A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Ka-Boom! A Chinese fighter burns in its handstand in Cold Waters' Strike from the Sea Single Mission. © 2017 Killerfish Games  I've been playing Killerfish Games' Cold Waters for nearly nine months, and all this time I've thought that there were only eight Single Mission engagements in this 2017 submarine combat simulator and spiritual heir to MicroProse's1988 classic, Red Storm Rising.  How wrong I was.  There are 17 Single Missions in all, starting with the relatively easy sub-versus-sub  The Duel all the way to Foreign Trade , a sub-versus-convoy mission. In addition, the last six missions allow players to take on the burden of command of either Soviet or Chinese subs and pit their boats against the best antisubmarine warfare (ASW) forces in the U.S. Navy. I have to admit that I would have discovered the nine missions that follow Junks on Parade had I bothered to read the manual (I've glanced at it a few times, but since it's a digital PDF document and no...

My latest Achievements to Date report.  All game elements in this and other screenshots are © 2017 Killerfish Games.  After I completed the South China Sea 2000 campaign late last month, I told myself that as fun and rewarding it was to finally complete a “tour of duty” in Cold Waters, it might be a good idea if I waited a few months to tackle one of the other two campaigns in the game – North Atlantic 1984 and North Atlantic 1968. The Strategic Transit Map. It's a much-refined version of the one in 1988's Red Storm Rising . I had several good reasons, including the need to focus on a new screenplay for Popcorn Sky Productions, the fact that I spend way too much time at my desk 24/7, and the realization that I’m not in my late 20s and early 30s (which is how old I was when I played MicroProse Software’s Red Storm Rising, the game that inspired the designers of Cold Waters ). And, more relevantly, I was bothered by my performance as a submarine skipper in the South China Sea ...

A Chinese warship's topmast and some smoke from her funnel can be seen above the horizon in this periscope-view screenshot. (All of the graphics elements in these screengrabs are © 2017 Killerfish Games.)  Hello again and welcome to another installment of Old Gamers Never Die, the section of this blog where I talk about computer games and gaming in general. Today we return to my series of updates about my playthrough of Cold Waters' South China Sea Campaign, which depicts a hypothetical war between the People's Republic of China - which is allied with Vietnam and a Soviet Union that never vanished - and the United States in an alternate version of the year 2000. A Mark-48 ADCAP torpedo hits home, as seen from USS Jefferson City's periscope.  An aerial view of that same ship. Note the shock wave (in the water) and the fireball as the enemy vessel's magazines explode as a result of that torpedo hit.  It is now late December 2000, and USS Jefferson City has returned to...

A Chinese frigate sinks in the East China Sea after a hit from a Mark-48 ADCAP torpedo. All game design elements in these screenshots are © 2017 Killerfish Games  Hello, again, Dear Reader.  As you can tell, I am still playing the U.S. vs. China South China Sea 2000 campaign in Cold Waters, a submarine simulation from Killerfish Games that its designers tout as the spiritual heir to MicroProse's 1988 classic Red Storm Rising. As in that sub sim — which was designed by Sid Meier and is based on Tom Clancy's 1986 novel about a conventional war between the Soviet Union and NATO — Cold Waters depicts undersea warfare in an alternate timeline with three different iterations of the Cold War turning hot at three distinct periods; 1968, 1984, and 2000. A beautiful shot of USS Jefferson City, my third command in this deadly war between the U.S. and China.  Since this is my first serious attempt at playing a Campaign game, I think I am holding my own even though I am not winning ou...

The Transit Map in Cold Waters'  US vs. China 2000 Campaign. All graphics/game elements in this post are © 2017 Killerfish Games.   Last summer — you might remember — I bought a submarine simulation, Cold Waters, which was developed and published by Australia's Killerfish Games in 2017. Inspired by MicroProse Software's 1988 game Red Storm Rising, Cold Waters takes players into the chilling and thrilling world of late 20th Century submarine warfare in three "alternative history" Cold War-turns-hot scenarios: US vs. USSR 1984 US vs. USSR 1968 US vs. China 2000 Like the Sid Meier-designed Red Storm Rising (which was based on Tom Clancy's eponymous 1986 novel), Cold Waters is divided into three separate sections: Training, Single Battles, and Campaigns. The first one, of course, teaches players how to operate and fight their boats (submarines are never called ships by their operators or by those who know the traditions of the Silent Service); the second is a ser...