Core Memory Unlock | TheaterFire

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Grinzy@reddit

Looks like you can play it right now for free: https://archive.org/details/d64_Silent_Service_1985_MicroProse

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HowOtterlyTerrible@reddit

I had a copy of this from my uncle for C-64. Loved this game.

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alex61821@reddit

I had the hunt for red October. That game was fun.

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HowOtterlyTerrible@reddit

Honestly I never made it past the sea mounts. I preferred Red Storm Rising.

And can I say I miss when games came with the cardboard keyboard overlays?

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The annoying thing was you used one side of the floppy for the search portion of the game and then had to flip it over for the combat portion. I had about a 50 50 chance of that side of the floppy loading properly.

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john-treasure-jones@reddit

I too had this title for C64. This and Gunship!

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Zesty-B230F@reddit

I played on C64. I also have it for NES.

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oskich@reddit

We used to play Das Boot a lot on our 386 computers at school. I remember being quite good at using the anti-aircraft gun 😎

https://dos.zone/das-boot-german-u-boat-simulation-1990/

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Kahnza@reddit

I remember playing this on an old Tandy 1000 286. This and the original Mechwarrior were my favorite games on that machine.

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DPTDubbs@reddit

Mechwarror 2 was so great on PC. I also vaguely remember another submarine game on PC called 688 attack sub.

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rearwindowpup@reddit

I loved 688 attack sub, but I spent most of my time blowing up the oil tankers because they were easy

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wollycottonbrains@reddit

688 was cool too. Like silent service I could do a couple missions but the rest kicked my ass!

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DPTDubbs@reddit

Yeah I was like 10 or so years old when I played it so I sucked. I just thought it was cool to sink other subs with torpedoes

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dingo128@reddit

I got this game from a flea market with no instruction booklet. I loved it but had no idea what to do or how to play I just had to struggle through it, but I loved the exploration aspect.

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sbernardjr@reddit

We had this for the Apple II and my dad loved it.

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TorontoDavid@reddit

100%. Loved this game.

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mattinjp@reddit

This game got brought up in conversation the other day, and I realized my friend of about 15 years now worked on it.

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socialcommentary2000@reddit

Sinking the Yamato in Silent Service II was one of my lifetime defining moments. It took like 3 hours and I ended up plinking her with the deck gun after disabling her screws and taking an ungodly amount of time to put her escorts in the locker.

But she went down. Yes she did. I watched it through the periscope with sublime glee.

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Sea2Chi@reddit

I had Silent Service II on MS Dos.

I played the hell out of that game as a kid.

That's not saying I was good at it. But I sunk a lot of ships and I don't know if I ever actually made it back to port alive.

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Opening_Bluebird_935@reddit

I logged many hours on this game and Up Periscope!

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oysterperso@reddit

Yeah I’ll miss the boredom and the time spent alone

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Aumeno@reddit

I can hear the sound track.

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joejackson62@reddit

Fantastic game. This was the same developer as the NES TMNT game as well, I believe.

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midnightmarauder1611@reddit

I’ll do you one better, I played its predecessor off a 5.25 floppy on an 8086: GATO.

https://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/512761/740full-gato:-wwii-gato--class-submarine-simulator-screenshot.jpg

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Nwcray@reddit

The secret was to only dive to periscope depth. Keep an eye on the enemy ships. When the destroyers came to rock your world, wait until they were getting bigger on your screen. They were coming right at you, and the torpedo would slam straight into their bow.

Once they were down, deck gun the merchant ships straight to the bottom.

I can’t count the number of times that strategy made for a high score, beating the game over and over.

I loved this game.

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WhatWouldMuirDo@reddit

How many knew that a second controller D-pad could rotate the periscope independent of steering the ship?

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CaptShrek13@reddit

Not until I had access to the Internet and read about it years after playing the game. All those games came with manuals, but for some reason we never read them as kids.

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EvenLettuce6638@reddit

The theme just started playing in my head.

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senorpuma@reddit

Love the look of those Gato-class subs on the cover!

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Buckeye_Randy@reddit

so many disks for this game

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OgreHombre@reddit

Was this game free or something? Every nes collection I’d find back in the day had it.

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FinnRazzelle@reddit

I don’t remember this one but played Myst, Kings Quest, Wolfenstein, Doom, etc.

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RockingInTheCLE@reddit

I was TERRIBLE at this game, but I loved it.

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yamahowzer@reddit

I had no idea at all what I was doing, hundreds of hours logged.

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hypnofedX@reddit

I had that experience with a ton of games around that era! Lotta games I know the first 1.5 levels quite well and literally nothing after.

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PirateSteve85@reddit

Yup, Battletoads to the turbo tunnel. Game Genie is the only reason I ever saw past that.

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Chickenbrik@reddit

Same, wild that so many of us had this game. Was it because our dad’s wanted to try video games?

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Joker-Smurf@reddit

I had TMNT and Battletoads.

Still have the Gameboy games. Mum didn’t give them away, like she did the family NES (and games) and MY (purchased with my own damn money) SNES and games.

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Chickenbrik@reddit

Man that’s worse than me having to liquidate my consoles towards a new one.

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Syonoq@reddit

TMNT the dam level-enters the chat

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LordButtworth@reddit

Omg as soon as I heard this I heard myself swimming into the seaweed.

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Ragnarok314159@reddit

Time for you to die again, Raphael.

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Siggysternstaub@reddit

My exact experience

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LordButtworth@reddit

Same here, but nothing could beat Captain Skyhawk and Blaster Master are the top of my non-zelda games.

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EuphoricCrashOut@reddit

SAME but I loved all the sounds.

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Local_Debate_8920@reddit

If it's the game I'm thinking of, I always chose the sub with the guns on top. They I would surface and shoot them with the top guns. Never could hit anything with a torpedo.

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chriszimort@reddit

Similar to Star Voyager. Super cool premise but like what do you even do

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DraculasDog@reddit

I always thought I was doing well and then I’d get my shit rocked.

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McRando42@reddit

TBF, that happened a lot during WWII also.

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Tolerable-Lobster@reddit

I can smell the box and the basement where the computer was set up.

Woooooow. That’s a memory

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Abpoe77@reddit

Loved it

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pastryheart@reddit

I’ve been playing it on my iPhone with the Delta emulator. So much fun

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WheelOfFish@reddit

Oh Jesus, I think I have this game

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chapo1162@reddit

Hours of fun

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NSMike@reddit

Played this on the old Commodore 64. I had no idea what I was doing, but occasionally, I'd manage to find some destroyers and torpedo them.

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cwm13@reddit

Dad was on a ballistic missile sub during the vietnam war. We played a lot of Silent Service, Then this one came out.

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Umbroz@reddit

I knew if I scrolled long enough I would find it! It was so technical and my little boy brain was loving i. The manual was like reading a novel and I studied it.

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IAm5toned@reddit

Loved this game. And if you did, I highly recommend Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific

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eeickmeyer@reddit

Another good one is Silent Depth 2: Pacific. Also on Steam. Feels more like a spiritual successor to Silent Service.

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DenaliBurnz@reddit

I’d check out an IOS app that mimics this game.

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ContributionNo6042@reddit

Still play this game regularly.

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Tangletoe@reddit

This was great and I can hear the music now. It had a bug that froze the game. I thought it was mine, but through research a few years ago found out that it's an error in the code.

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sicksixgamer@reddit

Oh my god!!! This game was insanely hard but I loved it!! The music so good!

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CCT240@reddit

I will download this and play on my NES shortly. Thank you for the post.

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Wactout@reddit

I forgot that existed. And now I need to take my blood pressure meds.

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Maniac1978@reddit

This was a frequent rental for me. I was pretty good at because of Nintendo power. I still play sub sims now a days because of this game.

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dwn009@reddit

OH .... I had this game as a kid and had no idea how to play it.

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Yep_why_not@reddit

I’d say like 40% of the Nintendo games I had as a kid I literally had no clue how to play. Games used to be impossible.

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charutobarato@reddit

They really did just drop you in to figure it out in a way games today would never do. That or package the game with a 50 page manual you had to study to understand what the hell you were supposed to be doing.

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1877KlownsForKids@reddit

"Heck yeah I want to eject debris!"

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Howy_the_Howizer@reddit

I played the tutorial over and over not figuring out the other game mechanics at a 7yo, loved it but thought it was odd and repetitive, got real good at hitting those transport ships. Went back to it on an emulator later and realized how dumb a kid I was. It's a decent submarine strategy game once I realized I could do other missions or patrols.

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drainbamage1011@reddit

My buddy gave me a big box of NES games once his console died, and this was one of them. No manual or anything, so I just had to wing it. I sucked at it but it was fun.

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MassiveMeatHammer@reddit

Me too I played the hell out of it but I never knew what I was doing

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MattheiusFrink@reddit

played the shit out of this on NES. I can hear this image, btw

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SlimPigins@reddit

Never had a clue what i was doing in that game. Countless hours and never felt like i got to to first base.

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Enge712@reddit

I had the NES version and I can hear the music just seeing the picture

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jonvonboner@reddit

I can hear and playback this whole song in my head. What blows me away is that this is Rare and David Wise who made all the AMAZING music in Donkey Kong Country that still bangs today. The dude is just a true talent at making amazing music with very limited audio technology.

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spaceman_spiffy@reddit

Great now I get to have this song stuck in my head for another 5 years!

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cheeze_skittles@reddit

The only game my dad would ever play!

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MiserableDistance622@reddit

I saw like 10 of these for NES at a used game store a few years back, I thought we were the only people to have it growing up lol

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SnacksCCM@reddit

I frequently wake up in the morning hearing it. My brain has a bunch of odd links to music like that.

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archiekane@reddit

Super Mario for me!

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IdioticPrototype@reddit

Same.

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JustFiguringItOutToo@reddit

great team game - pilot and weapons person

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ArtDecoModerne@reddit

The key to being good was using a NES Advantage joystick that had the player 1-2 toggle. That way you could toggle to player 2 to control the periscope without having to juggle two controllers

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Agreeable-Chart-5561@reddit

I remember the cover art but never played the game

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twirlerblue@reddit

My dad loved this game. He worked nights and played it all the time when he came home. I remember hearing it in the middle of the night and I’d go sit with him and watch him play. Never got the hang of that game, but he was pretty good.

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chuck3436@reddit

Wow what a random blast I played alot of this game!

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BigZombieKing@reddit

I played the shit out of that game on apple II. Played it with my dad a bunch before i was old enough to run it on my own. 3 1/2" floppy disc, and you had to have the ship ID sheet from the box in order to pass the DRM screen. It was black on dark red card stock so it wouldn't photo copy. Could copy the disc though.

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Roland-Of-Eld-19@reddit

I got this and Guerilla War at the Pawn Shop

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Agent17@reddit

I had this game as a kid, my dad played the shit outta this and the hunt for red October.

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hotdoghelmet@reddit

“Rudder amidships”

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Trixie1143@reddit

I can hear the sonar...

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Bruiser80@reddit

The destoyer engine noise. You're dead already.

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coopnjaxdad@reddit

This game was brutal. I loved it.

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foamingturtle@reddit

As a collector of NES games this is the most common game I come across.

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Go4broke360@reddit

Had a friend in 5th grade who had this and I remember staying at his place and making a sub out of boxes in his bedroom while we tried to play this. We stayed up real late and it pissed his parents off.

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marvellousmargay@reddit

I was just thinking about this game and the paper keyboard overlay a few weeks ago.

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RealityOk9823@reddit

Is that one of those where you have to run all over the sub doing everything yourself? I hated those as a kid, but maybe now it'd be different.

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Whatisgoingonnowyo@reddit

Favorite!

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ttocshtims@reddit

I bought this on Steam over the winter. Works pretty good for such an okd game. No regrets.

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PhantoWolf@reddit

I loved this on NES!

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SadPhase2589@reddit

I got this game from the for sale rental shelf at the grocery store with no manual. It was buy chance I sat on the 2nd player controller and found out it did stuff.

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chiapeterson@reddit

Do you remember Gato? The “graphics” were… minimal. 😎

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Successful-Plan114@reddit

Need a new one for this series. Long overdue.

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Maint_guy@reddit

I sucked at this game so bad that I never learned to play it. I'd love to get my hands on a NES and try it again.

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Financial-Yak-4172@reddit

My buddy Eric had this game. Always wanted to play it cuz I didn't have my own Nintendo at home

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taskforceslacker@reddit

Silent Hunter and this wild ride were quickly robbing my sanity in my formative years.

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The_Arch_Heretic@reddit

I used to set my CPU up in the leaky basement for ambience. 🤣

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Crayola_ROX@reddit

I don’t remember but man do I remember ultra

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EastTXJosh@reddit

I vaguely remember this one. I remember the box cover more than anything, but I know I played it a few times.

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OldArtichoke433@reddit

JFC…I have not thought about this game in so long. The constant hummmmmmmm sound of the submarine is what I remember most.

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jjdlg@reddit

Random Blockbuster rental and I loved it so much! Theme music was awesome.

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Existing_Front4748@reddit

I was just watching a history video on the Gato class. I immediately thought of this game.

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peeingdog@reddit

I remember thinking “why would they bother to have speeds other than flanking speed”

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hamburgler26@reddit

My dad and I played it a ton. I recall for the NES version the 2nd controller could control the periscope or something so it had a rudimentary co-op thing built in. We'd navigate through narrow straights together after we were out of torpedos or had blown everything up.

Silent Service II for DOS was the real deal, played the hell out of that one for years and I think it was by far the best submarine game until Aces of the Deep came out years later.

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juggalojedi@reddit

I capped out at vice admiral

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Fenrirs-Fang@reddit

Yes! Awesome!!

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Bivy83@reddit

This is the first game I stayed up all night to play when I was about 8. I don't know why but playing it on a 12 inch TV with the lights off at 2 in the morning was addictive. I didn't turn it off until I heard my mom get up to use the bathroom.

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homeboy511@reddit

fantastic game. well designed and so many different scenarios and ways to play

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WeirdObligation1002@reddit

Goddamn loved this game

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CdnGuy@reddit

Doo da doo da doo Doo da doo da doo doo Doo da doo da doo Doo da doo da doo doo

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Vejita@reddit

I completely forgot about this game. My dad loved it. I can't remember if we owned it or he just kept renting it from Blockbuster.

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Butt_Stuff_Profile@reddit

I miss 688 Attack Sub myself.

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verticalsidewall@reddit

THIS! Along with that impossible first version of TMNT. So difficult, but still made my ‘89 magical.

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Brob101@reddit

I played this as a PC game.

Had no idea it was also on the NES.

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Mr_SunnyBones@reddit

Same , I knew about the C64/ Spectrum version.

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twolfhawk@reddit

Full speed emergency!

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bell83@reddit

I have this for NES sitting on my shelf, right now lol

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shaggydog97@reddit

It was all fun and games until I grew up and joined the real submarine service, lol.

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dka2012@reddit

“We’re gonna ram him!! We’re gonna ram him!!!! “

Said by my friend Ben after wrong turn and ill timed periscope check.

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NeighborhoodPast2613@reddit

Loved that game.

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dc1999@reddit

OGs played it on the Apple //.

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dc1999@reddit

And if you were rich you had the apple //gs!

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Agentkeenan78@reddit

Was this ww2 pacific theater stuff? I had a sub game on nes that I adored but I can't remember the name.

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higglesworth@reddit

Oh hell yeah! I played a lot more 688 Attack Sub but this one brings back good memories too

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unholycowgod@reddit

We had the NES version until my childhood golden retriever ate it... I was pretty good at the shooting torpedos part. But I always felt like I had no clue what was going on. It always seemed like an open sandbox torpedo shooter to pre-teen me.

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besttobyfromtheshire@reddit

My dad's game!

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HollowVoices@reddit

My dad played this game a fair bit on our Apple IIGS. I played it too on the NES, but was always terrible at it.

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Federal_Cookie@reddit

I had this and loved it. It's cool, because you actually develop and adopt rudimentary actual Submarine warfare tactics as you learn to play.

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braxtel@reddit

This is how you accidentally teach little kids trigonometry by making them figure out torpedo firing solutions.

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Daienlai@reddit

Yassss!

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MydniteSon@reddit

Wow, used to play this on the computer lab at school when we were done with our assignments...Apple II e.

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Frequent-Jacket3117@reddit

Played this one and later Silent Hunter, both great games for its time.

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Sharpshooter188@reddit

I was looking to pick this up. I wanted it as a kid. But I think it was either this game or Metal Gear Solid Snake. I chose Solid Sbake.

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EliteCheddarCommando@reddit

I was so bad at this gene, I didn’t want to sink the lame, boring, merchant ships I went after the Destroyers lmao

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McRando42@reddit

Ok Dealey.

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KDiggity8@reddit

Nice pull!

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Bushid0C0wb0y81@reddit

Holy smokes!!! Me and my old man would play for hours and hours when we were supposed to be outside doing yard work.

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R0cky9@reddit

Loved this game, actually joined the Navy years later as a Sonar Tech on a destroyer.

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OneManGang2001@reddit

You could use controller 2 to select a bearing (look in a different direction than which you were going)

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AverageNeither682@reddit

I've never heard of it. Looks a lot like Das Boot, the DOS game, though. I bet I would have enjoyed it, if I could understand it!

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Boatshooz@reddit

My dad and I would play this on the C64 when I was a kid. He would steer the boat/periscope with the joystick and I would be the engineer/weapons officer on the keyboard.

I always remember that the Philippines were a death trap if you patrolled around that area.

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