[Capt. D]

as noted by hyperion 2206

You have valid point there, but you've got to keep in mind that the game isn't just made for experts and history-buffs. Many occasional skippers wouldn't buy the game if there wasn't the free cam. As a matter of fact I would be pretty mad if they sacrificed the free cam for the radio room. Nothing is more fun than to get an close up of the ship you just sunk!

Your points are valid also. I just have been an avid fan of the US Sub battle in the Pacific since I was a kid. Had the opportunity to visit my first boat - USS Cero - docked by the Navel Training Center at the Belle Isle Bridge in Detroit in the late 50's. They let us go into the Conning Tower and the sailor that was with my
Grandfather and I in the tower wanted to let me use the scope but when he tried to raise it found that the Chief had the power to the hoist turned off.

Since then I have read as many books - both fiction and non-fiction Run Silent Run Deep, Dust on the Sea, Final Harbor, Clear the Bridge (Tang), Silversides, and many others written about the US Subs in WWII - and have played Silent Service, Up Periscope, AOD, etc. and when Silent Hunter came out made a bee line to the store to buy.

Even as "elementary" as SH was, compared to todays sims - and it was a big time sim when it came out - the feel of skippering your own boat was big. You could chance a deep dive to evade or come to periscope depth and "duke" it out with a Jap destroyer - ala Mush Morton and the Wahoo! You were given "special" missions to photo recon or rescue a pilot. Could one get to the location in time? Wait radar picked up a contact bearing 262. With the advent of SHIII and interior graphics the wish to "feel" what it was like in a US Sub of course came to surface when SH IV was announced.

I have to admit that watching a ship take it's final "plunge" after a well placed torpedo attack is great to see. Just for me the getting there was more than half the fun.

To the USS Silversides - 3 visits
the USS Lionfish - 2 visits
the USS Croaker, Cod, and the Cero a visit each
Great job gallant ladies of the past!

Happy Hunting