Harpoon is a computer game developed by Three-Sixty Pacific

Three-Sixty Pacific

Three-Sixty Pacific is a video game publisher and developer. Founded in the late 1980s by avid wargamers and military history enthusiasts.- Games :...

, Inc. in 1989 for the PC/MS-DOS. This was the first game in the Harpoon series.

Plot

The player is the commander of either NATO or Soviet forces, commanding ships and aircraft, selecting from over 100 different weapon systems, and taking responsibility for judgment calls. The game mainly focuses on combat in the GIUK Gap

GIUK gap

The GIUK gap is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean that forms a naval warfare chokepoint. Its name is an acronym for Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, the gap being the open ocean between these three landmasses...

.

Gameplay

Harpoon is a naval simulator that uses data reflecting real-world equipment and weaponry, based on a miniatures wargame designed by former Naval officer and future author Larry Bond

Larry Bond

Larry Bond is an American writer and wargame designer. He is the designer of the Harpoon and Command at Sea gaming systems and several supplements for the games. His numerous novels include Dangerous Ground, Day of Wrath, The Enemy Within, Cauldron, Vortex and Red Phoenix...

 in 1980. There are no preset battle algorithms that dictate combat outcomes, and no play balance between sides. The game includes a user's guide with an appendix on superpower politics and maritime strategies in modern warfare, a Harpoon Tactical Guide by Larry Bond, and a booklet by author Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy

Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...

 that deals with Russian destroyers. Clancy used the simulation to test the naval battles for Red Storm Rising

Red Storm Rising

Red Storm Rising is a 1986 techno-thriller novel by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond about a Third World War in Europe between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces, set around the mid-1980s...

, which he co-authored with Bond.

Reception

The PC/MS-DOS version of the game was reviewed in 1990 in Dragon

Dragon (magazine)

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...

#156 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

 version of the game in 1991 in Dragon #168, giving that version 5 stars as well. The Lessers reviewed the Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

version of the game in Dragon #174, also giving that version of the game 5 out of 5 stars.