Your Silent Hunter History

[sharkbit]

With SH5 coming, I'm curious about people's history with the Silent Hunter series.

[JU_88]

Sh3 was my first (im a 'Noob' compared to some)
I bought it thinking of how much i suck at FlightSims (I always crash and burn) i figured it would be very hard to crash a U-boat :D

I kinda doubted that I would really get in to it, but i was hooked in matter of days - Obsessed even..

When Sh4 was announced, I was really excited too, but when I played it - sadly I just could not get in to the PTO...
It was purley a Theatre thing - not a Fleet boat thing, the US subs themselves are just as fun to play as the U-boats, in my eyes (same meat different gravy)
and After SH3 a break from Uboats was quite welcome anyway.

As a result - when the 'Far East U-boat addon' came out for Sh4, I bought it just to support the franchise, but i never even completed a single patrol :oops:

Im actually very keen to see and SH game or a high quality Super Mod where Allied Subs are playable in the ATO. Royal Navy subs had a pretty 'action packed' time in the Med and North Sea. :DL
SHV has wet my apptite for Uboats again - just so long as Ai Subs & wolf packs in it this time, plus some other improvments. full interior and Crew looks nice.

TBH: SHV would only dissapoint me - if it turns out to be SH3 'tarted up' without any real attempt to enhance game play or AI

[danlisa]

Voted.

Although for the life of me I can't remember if it was Silent Service or Silent Hunter which first got me hooked on Sub Sims.

If it was Silent Service, I just ballsed up your poll.:O:

[Dowly]

Same as Dan. Cant remember if it was SH or SS that I played as a kid. :hmmm:

[AVGWarhawk]

SH2...darn thing would crash on me when starting my second patrol. This was back in the day were I was a virgin with video games on computers, crashing and patches, etc I did not know how to handle or fix. Then SH3 vanilla was purchased and loaded. Got bored with it in about 3 months after release and removed it. I reloaded SH3 about a year later to play again. I found SS and saw GWX 1.?. I was a bit more computer savvy now and loaded the GWX mod. That is all she wrote. I jumped right in and never looked back.

A large part of the interest rests right here at SS. A lot of good people enjoying a common interest.

[difool2]

Did SH1 years ago, steered clear of SH2 after the bad press and reviews, got the last two.

[ETR3(SS)]

Got my sub-siming start on Silent Service for the NES. Then I went on to SH2 and found Subsim about the time I started playing it. SH2 started my sub modding as well. Had a lot of fun with SH2 and Destroyer Command whenever I went to sea, a couple of us on-board would play a game of cat and mouse in our off watch time. Was one of the first of the sub-simers on the boat to pick up SH3. Picked up SH4 when that came out, was really excited to see Fleet boats once more! Installed it, played it, and shelved it for a year or so due to the poor release quality. Game got patched and I started playing again. And now I'm making nuke boats for it. :up:

Forgot to mention I also got lucky and picked up SH1 Commanders Edition out of a bargain bin somewhere and still have that today too.

[Jimbuna]

Played em all and thousands of hours of enjoyment have been the result.

Can't quite make my mind up which version I prefer.

Desparately hoping for wolfpacks and human playable allied boats this time around.

[Raven08]

Started with Sierra's ACES of the DEEP. Spent countless hours with that on a friend's PC back in the 486 days. Played Silent Hunter, (skipped 2) then 3 and 4.

I also remember a friend of mine playing a game on his dad's old 'green screen' monitor called 'gato', but that is going WAY back...

[scrapser]

I've played every sub sim ever made except Aces of the Deep. My first sub sim was "Silent Service" by MicroProse for the Commodore 64 computer back in 1984.

[Schultz]

I played just sh3, I tried sh4 but I didn't like it

[Task Force]

started with silent service... got silent hunter 1, then got sh3, then sh4.

[pythos]

Instead of Silent Hunter 1, I played for eons silent service. My comp could handle nothing else. I also later got Wolf pack, my first exposure to the world of the U-boat.

My first silent hunter was SH2, which was much better than the first two sims of my experience.

[Sonarman]

I played the C64 Silent Service, I remember buying it in Glasgow on the day of it's release, at that time Microprose games in the UK were distributed by US Gold and were sold in plastic double cassette ,instead of a fantastic Microprose manual you got an A3 piece of paper folded to the size of the box with all of the relevant maps and keycodes etc.

The game took quite along time to load from cassette. Hard to believe that was in 1985, 24 years ago -ouch!!! Up Periscope! a very overlooked and highly underrated simulation came out just after Silent Service and was accompanied by not one but two manuals.

When I bought the first Silent Hunter game in 1997 it cost £50, Nowadays SH games typical RRP is about £30 and we moan about game prices today!

[Sledgehammer427]

I was playing Jane's 688I when my stepdad bought me a copy of SHI, I popped it in and my nuke boating days were over, for a very long time.
got SHII in a bargain pack that included IL-2, and Flanker 2.5
SHIII was a christmas present,
and IV was bought with money i got mowing the lawn :D

[sharkbit]

I played the C64 Silent Service, I remember buying it in Glasgow on the day of it's release, at that theme Microprose games in the UK were distributed by US Gold and were sold in plastic double cassette boxes insted of a fantastic Microprose manual you got an A3 piece of paper folded to the size of the box with all of the relevant maps and keycodes etc. The game took quite along time to load from cassette. Hard to believe that was in 1985 24 years ago -ouch!!! Up Periscope! a very overlooked and highly underrated simulation came out just after Silent Service and was accompanied by not one but two manuals.

When I bought the first Silent Hunter game in 1997 it cost £50, Nowadays SH games typical RRP is about £30 and we moan about game prices today!

I played Silent Service on a C64 too with a monotone monitor(green). Thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. :D

The game took quite along time to load from cassette.

:har::har::har:

:)

[kwbgjh2]

I started with silent service on an amiga 500. My employee in 1986 thought it was a good idea to send me on a seminar for CNC machines. Never heard before this time of funny things like computers. LOL.

After this time never could live without them.:o:doh::o LOOOOOOOOOOOL

[fallenyggdrasil]

Silent Hunter 1 to 3.
Didn´t play SH 4 cause I kept on playing SH3 with Mods.

[Carotio]

Played SH1 in the late 90'ies, early 2000, after taking over a copy from a friend, who couldn't play it. I was hooked, though the graphics compared to todays standards wasn't superbe, then they were good enough. I too had most succes in raiding harbours.

I was following the development of SH2 with lots of impatience, mainly because it was delayed all the time. There was some producer-developper problems IIRC too... But it finally came out, and I liked some parts of it. The graphics were better than SH1 obviously, and I had some successed with the main purpose of sinking and avoiding to be sunk myself. BUT I never liked the scripted campaign part, and I surely never liked the bad working save function. The early years of this decade, I also started to read the subsim forums, and in 2002 I think, I made a small donation to get the Pacific Aces mod plus some other mods for SH2, like the project messerwetzer or whatever it was named. A thing which would be nice in SH5 too, to be able to decide yourself the diving angle. Anyway, the SH2 campaign was finished once, and I never really liked the idea to play it again. The PA mod was only glanced at a bit. It finally didn't really catch my full attention. I then played RTCW till SH3 was announced and published.

2004, I joined ubi forums, 2005 subsim. And since March 18th 2005 on SH3 release date, I have been cruising along in either VIIb or IXb in SH3 for some time with different mods such as RuB and the early GW mod, both with my own tweak mods. Now if I boot up SH3, it's with LSH3.

When SH4 was announced, I preordered the deluxe edition like many others... I can't say, I got hooked right away, it took some time, but I finally like SH4 PTO more now than SH3 ATO. Mostly because of improved gameplay functionality, graphics, radio and smoother loading times.

I'm watching the development of SH5 just as much as anybody else, and I would lie, if I didn't say that I look forward to cruise a German uboat again. I do, and I really hope they include all uboat types ever commissioned with all the technology that existed and in working order.

[nikimcbee]

I still have my original SH manual.:D:shucks:

[V.C. Sniper]

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific only.

U.S. Fleet subs are epic and FTW.

Me dun like uboats

[Lt commander lare]

my history as follows i have played every silent hunter game that has been released including silent service 2 by Microprose and silent service when i had nintendo and that was alot of fun to play as well i think with everything i played i have enough command experience to be a real lt commander


lt commander lare

[KG_Jag]

I play/played all of them, although undoubtedly many fewer hours than most on these boards. I also play/played Aces of the Deep (now on DOS box).

[Brag]

I started with SH-2 while living on a sailboat and played it at TCx1. Many a time I jumped out of my bunk in response to the Shif gesichted call from the lookouts.

SH-3 vanilla was ok. Except for that stupid screen that popped up instead of a lookout calling out a sighting.

GWX improved the game a lot except for careers crashing.

I'm planning to get an adequate machine to handle SH-5 :salute:

[THE_MASK]

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7439/1062u.gif (http://img41.imageshack.us/i/1062u.gif/)

[Highbury]

All of them.

My first sub game was Silent Service on the original Nintendo. Then I moved to PC and played pretty much every WWII title we have had, SS II, AOTD, Wolfpack etc etc.

[Schultzy]

All of them and AoTD and Microprose's Silent Service 2 on the Atari ST. :ping:

[Kromus]

3&4

When I got SH3 for the first time I was just hooked up for about month and half without thinking of playing/doing anything else. It was kind of dream coming true since I always loved submarines (Atari 800XL opened Silent Hunting world to me)

[momo55]

One day , on vacation by my parents i bought SH1 and Silent Thunder and played them for years . I bought SHII buth due to RL-stuff didn't realy play it. Now i play III and IV.

[JScones]

Played them all, although SH1 & 2 went the way of ebay many, many years ago.

Like others here, I followed the standard progression from Silent Service (on the C64), Silent Service II, AoTD, Wolfpack, Command:AoTD, then through the SH series. I also remember playing for a little while "Grey Wolf" (remember it? Much more arcadish).

I remember though that in the end I, as a budding software engineer at the time, spent more time reading through the Silent Service code (it was a very easy game to crack), then I spent playing it!

[XLjedi]

Had to vote for SH3&4 only... as it relates to the SH series. I think SH1 & 2 came out during a busier part of my life in school or something and I just missed em.

I've played sub sims for years though. First one was Silent Service on the C64. However I think it was probably Red Storm Rising a few years later on the Amiga that finally hooked me on the genre. Been buying up sub and naval sims ever since. :ping:

I'm still waiting for that magical modern subsim that will draw me in like SH3 did (SH4 not so much).

[Reece]

I voted on 3 & 4 only though I have also played 2 with PA!!:yeah:

[Captain Vlad]

My first sub game? Can't actually remember the name...was that arcade game where you had the actual periscope, and for a quarter got to fire torpedoes at the ships scrolling across the screen.

For sims, my first was Silent Service for the NES. Not long after that I ended up with Silent Service II for the PC, and played it enough that I went through six or seven copies of the obligatory backup discs, learning that there was wisdom in the statement 'always use the copy not the original'.

Aces of the Deep was next. I picked it over Silent Hunter since it was made my Dynamix, who I trusted after the other Aces games...the only SSI stuff I'd played that was naval oriented at that point was the 'Great Naval Battles' series which always seemed buggy and slow.

My first Silent Hunter was the second, and after playing and enjoying it (though I disliked being restricted to missions) I bought the original bundle packed with Flanker 3.5. Played it quite a bit, but it never seemed as magical as Aces of the Deep or Silent Service 2.

SH 3 hooked me, despite not being my preferred theater. SH IV was an insta buy since it returned to my sub game roots. I'm a bit saddened that SH V is not Pacific theater, but with an odd number of games in the series, someone has to be down one.

I never got around to playing Das Boot, Wolf Pack or Gato, much to my regret. I have fiddled some with modern sub sims, with Red Storm Rising being the only one I truly got into.

[kiwi_2005]

First sub game was 'Fast Attack' a modern combat subsim.

Then i moved to 'Aces of the Deep' (AOTD), then Silent hunter 1, 2, 3, & 4 and hopefully 5 when its out. :salute:

[ReM]

I enjoyed Silent Hunter 2-3-4 and will enjoy 5 in the future. Command Aces of the deep as well and a couple of Commodore 64 games and Wolfpack on my 386.

This is the first sub game I ever played. (in the south of France, it took almost all my vacation money but boy did I have fun back then)
http://lunacityarcade.com/images/games/seawolf.jpg

[sharkbit]

I enjoyed Silent Hunter 2-3-4 and will enjoy 5 in the future. Command Aces of the deep as well and a couple of Commodore 64 games and Wolfpack on my 386.

This is the first sub game I ever played. (in the south of France, it took almost all my vacation money but boy did I have fun back then)
http://lunacityarcade.com/images/games/seawolf.jpg

WOW!
That brought back some memories.

:DL

[AVGWarhawk]

WOW is right....I remember pumping quarters into that game all day. :D

[LiveGoat]

Wow the older I get, the cooler those old arcade machines look. Like modern art sculptures.

I've done all the SH series. My first real subsim was Aces of the Deep. First on floppies then on CD. I didn't take to the Win 95 version. The fact that all the engine speeds sounded like flank and that it was in windowed mode turned me off.

[Kaleun_Endrass]

My first subsim was Silent Service II. I played it for a couple of month on my good old 286 with 1MB memory. I was to young to get behind the secrets of sneaking in shooting range, calculate a firing solution etc. So I almost lost every fight.
The next was Wolfpack (a whole game on less then 500kb HDD space), but I didn´t know much more about uboat war than with SS2 so I was DCed all the time.
But back in 1994 Aces of the Deep was released and I did something I didn´t ever do befor - I read the manual. Since then I´m Uboat obsessed.
Played the whole SH series. I was very disappointed about SH4 - It was just a good looking graphic benchmark to me. To many annoying bugs that ruined gameplay.

I also had a DOS game called "Das Boot", which can be loaded at abandonia.com. I can only remember the Gibraltar mission where airplanes filled the sky and mines made it impossible to dive...

I´m excited about SH5 because the first-person view is the feature I wanted so badly in a subsim since I found the so-called "The VIIc Project". I was a bit disappointed as SH3 came with its fixed camera positions. But still SH3(+GWX) is the best subsim of all. Hope that SH5 will be the next SH3

:salute:

[Sailor Steve]

I played the original Silent Service and then SS2 on an Atari (computer, not game system). I bought my first PC in '98 just so I could play things like Red Baron, and then discovered Silent Hunter. Tried Epyx's Sub Battle Simulator and hated it. I bought SH2 and almost couldn't play it due to the bugs, which is what led me to SubSim. Bought SH3 even though my computer wouldn't run it, and finally got one that could. Bought SH4 and play it even though my current rig requires that I play with all the cool stuff turned off.

I'll buy SH5 the minute I can, and worry about the rest when I can afford it.

[seaniam81]

I started off with Silent Service 2 on my old 286, then moved onto Aces of the Deep and Silent Hunter 1 on my 486, I got SH2 on my old P3, and that got me here at subsim. I picked up the Aces mod for SH2 and loved that. Moved onto SH3 and SH4 on my current system. Looks like a whole new system is going to be needed for SH5

[Hartmann]

i started a lot of time ago with this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rh1Y9zgmF8

Then with aces of the deep, and silent hunter 1, 2. 3

i´m waiting to play silent hunter 4 and 5

[Frame57]

I started with the Janes 688 game/sim and then realized the campaigns in the SH games felt more dynamic and non scripted. Have not looked back since. The games have also made me more appreciative of the WW2 vets and what they did in those days.:arrgh!:

[Seaman_Hornsby]

Boy, this brings back some memories. I've played all the Silent Hunter series, and Silent Service on the Amiga too. I'd have to dig around in the closet, but I believe I still have the Aces of the Deep Command Edition, and the original Silent Hunter CD floating around in there somewhere. Maybe even some floppy disks....

Right now I'm playing SH4, since the Pacific is my favorite theater, but I'm still looking forward to SH5. A new subsim is a new subsim after all, and the screenshots look promising. :arrgh!: Besides, if SH5 is a success, the improvements might be taken back to the Pacific in SH6. :yeah:

[danurve]

Janus error & SH3

[Grothesj2]

All the Silent Hunters, Silent Service, Aces of the Deep, & Red Storm Rising.

[Powerthighs]

- Briefly played Gato on a friend's Dad's green-screen computer.
- Silent Service on C64
- Sub Battle Simulator on C64
- Red Storm Rising on C64
- Silent Hunter 1 on PC in college

*ten year break - wasn't aware of SH2 or SH3*

- Silent Hunter 4 on PC

[java`s revenge]

So wow, i have to use my grey brains..

- a subsim i can`t remember the name anymore.
It was on a pc. I do remember that it was a black/grey/white
screen and the radar.
- wolfpack
- silent service
- silent service 2
- 688 subattack
- ss2
- silent hunter 1
- i dìdn`t bought silent service 2 course the reviews weren`t good.
- silent hunter 3
- silent hunter 4
- sub command

And am ready now for the utmost silent hunter 5, played 3 grey and still love it.:salute:

[Oberst Oswald]

2 & 3

[Mopy]

Silent service in the 80's on the Amiga 500 was my first. Silent service 2 was my second. I loved sinking ships with the deck gun and still clearly remember the sound shooting made many years on, in addition to the torpedo launch screen - I used to say "One day, real games will look like that" hoho what a treat I would be in for without knowing it.

I didn't play another sub game until Silent Hunter 3, excluding a dabble with 688 attack sub on the Megadrive (Genesis) that lasted mere minutes.

Really looking forward to SH5. I hope this is the one. :sunny:

[Bosje]

played and loved all of them, but the real fun only started with SHIII, these forums and my decision to finally try one of these 'mods' everyone talked about

[Jimbuna]

played and loved all of them, but the real fun only started with SHIII, these forums and my decision to finally try one of these 'mods' everyone talked about

Yeah, I think SH3 was the major breakthrough at the time, in both gameplay and graphics. http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[almg]

I started with SHIII but SHIV wasn't as good as SHIII.

I hope SHV will be better than SHIII if this is possible :up: !!

[Randomizer]

All in the franchise and before that AOD, Silent Service I and 2 and a couple of others lost and forgotten along the way.

On to SH5, my decision when (or if) to purchase SH5 will be based on the selected DRM method followed by the user interface engine. If it's to be a first-person RPG cartoon in a U-Boat, think I'll take a pass. The Modders here have set the sub sim bar very high and any SH5 should be a vast gameplay improvement on the existing mods like GWX/RSRD/TMO/RFB etc. and not a mere graphics extravaganza.

That goal might be tough to achieve.

Good Hunting

[Rafael]

I started with SHIII but SHIV wasn't as good as SHIII.

I hope SHV will be better than SHIII if this is possible :up: !!

Same here ...SH3 + 4. And I agree with the above mentioned.

[Kapt Z]

Just played SH and SH III.

Heard SH 2 stunk up the place and never picked it up.

Hope to get SH 4 when I get a better machine.

I'm sure I'll get around to SH 5 by the time they're talking about SH 6.

[JHuschke]

Silent Hunter I was my first, then along to Silent Hunter II, and then Silent Hunter III (I played SH3 the most), then SH4 to check it out but then after a while I went back to the 3rd, it's the best

[U2222]

Started with Silent Service then all Sh 1 through 4.
Each release got better until SH4 which did not live up to my expectations.
I pinned my hopes on GWX4 to change all this but now I eagerly await SH5

[von schatten]

I started with Silent Service on one of the consoles. Next was SH2 and Destroyer Command followed by SH3 and SH4. SH3 is the only game that I have owned that has been on my computer continuously since its release-5yrs. Ubi made a great game and the modding community enhanced it to a degree that I still play it constantly. The Devs listen to the community and are obviously trying to give us what we want. I am really looking forward to SH5.

[karamazovnew]

If I may, I really don't understand why all say that SH4 was worse than SH3. I've just played SH3 (1.4) without mods and it preety much sucks when compared with SH4 without mods (1.5). Fully modded they're practically on the same level. SH3 and SH4 were in essence similar to SH1 and 2. The only big improvement were the 3D static screens. In all of them YOU were the SUB.

Moving inside the ship and interacting with your crew, all working to move that tub of metal on the ocean will provide a completely new experience. I have no doubt that SH5 will blow us away. Or suck us in :arrgh!:

[Barkhorn1x]

Came back too late for the poll. Ah well. My first subsim was SHII - and it was pretty pathetic although the user super patch did improve things such as allowing one to go beyond 800x600 rez. :salute:

I then got a copy of SHI and enjoyed that much more than SHII.

SHIII was very good w/ the GWX mod but I must admit that I am a Fleetboat kind of guy.

So...SHIV is the bees knees for me using the TMO and RSRD mods.

Don't know if I will go for SHV as I see no new PC on the horizon for a long while and I prefer the Pacific.

[aanker]

I couldn't vote - no choices applied......... lol

Silent Hunter Commanders Edition SHCE - (SH1)

Pacific Aces (an outstanding mod using the SH2 game engine)

and most recently, SH4 ver. 1.5 - I still play SHCE & PA occasionally. They all have their own unique 'personalities'. (Pacific Theatre only for this cowboy)

Happy Hunting!

Art

[DaveU186]

so I mostly raided harbours, deck gunning sampans along the way.

:up:

That was me as well. I was very young at the time, and just cruised the ocean gunning down Sampans before returning to base to get a telling off for it. :nope:

[Zoomer96]

I started with Silent Hunter 1 and played that till 2000. Silent Hunter 2 never ran right and I gave up on it. Didn't play much for a while there and got ahold of a computer that would run Silent Hunter 3 and played that some but never got into it as much as silent Hunter 1. I still have it on my old laptop and play it with GWX whenever I take it out of town. Really came back into the fold for Silent Hunter 4 and there you go! I played Silent Service on Nintendo for quite a while and later on my PC. I actually liked SSN-21 Seawolf but it had something lacking. I remember seeing a PC game way back in the late 80's or early 90's called Up Periscope but never bought it. I'd have to say I like SH4 best followed by SH1 then SH3 and Silent Service on PC and then on Nintendo in that order. Intellivision's Sub Hunt was fun for about 2 days. After that my thumb would get blisters trying to turn that little disc wheel!