How did you find the subs to be your hobby?

[Rosencrantz]

Just thought to put this topic on the screen with hope YOU can find time to aswer. It would be nice to get know you better! :)


Rosencrantz himself:

- Read Schaeffers book U977 20 years ago, when 10 years old.
- Clancys The Hunt for Red October a year later.
- Still diving deeper. Special interest: Original documents.
- Best ones: Books writen by Edward L. Beach.

- PC games: SH, SHII, SHIII, Sub Command.

- No connection with subs in RL.

[Marhkimov]

Marhkimov:

-It all started with B-17: The Mighty 8th. I really liked the role-playing element, as opposed to fly, shoot, and return home.
-Then I Heard about SH3, and immediately I drew the comparisons between life onboard a B-17 and a U-boat.
-Then as soon as I could, I went and bought SH3.
-Loved it ever since. You could say that SH3 started my love/appreciation for subs.

-I also play (or used to play) IL2FBA, CFS3:OFF, CFS2

-Never been in the military, no affiliation with subs in RL.

[Torplexed]

I have to blame Jules Verne and his novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I also have to blame Irwin Allen and his Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea television show. :yep: (be it ever so hokey) From there my interest graviated towards the real thing and I started reading books about actual submarines and submarine history. Started a lifetime interest in naval history and ships of all kinds to boot.

[Schpeedy]

I think it was the 'silent sevice' game for nintendo that I got my first sub'ing in.

After playing alot of the flightsims, the subs actually became more attractive to me. Since a sub battle is like a dog fight with time to think. If ya die in a sub, it took an hour or so atleast to get into the bad situation! :P

So I got Command: Aces of the Deep...

This is the only game I've seen since that had a carreer mode... SH3 rules!

[John Channing]

Sitting on my Fathers lap watching "Silent Service" and "Victory at Sea" back in the early sixties.

[Venatore]

I love my IL2 FB & AEP due to the Stab utility and being able to custom my own fighter skins and place my own face on the fighter pilot, there is so much to mod in IL2. THEN CAME SH3 WOW!!!!!! :huh: the modders have done an excellent job in bringing this came to the highest level, at the same time I brought this game I also started to read IRON COFFINS (Herbert A. Wener) :huh: That book was amazing. Now for christmas I got a U-boat model and two U-boat books.

I know that people look at me and say why do you only like the German U-boat era 1939-1945, my answer is simple; 40,000 U-boat crews went to war, only 10,000 survived, the living conditions were poor, now try and imagine you are the U-boat commander aged around 30-35 yrs you have 30-40 men under you command, try and keep that all together for 1 war patrol, I don't think alot of our 30-35 yr old men of today could do it, including me :hmm:

[Deimos01]

For me it was when my Dad took me to see Das Boot when it came out in theaters in the US. Loved that movie and promptly headed off to the library to find out all I could about U-boats.

Played silent service on nintendo then SH2 when it came out.

Im still just fasinated with this whole subject.

[zombiewolf]

the b17 II game kinda got me here..same kinda thing(almost)
alsom play il2 merged pacific fighters and O.F.F. a third party mod for cfs3 :up:

[Bill Nichols]

First it was my profession, then it became my hobby :yep:

[Sniper297]

Run Silent Run Deep when I was a kid. I have no idea how old I was, but I think the first book my Dad bought me when I was old enough to read was a kid's book about submarines. I never really lost the fascination, altho when I served in the US Navy back in the 70's, I was an ASW tech in a heavy anti-submarine helicopter squadron! :doh: My first sub simulator was a DOS based game called GATO on an 80286, in 320x200 four color CGA, cyan sea, white sky, black and magenta dials. Don't remember the year, but i think it was 1985.

[Pirate]

For me, it all started many years ago when I started paying Sub Battle Simulator on my x086. Since then been playing all subsims...

Sub Battle Simulator was very good subsim when it came out, about 20 years ago.
Also played the Destroyer game from same makers. Still have it on a 5 1/4 disk! lol

[Driftwood]

I'm with Sniper. It began for me when I first saw the movie Run Silent, Run Deep as a kid. Then I read the book, watched the TV series Silent Service and it went on from there. Sub movies, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (movie and TV series), etc. Wound up joining the Army instead of the Navy. Figured I could always walk back if my ride got shot out from under me. :lol:

[Bluewings]

Submarines are just fascinating ...

Cheers .

[Salvadoreno]

when i heard 40,000 went in and 30,000 didnt come out. I was intrigued... So i read/played/ and researched and i believe sub boys are the brravest in the world.

[Holger]

My grandfather was one of the few that did make it.
Sadly, he died when I was 15 in 1990, so i never got to ask him about his expiriences.

So I started to read about subs in attempted to get an insight into his life during ww2 .

[Gizzmoe]

- "Das Boot" TV series in the mid-eighties.
- "Silent Service" on the C64.

[Crym]

I guess I can blame my parents and computer for my interest in submarines.

My father was on a submarine in his military service right after WWII. Norway had submarines ordered back in 1915 then, Holland class subs that had been made without implementing the WWI experiences into the design, like the amazing technological wonder IIA. I don't remember very much of what he told me, but I do remember something about sailing under the weather (no bad weather at 20 meters and deeper and a sub can usually find calm waters in some Norwegian fjord) and the great VIICs Norway got three of in '48, a year after my father had quit the navy and surfaced for the last time.

My mother is also to blame, as she took me for walks at the harbour so I could see the German WWII U-boat bunkers Dora 1 & 2 which are located here in Trondheim. And none of them tried to stop me from reading Jules Verne and some McLean/Bagley/whoever thriller(s) about life on a submarine.

Later I have of course seen "Das Boot", played a few sub sims on the CBM-64 and later my PCs (can't remember the names, but I have been looking for new subsim for years before finding SH3 last autumn), probably watched a day or two of submarine programs on Discovery Channel etc. Now I have an almost unsound interest in submarines, having read quite a few pages at uboat.net, old newspaper articles, historical documentation like HT 1.47s story of the Italian navy's submarines and more.

But not a lot more, there is just so much time for reading when you are busy winning the war for Das Vaterland. Yes, winning, I am in February '41 in my campaign now and nothing can go wrong, right? ;)

Crym

[vonBimmell]

I was fascinated with submarines when I was young, and then became a submariner in real life serving on a diesal O-boat.

[John Channing]

I was fascinated with submarines when I was young, and then became a submariner in real life serving on a diesal O-boat.

Left Coast or Right Coast Navy?

JCC

[vonBimmell]

Right coast on the Okanagan.

[Angle]

"silent service" for the C64 back in the 80s for me. It's all Microprose's fault.

Hangs head in silence.

RIP Microprose.

[kiwi_2005]

Silent Service" on the C64

I remeber that! played it though on a IBM 286, game came with the computer.

What got me into subs was watching a tv series when i was about 9 called world at war in black and white and one episode was on the atlantic, First time i saw a uboat and i was hooked. It showed the Captain manning the persicope and fireing a torpedo and i was like WOW! i wanna be a uboat captain.
I started collecting model ww2 submarines and battleships but back then i was a kid and kids get bored, so one day on our farm i decided to get all my models and put them in one of the drains and start my own battle of the atlantic with my old mans shotgun and blew them all to pieces :roll: Buggar!

[Kaptan Tommy]

Boy, I guess it was a TV program in the 50's (here in the U.S.) called "Navy Log", which had a couple sub episodes. Then along came a program called "Silent Service" with Ret. Adm Thomas M. Dykers narrating. I found a book in my grammar school library called "The Real Book About Submarines", and I would take it out and keep it out for weeks.

Every chance I got I went to see subs when they came to Chicago, joined the navy to get on subs, but failed the color test.

Bought an Atari 1040ST in 1986, and with it a copy of the famous MicroProse Silent Service. Years later I bought a PC, and with it, the PC upgraded version of Silent Service.

Several PC's later, I stumbled on Silent Hunter 3 at Best Buy - and the rest is history... :know:

[Dowly]

Marhkimov:

-It all started with B-17: The Mighty 8th. I really liked the role-playing element, as opposed to fly, shoot, and return home.
-Then I Heard about SH3, and immediately I drew the comparisons between life onboard a B-17 and a U-boat.
-Then as soon as I could, I went and bought SH3.
-Loved it ever since. You could say that SH3 started my love/appreciation for subs.

-I also play (or used to play) IL2FBA, CFS3:OFF, CFS2

-Never been in the military, no affiliation with subs in RL.

95% same here! :o

I started on B17 then went to B17: The Mighty 8th ;)

[Marhkimov]

Yes, it's a shame that Microprose died... They had so much potential... :cry:

[Dowly]

I agree with you on that one. R.I.P. Microprose :nope:

[FERdeBOER]

First, my love for the sea.

Then, "The enemy bellow". Later "Hunt for Red October".

And then... "Aces of the Deep!!" :rock: :rock:

The rest is a ball of snow falling from a mountain: SHI, Fast Attack, SHII, Sub Command, SHIII, Dangerous waters...

And other games as Das Boot, Wolfpack, SSI and II, and so on, so on...

[Curval]

688 Attack Sub sparked my interest back in 1989.

[Ahoy!]

10 years ago I found Aces of the Deep in a bargain bin and bought it on impulse. I got hooked. I have also lived by the sea all my life and got interseted in ships and boats early.
From then on I have consumed all the books and documentaries I cpuld get my hands on, it will never stop ;)

[jherdt]

The movie Gray Lady Down with Charleton Heston and Silent Service for the C64 by Microprose.

r/Jim

[HundertzehnGustav]

PLANES are my hobby... :D :o :oops:
Beaufighters especialy :yep: and beauforts and Swordfishes

[FesterShinetop]

It started with Silent Service on my trusty old Atari 600XL, that game made me read Das Boot (and watch the movie).

[Curval]

PLANES are my hobby... :D :o :oops:
Beaufighters especialy :yep: and beauforts and Swordfishes

I have become very friendly with a British Air Arm pilot who began his career in Swordfish. I had an artist do a scetch of a painting he had commissioned many years ago of him flying the old "stringbag". I then had the guy sign it and have it framed and hanging on the wall in my home office.

I even traded houses with the guy...well, he took my condo and I took his house and then I paid the differential after we had both properties professionally valued.

Saved us both a fortune on commissions and stamp duty.

Great guy...83 years old but still sharp as a tac. Unfortunately his eyesight has failed him though.

[Crop-Duster]

688 Attack Sub sparked my interest back in 1989.

:yep: me too!

[Wolfram]

AoD then Silent Hunter.

Das Boot, Enemy Below, some other sub movies I cannot recall the names of :oops:

Hunt for Red Oktober (book then movie)

I am insane :P

:lurk:

[Sailor Steve]

I grew up in the '50s, watching movies like 'Run Silent, Run Deep' and 'Destination Tokyo', the TV show 'Silent Service' and reading books like 'Pig Boats'. I loved subs and planes long before I saw my first video games.

[Crash Dive]

In 1986 I read "Clear the Bridge." By Richard O'Kane. Loved subs ever since. :arrgh!:

[phatmatt]

I just like the fact that you need to rely on your crew and no one else. if something goes wrong your all along. and a submarine is all about that :arrgh!:

[hunter301]

I love anything dealing with large ship strategy in a three dimensional world. All my reading jumps from either submarine fighting novels, past. present and future. Well not to future, and anything dealing with large ship space battles. I love it everytime I hear a command coming from the bridge directing these multi manned killing machines in combat. I used to be into flight sims for many, many years but never got over large ship combat. Now that I have outgrown the simplicity of a one man fighters I love the intricacy and involvement of commanding larger fighting ships.

[Karl-Heinz Jaeger]

Silent Service on my piece of crap Atari 130XE started it off for me, only thing was the version I had didn't have the Japanese Aircraft carrier Jinya mission. It took me another few years til 688 Attack Sub came out before I had the pleasure of sending one of those big ladies to the bottom. Since then I've always loved Sub movies and Sub games but am yet to find a single Sub Book in this crummy city(Dublin). Still theres always Amazon.com....... :hmm: :up:

[fargel]

I first got interested about U-Boots was when I first watched Das Boot. Then later i got more interested when i was playing Battlefield 1942 and always played on one map that had the subs. Until I heard of Sh3 through Maximum PC and they gave it a 8 rating, i decided to try it and I loved it.

[Laughing Swordfish]

Das Boot for me, I suppose, but when I was a kid I despised piddly little submarines and built airfix models of the Bismark and the Ark Royal, an even destroyers like HMS Cossack.

I could only think in terms of big guns and big ships.

As I grew older, and this wasn't the only thing occupying my mind at that age, in fact it was about the 100th. Of course my attitude changed.

Perversely, but it's true, we British do love an underdog, and I came to realise that small groups of young determined men in small boats, nearly brought us to our knees. And at terrible sacrifice to themselves.

Later, I had even more empathy with the idea in my military service when we were required to be many miles beyond enemy lines, and hoping they could not see us, or hear us, or pick up our short radio transmissions. Just like a U-boat and with alll the tensions and consequences that brings to a small team.

So that's what I love about SH3 (which has combined the freedom of AoD with the rich intensity of modern graphics)

We're the little guys against the big guys, and it doesn't matter if we're German, it's all about stealth, patience, resourcefulness cunning and courage. Which is what makes it such a good game for anyone with an ounce of imagination.

And every patrol, like U-46's, is open ended, until the time when it is ended.

Any way my boat is still up and bouncing up and down those Atlantic rollers.

Hope your boats are too.

Best, Laughing Swordfish

[SmokinTep]

I work on them for a living.............

[SiragoSailor]

Sitting on my Fathers lap watching "Silent Service" and "Victory at Sea" back in the early sixties.

John, look at Full Fathom Five segment of V@S. When it opened freeze frame when on the side of the fleet superstructure. You will see 485 The USS Sirago last Navy ship commissionedn during WWII. I served on her from 1963-1968 after converstion to a GuppyIIa. Was a real submariners submarine :arrgh!:

[Punisher_sa]

I am a fanatical flight sim pilot and recently a friend bought the sh3 game, thought i would give it a go and no i am hooked. Finding it very dificult to balance my fight weekly and mt parols, damn the devs why did they have to make such good sims!!!! :down:

[Kurt Alden]

I was in California on my honeymoon. We were in San Francisco and I noticed that one of the tourist attractions was the USS Pampanito, a WW2 sub. I was really torn as I'm claustrophic as hell and thinking about those cramped spaces freaked me out but really wanted to see it so we went early in the morning when it would be as empty as possible.

It was just amazing wandering round an old sub and I really enjoyed it, not a hint of claustropobia as there was so much to look at. This started an interest in subs but it didn't take off until more recently when SH3 was voted the best sim. I'd heard of it but never played it so I bought it and then I was seriously hooked. I then read Das Boot and the rest is history :-)

[reznor]

Das Boot TV series when I was a kid.

[TreverSlyFox]

Like Sailor Steve I grew up in the 50s-60s and saw all the old Sub Movies and TV shows. When I was about 10-12 my parents took us to Chicago to the Museum of Science and Industry and we toured the U-505. After that I was hooked on Subs and WWI and WWII in general, built all the models from Biplanes to Battleships.

When the computer came along with games like 688 Attack Sub, Silent Service, AOD, Red Baron, Silent Hunter I was there buying and playing. Been at it ever since, about 85% of the almost 200 games I have are WWI or WWII sims.

[thasaint]

played silent service for nintendo when i was a kid, i've always like world war 2 games of all genres, so the silent hunter series was an obvious buy

688 attack sub, i miss that game :(

[Godvampire]

my naval games order:

up periscope!
wolfpack
silent hunter
seawolf
taskforce 1942
P.T.O.II
Great naval battles of the north atlantic 1&2
Harpoon
Jutland
Janes fleet command
sub command
silent hunter II
destroyer command
dangerous waters
Navyfleld...
silent hunter III

My feelings are with everything with steel that floats, sadly most of those games belong to my freak sim friends ... someday ill test the pacific aces campaign to sh2 thats my next objective.

[DJ Funk]

- Visited 'Vesikko' the type II U-boat in 1985
- After that there was the Das Boot Miniseries in TV.
- Played my first sims with commodore 64s & amigas (can't remember all the early titles anymore)
- Really started getting involved with Pc games 688I Hunter Killer & Silent Hunter I & II.

[joerd9]

Family tradition in my case... :)
My grandpa was a submariner on a IX/D2 (U-859), torpedoed a few miles before reaching Penang by a british sub.
My dad never got to know him and over the years became a little obsessed with him (still keeping his EK II and uniform knobs) and subs in general and I guess that was inherited upon me.
Besides that, most of the mentioned above: Das Boot movie, and some of the american sub movies, early sub games like Sub Battle Simulator, Silent Service and so on...
and reading books of course.

Stay silent...
joerd

[ironkross]

688 attack sub, i miss that game :(
Same here 688i, which led me to buy SHII. I read some books earlier mostly on WWII US Pacfleet subs. Wasn't until SHII peaked my interest enough that I started buying books on WWII battle for the Atlantic.