I started off with MPS's Silent Service for the Apple ][, then Silent Service II & II when they were released.

But it was the first Silent Service that got me hooked.

Then it was (iirc) Aces of the Deep and the original Silent HUnter + add-ons.

Jane's Attack sub was cool, but lack of replayability doomed it to a short life on my hard drive.

Looking forward to SH IV - somehow patrolling a US boat in the Pacific is what still interests me.

i got into u-boats from a game on the c-64 "silent service" wicked game

WWII has always been an area of interest for me. It started a long time ago when I got the Avalon Hill board game Panzerblitz as a gift (in the 1970's). Since I played the German side, I wanted to learn more about the German armed forces in that war. One thing led to another, and soon I was playing flight simulators including the Combat Flight Simulator series and IL2-FB. On a combat flight forum I heard about SH3's development. That led me to investigate the SH series and buy SH2. Again, as I learned more and played more, I was hooked. Ever since SH3 came out, I play it almost exclusively.

I saw the game and I said "Hmmm... Looks like a good game:hmm: "

Also before that I had red 1 U-Boat book.:yep:

When I was a young lad (round 7th grade) a class required us to read a book called "Deathwatch" by rob white. It was a story that had absolutely nothing to do with the military, but I was so enthralled with it that I searched the library for other books by the author. I found he was a wonderful WWII Naval fiction author penning such classics as "up pericsope", "the frogmen", "torpedo Run", etc. Reading those books started my passion for WWII navy things that then branched off to movies, other books, etc. Then that developed into a love for modern submarines as well, but WWII was and still is my favorite. It was also around that same age I got to take my first trip through the USS Torsk in Baltimore, MD. My first subsim was 688 attack sub for a sega game console. Even though as a sim, it was pretty lousy, especially by todays standards, I played that game for weeks on end. Finally, in my college years, I grabbed a copy of the great Aces Of the Deep that shifted my interest to German Uboats. I thought AOD was the greatest game ever made, despite its shortcomings. A few years back, when I upgraded to Windows XP, AOD would no longer work and there was no support for the game anymore. For a year or two after that, I had abandoned the notion of having a good UBoat sim. Finally I could take it no longer, and started searching the web hoping someone had independently made a patch for AOD to make it work again. That's how I stumbled onto this site. I couldn't believe there was a whole community of folks with my same passion. I had never even heard of most of the games on here, but the same night I found this site, I ran out and picked up SHIII which unbelievably was everythin I had ever wanted in a game. Been reading here and playing for many months, but finally decided to start posting. The only thing better than SHIII is this forum and knowing I'm not alone in the world.

WW2 is my main interest more so the eastern front, picked up SH1 for a nice cheap price back in the 1990's but had no real interest in subs until I bought SH2 which started me to start taking an interest in subs. And when SH3 came out I became more interested in reading up on the battle of the Atlantic. And I suspect when SH4 comes out I shall take more of an interest in the Pacific.

Always been into WW2 mainly the navy side
Used to read a load of books by Douglas Reeman (?) when younger and that started me off
While in last years of school we had to make a database and one of the choices were uboat sinkings
That was me hooked on uboats and have never looked back :up:

As many others, i have always been facinated by U-boats.
But the sim part was when i tried SH1.
Back then the graphics was stunning:o anyways:
Being able to lurk around those huge areas feeling completely alone was totally different from other games i had played.
But the thing that really got me hooked was when i got my first successful hit with a torpedo. NO game beats that feeling! :rock: :rock:

:ping: well, that's pretty much my experience regarding U-boats, nd now im trying to figure out the SH3 gameplay:ping:

I think the primary reason i got intrested in U-Boats, was due to a lack of sub sim's that had the same level of immersion, but in a US Fleet boat.

What got me into WW2 sub's in general? I have no idea. It's just something that happened. I suppose i saw some old black and white film as a kid. Infact, it may have been "Run Silent, Run deep". I really don't know.

I remember as a kid playing, "silent Service" on my NES. Later on in highschool i read a few books written by Edward Beach. (sp). Later on i started playing Aces of the deep, because there wasnt any sub games with American boats. Silent Hunter I was an utter dissapointment to me. Too cut and dry, didnt have the feel like AOD did.

Later on while overseas, i read a few more of Beach's books and some other books on US subs. I read the tales about the Wahoo, harder, Seawolf, Tang, Toutog, Trigger, the list goes on.

Then oneday i read about Sh3. Looked really cool, shame it wasn't with US fleet boats, but i figured i wasnt about to let that stop me from enjoying a good WW2 diesal electric sub sim. After playing SH3 awhile, i grew to want to know more about the German Uboats and their crews, and started reading books about them as well.

Now i feel i know about as much about Uboats as i do Fleet Boats, although i think im probably still more familiar with the Gato then i am with the type VII or type IX. I toured a Gato once, and i sort of knew where everything was before i ever set foot onboard. Once onboard, i wasn't lost, and knew exactly where i was, and had a damn good idea what i was looking at. Talk about a geek. I can't say that about German Uboats, but then again, ive never gotten the chance to see one either.

Why U-boats?
 

I have always had a passion for the German Navy, and to a lesser degree the Royal Navy, of the 20th century, mostly focusing on the battle fleets of WW I and the capital ships of WW II.

However, a few years ago I got to meet, and subsequently becomes friends with, the II WO from U-1105, Heinz Sonnenrein and his lovely wife Ursula. Heinz and Ursula both died back in 1999, within 10 days of each other, but my interest had been fired up.

As a consequence of meeting Heinz, I immediately began, through letters, and later the net, making friends in Germany who also shared the U-boat interest. One friend actually works on U-995. When I visited in 2000, he took me to Laboe and showed me around U-995. We later went to Bremerhaven where we saw U-2540, and also to Wilhelmshaven where we had lunch on board the frigate Emden. Also visited the Peter Tamm collection in Hamburg, the U-boot Archiv in Cuxhaven-Altenbruch, and later I went to Freiburg im Bresgau to visit the Navy Archives where I spent far too much money on photocopying.

Another friend is currently a Kapitänleutnant in the Deutsches Marine.

Last year I discovered a U-boat veteran, Herman Meyer, living very close by who was a torpedo mechanic on U-409, and survived her sinking. He has been able to help me with some technical stuff about the Torpedo Firing Report, so that I can complement my SH III KTB's with the correct forms for any targets I engage. Unfortunately, Herman is not so good these days, but I still see him from time to time.

Then there was SH II, and by the time SH III came out, it was too late, I was addicted to U-boats, and beyond help. Maybe there is an SH III Anonymous group out there for guys who are so afflicted and may be able to help me kick the habit, but I doubt it! I bet there is a Partners of SH III Addicts group though!

Anyone interested to see how bad the addiction is, let me know as a recent patrol finished and the KTB, FTB and Shooting Report are nearly ready, and I can send you a copy.

When I was 5 years old my father took me to see DD ORP. Blyskawica(Lightning) in port town of Gdynia. The Polish destroyer served protecting convoys under British command during WWII (more info about the ORP. Blyskawica on Wiki).
Than after that we took the tour of the harbor and that’s when I saw it… it was the last of the Polish ORP Orzel submarines was tied to a pier and awaiting its doom. The decommissioned sub was being prepared for scrap.
The second I saw the sleek hull and coning tower an instant flame of curiosity burst in side of me. Since that day I always were interested in how the subs work. What makes them go under and what makes them surface and I so badly wanted to see how it looks inside. Since that day I became fascinated by submarines. When I became older my father got me Commodore 64 and with it I got Silent Service game. I remember spending hours playing that sub sim. Soon I upgraded to Commodore Amiga 600 and 1200 and than I laid my hands on Silent Service II, and Red Storm Rising. I was hooked on those games for weeks never ending playing them. And than became many other sub sims that I played and enjoyed. When SH3 came out and gave players the experience of war from the perspective of a German submarine commander. I fell in love with that game and I’ve been playing it ever since I got it.

Probably stems from the fact that my dad was Supposed to have been a Submariner after he joined the navy in 1968 he was assigned to the USS. Guitarro and well, that assignment never came to pass. http://www.history.navy.mil/library/...l/guitarro.htm

So he wound up on the Carrier USS Midway ( Which is much cooler, in my eyes, being apart of the history of such an honored vessel. )

Other than that, I have always thought that Submarines where neat *shrug*

1994, got a DX50 with 16 mb ram, 4 mb v card(later upgraded to 8), 32 mb ram, 1 gig hard drive.
1995, came over Silent Service, which made me read through a game magazine and i found Das Boot(The game) which made me see the movie, which made me get Silent Hunter (didnt understand squat, and still not understanding squat of TDC, I developed a sense of getting just about any ship at any distance without using tdc) . Later on I found out about Aces of the Deep, and i found Silent Service 2 in some diskette.
and from there and on it just sparkled, U-571, Silent Hunter 2, and now Silent Hunter 3.

I just love the VII and IX uboats, their streamlined body and shark-like look beats the crap out of any atomic-junglybungly round ugly uboats today. My dream is to go to see the U-505 in Chicago and take pictures of absolutely evrything.

Silent Hunter 3 kicks ass, I wish I could say the same about IV, but its about american uboats so I dont think il like it much.


RH

I played Silent Service I and II on several computers. I do have Silent Hunter 1, which I picked up in some kind of clearance pack back in 1999 or something, but the one time I tried it was nearly unplayable (I don't remember why).

At any rate, Silent Hunter 3 was just the latest and greatest, and based on forums (like Subsim), I just decided to give it a try. The German perspective is quite different, but all the principles that I learned on SS1/2 still apply.


I will definately be taking a hard look at SH4. If it looks like the game is near the same quality as SH3 (*cough*), I will likely pre-order it.

I have always loved military history of all ages and various cultures, with a particular preference for the World Wars. After those conflicts, my interest wanes. What I enjoy about the WW's is the balance between improving technology and man's influence upon performance in the field. After the Second World War, technology starts to get the upper hand in my view. I think military personnel are becoming operators instead of soldiers, but that is another discussion. The air and sea struggles during both WW's demonstrate the ascendancy of technology, but still required good men to function properly.:rock:

Anyway, I cannot remember what it was that drew me to the Second World War (I learned to appreciate the First World War only when I was a teenager), it has always been with me, from my earliest childhood onwards.

During my teen years I got introduced to the wonderful world of Commodore computers. First experiences came to me on a C64, later I purchased an Amiga 500 and later still, an Amiga 1200. The C64 didn't really help develop my love for history (except for a few games), but the Amiga scene was rife with historically inspired games. At first I played mostly flight sims (my first brush with flight sims was when I learned Spitfire '40 the hard way on a C64) and the real screamer for me back then was a game called Wings, by Cinemaware. Although horribly stereotyping WWI Germans as typical Nazis (I only realised that later), that game brought about an interest in some of Germany's early flying heroes like Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann. I got a book about flying aces from the library and it included sections on WWII aces as well - Allied and German.
At first (I was about 15 years old) I looked at these German flying fellows with the usual anti-German glasses I'd been taught to wear, but I couldn't help being very impressed by the military accomplishments of an Adolf Galland, an Erich Hartmann or a Hans-Joachim Marseille. I grew up in a very anti-German environment by the way, not because of my parents, but because of the general dispositions towards Germans in my region.:nope:
The Amiga didn't stop at supplying me with flight sims though: Silent Service II hit the Amiga scene around 1991 or 1992. The pirated version suffered from various bugs, including unreliable save games and random software failures. I still loved it to bits though. On at least one occasion I left the trusty A500 on for at least two nights as I dared not save my career - the computer stayed turned on until I got killed late in the war. I happily slept just a yard away while the game was set to "pause"...:rock:

I've always been into various aspects of the World Wars, but the aerial war was usually my number one priority. I'm usually inspired to read up on subjects by computer games. Ergo, flight sims caused me to read books on pilots and planes, while submarine sims drew my attention to navy books. Having shed my anti-German instincts by the time I had reached my early twenties', I took it upon myself to learn about the German war efforts in both WW's. This is reflected in my computer games in which I often elect to fly/sail as a German pilot/commander. It won't stop me from playing SHIV by the way.:up:

I also played Das Boot on the A500, but as a game it wasn't very good in my opinion. There was no dynamic campaign and the missions didn't seem to be lively at all.:damn:
When I was finally forced to upgrade to pc, I purchased Silent Service II again but it just wasn't as good as the Amiga version I was accustomed to. Some months or a year later, I rummaged through a bargain bin at a local warehouse when I espied Command: Aces of the Deep. I had not heard of the title before but everything about it cried out "quality!" to me so I bought it. Unfortunately I barely played the game since my own pc couldn't really handle it and I only played it on my dad's pc. The main subsim I played on pc was Silent Hunter I which I purchased twice: once as part of a 4-game pack and once as a free add-on to Fighting Steel. I enjoyed Silent Hunter I even though I was never very good at it. I considered the Japanese ASW capabilities to be overly powerful considering their historical performance. Then again, the awesome Gato did make me cocky I suppose...

I got into Silent Hunter III when I stumbled upon it at a local store. Fell in love at first glance and still haven't tired of it. It has inspired me to purchase and read several books on naval warfare in WWII so far - the end is not near I must say!

The story of how I got into U-boote seems rather complex judging from the above, but that's just because I've tried to tie it into my computer hobby - the two are inexorably linked to each other. To me, as a lover of all forms of warfare, it was simply natural to add an interest in submarines to the one I had in airplanes. I enjoy surface ships as well, and tanks...:o

I'm glad to see so many others with healthy historical interests as well as veterans of the C64/Amiga gaming scene! I'm envious of the ones who have had contact with war veterans though, I wish I could meet some submariner or airman.

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

Hey same for me! Silent Service on Atari 800xl. :up:
And yes, bring the real manuals back!

The first time I came in contact with submarines was with Silent Service II on the Amiga 500+, I was very young at the time so I only played for fun. // I have also played Attack Sub on the Sega Mega Drive, I got killed many times since I didn't know any tactics or how to do things. I managed to sink many friendly ships though. // Silent Hunter II was the next submarine game, I got more interested in U-boats because of this game. I remember one campaign mission where one has to sneak into Scapa Flow and sink some capital ships with the Type VII U-boat. I also remember the campaign mission where you had to pass the Gibraltar strait with the Type IX, very difficult mission. // I purchased Sub Command later on, very different from any other submarine games I've ever played. Very difficult and I had to learn a lot in order to survive, like not going to fast so it starts to cavitate and get counter detected. Also doing defensive manouvers when a torpedo has been launched towards me, I got killed many times. // Last submarine game was Silent Hunter III, I was impressed with the graphics and the 3D internal view. With this game I got really interested in U-boats and submarines. I have played with external camera turned off and It's more fun because it's more challenging.

Das Boot and Silent Hunter, i had a pirated copy of Silent Hunter way back then that i tried and thought "omg, what a crappy game!" but saw Das Boot several months or might even been a year later.
I then had to look thru every friggin disk (yes disk hehe) to try and find Silent Hunter but ended up buying it the next day instead... been hooked on and off ever since.
But only the old types... the new atomic nuclear subs doesent facinate me.

Back in the 80's I came in contact with the subs. I watched the Das Boot series with my parents (yes! The let me see it!). About that same time Silent Service came out on the C64. Then my love for subs really began.
Also, my dad is in the Navy (office job) and because of that I've had many privet tours on dutch subs.
I am most interested in uboots. Don't know why but they are the most beautiful boats ever made. Think it has something to do with Das Boot!:D

My facination with first, the WW2 Navy came from my grandfather who was on the USS Enterprise durring WW2. He was on her when she sailed into Pearl after the attack on Dec 7th.
I then kept looking for computer sim games and most were sub sim and fell in love with them...
I also had two cousins who were on Boomers durring the cold war. There stories facinated me, even though they said it was99% of the time borring, the other 1 percent more than made up for it