Naval/maritime game demos & free2play

[Sonarman]

Naval game demos/ free2play

I thought I’d compile a list of all of the currently available demos for naval/ maritime sim/strategy titles out there. There are many one man band developers out there producing nice little games alongside the industry giants, they deserve some recognitiontoo and some of the best of these small projects are listed. If you can think of any others please add them below.

Battlefleet / Battleship Series (Strategy Lights)
An extension to the old battleships game, here the ships can move and you have control of many units, historical scenarios, upgrade the ships with better/ new equipment I like to play this at lunchtimes (20 minutes hardly sees you out of dock in SH4).
get the free standard version below...
http://www.battle-fleet.com/naval-game/battleship.htm

Battleship Chess (Apezone)
Andrew P. Ewanchyna developed this fun little strategy title which he describes thus..."A Naval Strategy game inspired by the Classic game of Battleship. Launch torpedoes from destroyers and submarines, drop mines and try to sink your enemy's battleships in this turn-based strategy game."
http://apezone.com/battleshipchess.php

Battlestations Midway (Eidos)
Loved and hated in equal measure by sim fans for it's mass market approach to naval combat and its too-short single player game the title was none the less successful enough for a sequel game to be produced the forthcoming "Battlestations Pacific".
http://www.battlestationsmidwaydemo.com

Bounty Bay Online
Free online pirate game, supported by the purchase of in game equipment etc
http://www.bountybayonline.com/Start

Dangerous Waters (Sonalysts)
A highly realistic deep and detailed simulation by Sonalysts, developers of previous titles 688i, Sub Command & Fleet Command along with actual training simulations for the US navy. In the full game you can play with the SSN-21 Seawolf class, the 688i Los Angeles class, and the Russian Akula class submarines an Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate, the P-3 maritime air patrol craft, and the MH-60 multi-mission helicopter.

A demo featuring an Akula and Seahawk mission is available...
http://www.gamershell.com/download_8369.shtml

Distant Guns (Storm Eagle Studios)
Developed by gaming industry veterans Norm Koger & Jim Rose this game recreates the the ironclad battles of the Russo-Japanese war . Look out for the next in the series Jutland appearing soon.
try the full game free for 30 days at...
http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/html/se_downloads.html

Enigma Rising Tide (Resurgent Interactive/ Tesseraction Games)
Quite old now but a worthy inclusion nonetheless this underrated 3d naval strategy/sim from Tesseraction games allows the command of surface vessels and submarines in an alternate history world war setting. A purchaseable addon “Hotel da Volta” is now up for pre-order it will add a new campaign and remove the dreaded Starforce copy protection from the original game.
Find out more about the addon…
http://hoteldavolta.warfleet.net/

Get the demo
http://www.gamershell.com/download_3141.shtml

Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare(Matrix Games)
The deep and detailed MS-DOS game Harpoon 2 updated and retooled for the Windows generation many new scenarios and units, lots of bug fixes.
Coming soon... a new demo that allows 6 months of play thanks to the Gouge project check out the link below for more details.
http://www.computerharpoon.com/usni/usni---get-the-gouge.html

Lost Admiral Returns (Thorsten Searfoss)
The Lost admiral was a classic multi-award winning naval strategy game in the early days of the PC. Now Thorsten Searfoss developer of the original title revisits it in this sequel. Although the graphics and interface are a bit obtuse the underlying game is very sound indeed.
try the full game free for 30 days at...
http://www.lostadmiralreturns.com/try.html

Navy Field
Fast & furious isometric WWII naval MMO strategy/action game now free to play, supported by purchasable online equipment upgrades etc.
http://www.navyfield.com/

Pacific Storm Allies
Second game in the Pacific Storm series puts grand strategy, tactical and sim-lite play in one game as you attempt to run the WWII Pacific campaign in charge of the US, Japanese or British naval forces.
http://www.gamershell.com/download_19302.shtml

Ports of Call XXL
The original developers of the classic 80's game revisit the shipping business with this new 2d version of the original adding many new features including many new types of ship rather than just the cargo ships of the original game.
try the full version play for and hour in unregistered mode
http://www.portsofcall.de/xxl/index.html

POCSim3D II
A "bolt-on" 3D extension to the above game but also playable as a standalone sim, the game is in a constant state of development, the most recent addition being the new weather effects.
download and play a 4 minute demo
http://www.portsofcall.de/sim3dii/sim3dii.html

Ports of Call Deluxe 2008
The latest in the "Ports of Call" series this is a remake of the classic 1980's Amiga/PC game "Ports of call" shipping business sim/strategy game this time with 3D graphics. The game even features a cool red/green stereo vision mode, if you have a pair of those card spectacle thingies. Note the game has only been released in Germany at the moment and i's in German but a provisional translation is available by changing the language to English in the start menu link, (this works for the demo too).
http://www.astragon.org/download/demos/install_poc2008_deluxe_demo_de.EXE

Sail Simulator
From small Dutch developer Stentec Software, a highly accurate sailing simulator with very nice water modelling and wind physics.
http://www.sailsimulator.com/


Salvo (Shrapnel games)
A recently updated demo of this turn-based 17th- 19th century age of sail naval strategy title.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Sprue/salvo/6.htm

Ship Simulator 2008
In the full game players can perform a multitude of tasks, all set within the stunning 3D environments and take control of a wide array of ship types - from massive cargo ships and ferries, to speedboats, yachts, water taxis and even the Titanic.
Harbours included in the main game include Southampton (including the Solent), Marseille and San Francisco as well as Rotterdam, Hamburg & New York from the original title.
http://www.shipsim.com/downloads/trailers.php

Virtual Sailor 7
Developed by Ilan Papini, this 3D sim has expanded in all sort of ways thanks to the literally hundreds of additional boats, ships and sceneries developed by the large community.
http://www.hangsim.com/vs/

Virtual Skipper 5: America's Cup
Fantastic graphics, exciting gameplay and highly accurate sailboat physics & rules in this the fifth incarnation of the Virtual Skipper series.
http://www.virtualskipper-game.com/en/downloads/index.php?id=5