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Silent Service Modified


Binarygeek

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Hi all

 

F-15 Strike Eagle and Silent Service have been two of my favorite Atari games, and I still play them. However, recently I decided to shift the balance of Silent Service to make it more fair (well...at least to me.) The posted Silent Service contains the following mods:

 

1. Ability to use the scope at night and underwater.

2. Scope maximum depth is now around 250 feet instead of 46 (day or night).

3. About 500 torpedoes, without any reload times. You can shoot them like a machine gun, but realize that the program can only track four at a time.

4. Unlimited deck gun shells.

5. Deck gun can be fired underwater...up to a depth of 250 feet.

6. Submarine top speed increased from 20/10 knots to 60/30 knots.

 

I also had increased the torpedo speed to about 200 knots, but the Torpedo Data Computer calculates torpedo speeds at 46 knots steam/30 electric. Your torpedo accuracy will always be off.

 

I have had a tremendous amount of fun the last few weeks. Hope you like it as well. Thanks,

 

Regards,

Rick

Silent Service Modified - USN.ATR

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Hi all

 

F-15 Strike Eagle and Silent Service have been two of my favorite Atari games, and I still play them. However, recently I decided to shift the balance of Silent Service to make it more fair (well...at least to me.) The posted Silent Service contains the following mods:

 

1. Ability to use the scope at night and underwater.

2. Scope maximum depth is now around 250 feet instead of 46 (day or night).

3. About 500 torpedoes, without any reload times. You can shoot them like a machine gun, but realize that the program can only track four at a time.

4. Unlimited deck gun shells.

5. Deck gun can be fired underwater...up to a depth of 250 feet.

6. Submarine top speed increased from 20/10 knots to 60/30 knots.

 

I also had increased the torpedo speed to about 200 knots, but the Torpedo Data Computer calculates torpedo speeds at 46 knots steam/30 electric. Your torpedo accuracy will always be off.

 

I have had a tremendous amount of fun the last few weeks. Hope you like it as well. Thanks,

 

Regards,

Rick

 

How did you modify it? Did you have source code, or did you do hex editing type of changes?

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Greetings [Binarygeek] Rick I would be more interested in the locations that you modified for

each function, but my main gripe was running out of fuel and when you went back to base

it was game over.

 

A few modications you could do:

1: Every time you sink a ship increases your fuel by 7 days, adds 4 torpedoes and 10 gun rounds.

2: Torpedo reload time to 4 seconds.

3: Just standard complement of fuel, gun rounds and torpedoes.

4: Standard depth for gun and periscope.

Edited by ASI Industries
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Thank you very much for your work! :)

BTW I have seen some comment about one weakness about this game from youtube review. This weakness can be cope with by some kind of patch?

 

 

 

One weakness in this game is the way the Japanese convoy escorts were programmed. If you dive pretty deep well before the escorts are about to breath down into your face, then your sub has an excellent chance of keeping its paint job intact. Though, there is a reason why Japanese convoy escorts in the game tend to set their depth charges too shallow; the Japanese actually did just that until the latter part of the war.

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The only problem I ever had with Silent Service is that it crashes every once in a while, which is pretty irritating 2 hours into a session and you lose credit for all the shipping you sunk. I like the fact that its a simulation, not an arcade game, but that's just my preference. As for hard - keep in mind that the casualty rate for the real submarine service was horrifically high. Again, just sayin', not criticizing, I've been known to activate cheats myself now and then. This is the first time I've heard of someone creating them, though!BTW, it was never clear to me how the "angle on the bow" calculation worked in real life. Was there a device like a slide rule? A computer? A guy with paper and pencil? And who was in charge of generating the numbers? Always been curious.

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The angle on the bow was usually called out by the Captain from periscope or TBT observations. This of course is a difficult estimation and took a lot of practice in order to have a properly trained eye.

 

Clear The Bridge by Rear Admiral Richard O'Kane is a pretty good book recounting his experiences on the USS Tang.

 

If you couldn't guess, I loved this game as well.

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The only problem I ever had with Silent Service is that it crashes every once in a while, which is pretty irritating 2 hours into a session and you lose credit for all the shipping you sunk. I like the fact that its a simulation, not an arcade game, but that's just my preference. As for hard - keep in mind that the casualty rate for the real submarine service was horrifically high. Again, just sayin', not criticizing, I've been known to activate cheats myself now and then. This is the first time I've heard of someone creating them, though!BTW, it was never clear to me how the "angle on the bow" calculation worked in real life. Was there a device like a slide rule? A computer? A guy with paper and pencil? And who was in charge of generating the numbers? Always been curious.

Yes, it does crash once in a while, and can really piss you off when you are in the midst of an outstanding patrol. I wanted this to be an arcade-type game. I still play the original version, but their is nothing like payback.

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Greetings [Binarygeek] Rick I would be more interested in the locations that you modified for

each function, but my main gripe was running out of fuel and when you went back to base

it was game over.

 

A few modications you could do:

1: Every time you sink a ship increases your fuel by 7 days, adds 4 torpedoes and 10 gun rounds.

2: Torpedo reload time to 4 seconds.

3: Just standard complement of fuel, gun rounds and torpedoes.

4: Standard depth for gun and periscope.

Adding 7 days of fuel per ship is a neat twist. I did not increase the fuel because I wanted to see how high I can score in a set time frame. Also, if I jacked up the fuel, then the game would crash after five hours instead of two. Not sure my computer could survive my outburst.

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