank Kulick publishes a report on the SH1 Pacific Thunder Campaign. Very refreshing to see enthusiastic players role-playing a campaign online from a single player subsim. World naval news by Bill Nichols becomes regular feature, updated daily, later bi-weekly. Work on a Sub Club/Wolfpack League database scoring system with stats of all members tracked begins with Rudi Peck. Visited Ultimation/SSI on USS Kidd VR shoot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
April 2001 - Frank "Torpex" Kulick becomes the first rep of the gaming press to see EA/Sonlayst's Sub Command. He's impressed and we're all jealous.
May 2001 - E3 hits LA again. We get feeds from several reporters on the activities. SHII and Destroyer Command are shown to thousands.
June 2001 - The Wolfpack League database and scoring system is beta, then goes operational. Database has 1870 members (it would grow to 5000 by the end of the year). Players test the scoring system by entering Battle Reports and watching the updates to their personal records.
July 2001 - Sub Command preview is up, first pure submarine sim in 4 years.
August 2001 - Wolfpack League is reorganized as a branch under the Sub Club, along with the Eagle League (Destroyer Command) and Sub Command HQ.
September 2001 - Sub Command goes gold and EA sponsors a Subsim.com SC Contest, giving away 5 copies.. Terrorists attack America causing great loss of life in New York, DC, and rural Pennsylvania. Sub Command is release to rave reviews.
October 2001 - Sub Club moves to a dedicated server. Subsim.com breaks the 20,000 unique visitors a week mark. Silent Hunter II goes gold. Work begins on a Subsim.com Second Kampagne for Silent Hunter II.
November 2001 - Silent Hunter II released, reviews are mixed but the general attitude of players is supportive. Multiplayer is expected with the release of Destroyer Command in Feb. 2002. New members of Subsim.com such as Vickers, See Falke, Duane Doutel, Andreas, and others create the Subsim SHII Realism pack.
December 2001 - Vickers leads the way in creating new and visually compelling new mods for SHII, including oil slicks, torpedo wakes, enhanced splashes, and secondary explosions. An SHII mod community contributes over 40 new mods for SHII sounds, menus, graphics, and systems.
Jan 2002 - SUBSIM Review has been on the web for FIVE years. The usual redesign of the title page (graphics by Vickers, who else!) starts the sixth year right. Second Kampagne is released and after 5 days over 11,000 copies are downloaded.
May 2002 - Subsim Review's E3 2002 Coverage include looks at Sea Dogs II and Harpoon IV. A trip to Groton, CT to see the latest Sonalysts project and attend the book signing event for US Submarines.
June 2002 - Subsim works with Ubisoft producer Carl Norman and Doutel Software to initiate a broad reaching mod that will convert SH2/DC from the original MP engine (rTime) to Microsoft DirectPlay. After consulting with German Subsim player Doc Snyder, the mod is deemed Projekt Messerwetzer (messerwetzer (m
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Dec 2002 - Drebbel joins Bill Nichols as a major World Naval News contributor.
Jan 2003 - Projekt Messerwetzer is released.
April 2003 - Veternam war game journalist Bill Trotter (The Desktop General) features Subsim and PM in his May column.
October 2003 - Subsim and Sub Club members meeting in London for the first Intercontinental Meeting.
Jan 2004 - Subsim Review rolls through their 7th anniversary. A determined group of guys led by Hitman and Horsa have been hammering, welding, and banging on a new mod for Silent Hunter II since summer 2003. The effort is deemed Pacific Aces, a total conversion from U-boats in the Atlantic to US Silent Service in the Pacific.
May 2004 - Editor Neal Stevens attends the 2004 E3 convention in Los Angeles. First looks at Sid Meier's Pirates, Akella's PT Boats, and Ubisoft's Silent Hunter III reveal that 2005 will be a very good year for subsim players.
August 2004 - On the Continent, European Editor Drebbel visited the German Games Convention (GC2004) in Leipzig to check on Silent Hunter III. He writes the best preview for a game Subsim ever published.
October 2004 - The Second Intercontinental Subsim/Sub Club Meeting is held in Galveston, Texas. Highlights include spending two evenings aboard the WWII submarine USS Cavalla in Seawolf Park, special guided tour of the Battleship Texas, home bar-b-que by Abe Stevens, visit to the Lone Star Flight Museum, and special hands-on previews of Dangerous Waters (beta), Enigma, and Silent Hunter III (beta). Special guests include Kelly Assay (Tesseraction Games, Enigma) and keynote speaker Capt. Zeb Alford (Captain of two nuclear subs).
Jan 2005 - On the eve of the release of Dangerous Waters and Silent Hunter III, Subsim undergoes another facelift. New graphics are created by the 2005 Subsim Design Team. The News blogs are updated and include more images updated by News Editors Bill Nichols, Subguru.com & Drebbel, DutchSubmarines.com. A sub/naval book review section is added.
February 2005 - Dangerous Waters is released. It is a critical success and the first modern naval sim that allows players to fight on, above, and below the sea.
March 2005 - Silent Hunter III is released to wide acclaim and praise. Subsim adds a new server to handle the increased traffic and mods.
September 2005 - the Third Annual Intercontinental Sub Club meeting is held in Amsterdam. Over 40 Subsim enthusiasts attend for 5 days of mayhem.
January 2006 - Nine years on the web. Daryl "Subnuts" carpenter becomes Subsim's most prolific book reviewer, posting over a dozen reviews during the year. The SH3 Mods forum is a beehive of activity with Real U-boat, NYGM Tonnage Mod, Grey Wolves, and other teams putting more excitement into the year-old sim.
March 2006 - Five veterans from the Silent Hunter III dev team begin planning Silent Hunter 4. This latest entry in the longest running subsim franchise will be set in the Pacific and allow players to command US subs.
April 2006 - Subsim's annual April Fool prank zings readers!
April 2006 - Due to ever-increasing web traffic and forum growth, Subsim upgrades to a new server, with the downloads and archives remaining on the old server. Migration to vBulletin forum software begins, with archives going back to 2002 updated.
May 2006 - Work begins on the Subsim Special Project, to eventually become the 2007 Subsim Almanac. Queries are sent to 50 historians, game developers, enthusiasts, artists, writers, and submarine veterans.
September 2006 - The US Navy invites Subsim to take a cruise aboard the USS Texas nuclear sub at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and attend the commissioning in Galveston, Texas.
September 2006 - The Lucky Lighter by Jason Lobo wins the Subsim story contest. In addition to Jason's story, original fiction by Gerard Cuomo and Mariano Sciaroni will be featured in the 2007 Subsim Almanac.
December 2006 - First draft of the Subsim Almanac undergoes the final edit.
January 2007 - Ten years on the Web! The 2007 Subsim Almanac is published.
Subsim Review remains committed to serving the sub and naval sim player with a place to meet other players, to get the latest product news, patches, mods, screenshots, and oh yeah, reviews. We appreciate your support and encouragement. It's you who make SUBSIM Review tick. Thank you!
SUBSIM TEN YEARS DISCUSSION TOPIC IN FORUMS
Special thanks to Bill Nichols, John Channing, Bram Otto, Crow, TimmyG00, Dargo, Capt. Squid, Der Teddy Bar, Bob & Tammy, Frank Kulick, Sharky, DeerhunterUK, Abraham, Shawn Storc, Jamie Carlson, Kim Castro, Sonalysts, Jim Cobb, Bill Trotter, Torplexed, the Subsim Review 2005 Design Team, Sergbuto, Seeadler, Rick Martinez, Carl Norman, Mike Jones, McBeck, East, Horsa, Hitman, and the Pacific Aces Team, Mike Hense, David Fries, Doc Snyder (especially Doc Snyder!), Ultimation, Ubi-Soft, Florin, Chris and Tiberius, Ramius, Beery, Capt. Cruise, Jim Atkins, and so many, many others who have contributed to the success of this website--Salute!
NOW GET 10% OFF - LIMITED TIME ONLY
part 1 (1965 - 2002) by Jason Dorris, SUBSIM Review Assistant Editor
© 1997-2007 SUBSIM Review. All rights reserved.
