Dive! Dive! Dive! Review

Dive! Dive! Dive!

I remember playing Silent Service on the original Nintendo. I had always

wanted to be at the helm of a submarine and Silent Service let me do just

that. Unfortunately, the spell of fantasy was broken by the bad sound, poor graphics

and low realism. It simply wasn’t possibly to build an immersive submarine simulation

for a platform such as the Nintendo.

In designing for Pentium-class

computers, the 688(I) programmers had the freedom to achieve a high level

of realism, graphic and sound quality. For the most part, they used it. 688(I)

is a simulation of the Los Angeles class of submarines. It was even made by

Sonalyst, the same company which creates training simulations for The Navy.

Missions are of four varieties in 688(I). There are training missions,

in which there is no risk to your sub and crew; Single missions, in which you

must accomplish a specific objective; Campaigns, in which you must destroy as

many enemies as possible before you are destroyed or run out of ammunition.

Finally, there are multiplayer missions, in which you and a few of your friends

can play against each other in either co-op or deathmatch. Unfortunately, to

play multiplayer, each player must own a copy of 688(I).

Control of your submarine is managed by a number of

different stations, each of which represents one aspect of the

submarine. In play, you will find that most of your time is

spent at four of these stations: Sonar, TMA, Weapons, and

Navigation.

The Navigation station is probably the most straightforward

of the stations. Navigation consists of a zoomable, pannable map

of the area with the best known positions of all ships in the

area overlaid. It includes an additional screen which displays

the depth beneath the keel, which is useful if you need to make

sure you won’t run aground.

The Weapons station allows you to assign targets to specific

weapons, reload empty torpedo tubes, and check on the number of

weapons in storage. Prior to firing, weapons can by assigned

presets such as depth, activation range, deactivation range(in

case of a miss) and speed. The presets allow the advanced

submarine captain to ensure that weapons will take a route to

their target that delays their detection by enemies, and ensures

that the weapon will not attack friendly or neutral forces.

Countermeasures such as jammers and decoys can also be used if

you come under fire. However, it was at the weapons station that I found

fault with 688(I). Weapons are reloaded much more quickly than

in real life. I don’t know the speed of a crew on a real

submarine, but somehow I suspect that it takes them a little more

then 5 seconds to reload a torpedo tube. There is now a patch available of the net to fix this.

The Sonar station gives you five

functions for identifying other ships in the water. There is active sonar, which

can be set to give a single pulse or periodic pulses. Active intercept tells

you the bearing and relative range of ships in the area using active sonar.

DEMON, which stands for DEMOdulated Noise, can analyze the sound coming from

a ship and tell you its speed. Broadband waterfall shows a cascading display

of the bearing of passive sonar contacts. Finally, Narrowband waterfall can

be used to classify targets so you know if they are friendly or hostile. In

all sonar modes, contacts show up as brighter green pixels against a black or

dark green field of noise.

The TMA station is the most difficult to master. TMA stands for Target Motion

Analysis. The TMA station is where information from all sensors is compiled

to try to give the most accurate picture of a target’s position, speed, and

heading. The reason TMA is so difficult is that it usually involves taking bearing-only

measurements of the target and then trying to estimate its range and speed.

For example, if you first spot a target at bearing 90, and one minute later

you spot it at bearing 91, and the next minute at 92, does this perceived motion

exist because the target is moving North, or is it because you are moving South

faster than the target is? Fortunately for novices, there is an option which

can make the computer handle TMA like an expert.

Graphically, 688(I) is very good. The only blockiness I noticed was

when looking at the ocean or at an explosion at very close range. All craft

are Gouraud shaded and texture-mapped. They also have nice little touches like

spinning propellers and wakes. Sound is also good. The executive officer repeats

your orders to the crew, although he can get a bit repetitive. You can listen

to the white noise of a sonar contact, or feel fear as an enemy’s active sonar

gets louder and louder.

The AI is unexceptional, and as can be seen from the

included mission editor, merely follows a preset tactic. The AI

seemed to show varying degrees of hostility towards me. At

times, it would launch a torpedo as soon as it detected my

presence, while at others, it did nothing even when I fired

torpedoes at it. It seems that no one bothered to teach the AI

the simple tactic of returning fire.

Despite a few realism and pixelation faults, 688(I) is great fun to

play. It’s great for your ego to be in command of a 300 foot long, nuclear-powered

missile carrying Hunter/Killer [Ed. Note: Freud would be so proud.].

688(I) makes it a fun challenge to sneak up on your enemy, attack, and

get away without detection. With over 30 missions, it can keep the average gamer

busy for many hours. And with multiplayer and a mission editor, there is a lot

of play value for your dollar. If you are a fan of submarine sims, or have wanted

to command a nuclear sub without the cramped space and lack of fresh food, then

you should put 688(I) in your sights.