Jolt Country

This is something nobody should do.

This is something nobody should want to do.

This is something I'm going to do.

This is:

The Silent Hunter IV Real-Time Mission

Silent Hunter IV is a game where you simulate being the captain of a US submarine in the Pacific ocean. US sub missions during this time generally started from Pearl Harbor, and generally had targets around Japan. Fine.

It generally took them a couple of weeks just to get there. Silent Hunter IV simulates all of this, but makes it much easier by allowing you to do time compression up to 8192x normal time, allowing you to traverse the whole Pacific in a manner of minutes.

But I'm not going to do that here.

Here I'm going to detail an entire SH4 mission in real time, the first mission it sends me on after the US enters the war.

I don't know how this is going to go. I'm probably going to sit here and read books and drink most of the time. But by the end of it, no matter what happens, I will have completed an entire SH4 mission in real time.

This is a bad idea, but one I'm willing to follow through on, no matter how long it takes me.

It won't be continuous. I'll just fire it up whenever I have the chance. So I am guessing this will take at least a year to complete, unless something horrible happens, like I'm taken out by Japanese planes, but given my general pattern of hiding under the surface during daytime hours, and having equipped my sub with air radar, this is unlikely.

So here we go.

Real-time SHIV mission. Let's hit it.

(100% realism in the options screen, by the way.)

Here's some pictures as we set sail on this interminable voyage...


Leaving the dock.


Clearing the dock.


Friendly carrier, getting ready to fuck up some Japs.


Big guns.


My trusty radio man, rocking to some Black Eyed Peas instead of doing his job.


Leaving Hawaii.


This motherfucker followed us all the way out to sea.


Making sure the observation periscope works.


Going to 150ft, just to make sure we're not going to spring any fucking leaks.


Long way to go, just to get to Midway to refuel.


You're going to be seeing a lot of this.

Well, this sounds like a wonderful idea for a thread. And an adventure.

Are you able to re-name the crewmembers? I think it would be a nice effect of Torpedeer Flack or Crewman Varkus were able to contribute to success or failure of this mission.

I realize that, with a few exceptions, the posters here just congeal into an unwelcome gestalt to you, so I can help with the names.

ARR! Seaman Vark at ye sevice! (hornpipe music in background)


Wouldn't weeks of realtime sub cruising become pretty boring when you are able to leave the computer? Those guys in the subs back in the forties really didn't have a choice, right? 'Twould make for an intolerable game. Sort of like...

EPYX presents: 'Watch the simulated paint dry'!

or

InActivision presents: 'Watching Grass Grow.'


THE
LONG AND WINDING
AARDVARK

Don't worry guys, I just spoke with Ben this evening and he assured me there is still hope this will not become just another The Verse Project or Creeping Maw.

The adventure still lives! Perhaps it would help if we all told Ben how much we're heartily enjoying ourselves.

ChainGangGuy wrote:Creeping Maw.

OUCH.

I still think Maw will happen.

If I could ever finish Crypto, a lot of things are gonna fuckin' happen.

Just keep updating that Firecrab. I think it will be bigger than Peanuts or Garfield, in terms of merchandising.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:If I could ever finish Crypto, a lot of things are gonna fuckin' happen.

I did like that I am working on a text game to work on a Vectrex game, and those are the two systems called the FUCK out in Vark's photographs, at Videotopia. Hahah.

Well, we're clear of Pearl Harbor, and sailing off on our assigned mission! As previously discussed, we'll be heading off full-steam to Midway, where we'll refuel and get ready for the even more interminably long journey to Honshu, Japan, where we'll be hunting enemy ships to our hearts' content.

And now, the first night at sea begins to set upon us!


It's like earlier, only darker!


I actually have red lamps in my house to simulate nighttime on a sub. I actually do.


It's like earlier, only even more darker!


Even darkerer!!


Yup. Everything... everything seems in order!


Just for a sense of scale, the little flag where the line bends is our next waypoint, which according to the map is 4 hours and 40 minutes of real time ahead of us, which seems like a lot, until you see where Midway is...


Those four hours aren't seeming so long now, are they? But that's just to get to Midway. Where we really have to go is...


...where that little binoculars icon is. So in other words, you're gonna be seeing a whole hell of a lot more of...


...this.


It's gonna be a long night.

Do the stars move in realtime?

I mean, if it's gonna be two weeks of sitting in infra-red plant lights and listening to Black-Eyed peas you could at least watch the stars move.