Finally got the USS Bunker Hill past mission 2. Turns out the directions in the manual are wrong. I had to control individual fires, some commands for maneuvers worked, but not everything. Felt a joy, but a little peeved the manual's directions steer you to failure. Mission 3 I got half right already, but need to replay. It's cool chattin' with a SEAL Team leader on how to work a mission, and watching the little cinematics as he goes out to perform it.

Man, this game is fun!

Just completed Mission 3. No ship maneuvering or calls of fire on target at all. It was pure negotiation with a terrorist leader who hijacked a tanker in the Arabian Gulf. Had to negotiate with a foreign ship captain, too. It took 3 tries, but I was able to figure out what had to be done and do it. Watching Sea Patrol and getting familiar with Naval Combat procedures sure helped. If you can get this game, yeah, it's got late 90's graphics but I'm getting totally sold on the gameplay.

I took a sneak peek into the next mission and it's going to be an all out naval assault against Iran with jets now. There will definitely be more calls for steel on target then!

Sounds fun. Can you remind me of what the user interaces are like? Does it use video capture to flesh out the scenarios?

No. It's all 3-D rendered, the CIC, bridge, the action cinematics, though detailed and laid out like an actual Tico CIC or bridge, are simplified 3-D models. Characters are all 3-D. No live action. I kinda like it, I don't think the mix would've gone well. But the scenarios are out of the 80s-90s news and very, very realistic. I love the character play. You gotta know have some knowledge of Navy procedures and state policy, and pay attention to your orders.

I've looked into screen capture stuff. No luck yet. I've taken photos of the screen, but it looks like photos of a screen. I may post some if I get feedback that way. Otherwise, I've got other stuff to try when I get time. I only get to play about once a week as is.

I really enjoyed that game way back when.
played it a lot, but lost the disc when I moved in with my then fiance.

That SEAL mission is just pure genious, I have played it tons of times, just for the fun of it.. Have you had the tanker do it's suicide run?

Staffan

@Squid
Naw. It took 3 tries as was. I'm wondering how long the Iran campaign is? You remember how many missions make a campaign? I'm scared to death I'm gonna get to the end of this when I'm completely addicted and with no mission builder I'll feel totally screwed. The other campaign look good, tho. I really like Janes Fleet Command, but it seems to 2-dimensional without the role playing bit, even with the better graphics. The SEAL mission was awesome, you're right about that. Can't wait to see what else is out there.

Picked this one up over the weekend. Is there a manual available for download
somewhere? There wasn't one in the envelope or on the CD.

k, this probably isn't the place for this, but how do I run this game?

windows xp sp3, Nvidia GE6800GS

I set compatibility mode to 256 colors, and 640x480 screen resolution.
Can't even read the screen in game it's so mucked up. What do I have
to do?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh boy. The manual helps so much it might be crucial.

Give me some time to see what I can find for you.

I'm running WinXP SP2, NVidia 8600 GT. Game is in compatibility mode for Windows 98/ME. 256 colors, but not any resolution settings. Also, in my experience across 3 computers, it has to be run from the D: drive and installed to its default spot on the C: drive. Some have suggested, tho I've never tried, that it be run from Dosbox.

Good luck!

thanks iamfritz, i'll give those settings a shot.

looked at various websites that have manuals for old games
but couldn't find this one. thanks for the help.

no luck. it almost looks like at 16 color screen.
pity, i was looking forward to checking this one
out.

Let's see...

My desktop is just 1024x768.

Do you get the memory warning screen where you need to press "Y"?

You might also just want to try installing and uninstalling it. It's small and doesn't take a long time to do it.

Igor- check PM.

WILL DO

Thanks (twice iamfritz. Much appreciate the help.

I finally found a copy of this under the radar classic at a decent price, printed out the pdf manual.

Eugene,
where'd you final the manual? it's not on my CD.

My version was in a sealed box - but for show only, as the sealed cd was the only content. In the jewel box besides the cd was a brief cd folder/cover with install instructions. It mentioned the manual in pdf form, inside one of the folders on the CD (I forget at the moment, away from the disk). You might have an earlier version? Perhaps the original had a paper manual, and no cd pdf??

Yeah- it originally came with a paper manual. Since it's a DOS-based game switching back and forth to a PDF should be easy to do without crashing.

Sounds pretty interesting, will this run on Windows 7?

From what I've heard, Win7 is much more agreeable with older software, tho I can't say since I don't have it. There are no advanced graphics calls, just old DOS RAM usage rules (640K). All that said, I think it should.

Eugene,
Does yours run ok? visually I mean.
Been tweeking and tweeking...nothing
is working.

Hi igor - yes, although I only ran it once to check as I had not printed out the manual yet. I can't recall now whether I used Win95 compat mode for install. I see that I put TM.exe in Win95 compat mode but rel.exe is not. When I get computer matters sorted out next week and some time I will let you know how things work now. The tweaking I had to do had to do with which of the exe's/bat I used and mounting so that the exe sees my D drive properly. Too a few tries but did work eventually.

Awesome work Eugene.

I remember now that I had to juggle my drives way back when to get it to work, too. Had to be D:, but only after I rearranged them.

Can someone walk me through how to install this? I'm getting a compatibility error when trying to run the install exe.

JayTac,
I too had a devil of a time getting this to run (Windows XP)....
I made some changes to the bat file....as soon as I figure out
what exactly I did, I'll post it up.

Now to track down a manual. Don't know why it's not a pdf
somewhere, but it's not. Hunting the internet in the meantime.

Looks like it could be fun though.

If it doesn't install straight away, right click the installer on the CD in the Windows File Manager and set compatibility to win 98 or 95. Otherwise, look above for system settings and stay tuned.

Can you give us some of your system info?

Ok, I right clicked on the the tico.bat file and set the compatibility settings as follows:

compatibility: windows95
checked: run in 256 colors, run in 640x480 screen resolution and turn off advanced text
services.

This is the result of trying virtually EVERYTHING and voila, imagine my shock when it
finally worked.

Now if I could just locate the manual so I know what I'm doing. Even Google can't find
it. You'd think one of the game manual sites would have it but no. (Is this the same game
as Aegis: Guardian of the Fleet?) I can't find that manual either

EDIT to correct puncuation

edit:

I think I got it now..let's see...


2nd edit:

Nope, still no luck as of yet, I'll have to give it another go tomorrow. I changed the INSTTICO file to compatibility mode and that was a no go for me. I assume that's the file you're talking about (pre-install) when you mention the tico.bat? If not I was unable to find the latter.

Also, I'm on Windows 7 64 bit.

Hey JayTac,

No, post-install. The only files on my CD are the Tico folder consisting
of R1.hdr and R1.res and the install.exe

It installed (Windows XP) perfectly but I couldn't read the screen so I
was really dealing with a resolution problem. Post install, there's a
tico.bat file on which I changed the properties as I indicated. Now it
seems to work ok.

Sorry I can't help on Windows 7....waiting on a new computer for that.

Igor- check PM.

You might try running it via DosBox. I got the demo to run just fine that way.

-Jenrick

Many thanks Fritz

So I'm trying to fight my way through mission 4 now. One missile always gets through my defenses somehow and I've seen the graphic of the Styx t-boning my engine room 3 times now. GRRRRR.

How's any or everyone else doing?

Go Fritz!

(I forgot how I set mine up to launch - the drive letter thing. I guess I must have mounted it but didn't write down the details. Now that i have my main computer back, will have to trial and error it again)

yeah, those missiles really mess with your engines

sadly, real life has intervened (hate when that happens)
so that my gaming time is going to be very limited for
awhile

still, i'm really the manual (thank you again) and
hoping.

I've never been able to virtually mount the CD- always needed it in a physical drive (if that's what you're talking about).

Did anyone install via DOSbox? I have no idea how to work this thing

It's proving an elusive bugger for most; no one configuration seems to work, but some of the tips posted in the thread have helped some of the readers here. Can you give us a system set up summary, with OS etc.?

AUGH! Some missile keeps getting through, and they keep successfully repelling my attacks!

There's gotta be some way to win this scenario. It's a 3-ship SAG attack on Siri and Abu Musa Islands to take out the missile emplacements there. I've got my Tico-class Bunker Hill (which I got to personally tour last Summer BTW), an Arleigh-Burke DDG, a Perry FFG, and a couple orbiting A-6s with AGM-65s. I lob and lob and lob missiles and finally begin to run out because they keep SAMMing them down. If I move in close to use the 5-incher, I get Silkwormed. GRRRR.

Maybe I need to just fire more faster.

Took a few tries, but I finally beat this mission. Turns out to simple naval doctrine: I designate two ships to SAM duty (FFG and the DDG), then get my CG with the big 5-incher bombard the shore batteries. It does some SAM and CIWS stuff well, too, but I concentrate on its gun run along the island coast.

Awesome.

Thanks Fritz. These very specific reports are intrinsically interesting but also helpful in understanding the nature of this sim.

For those wondering- I haven't dropped this title- just don't have time lately! Mission 5 (or is it 6?) that's next is a loooong mission. I started it up but it's obviously at least a 2-3 hour mission, and I just haven't had that big a time slot in a long while!

The moment I do, I'll post more notes/reports up here.

Update- I'm upgrading to Win7. Will see if I can get this awesome sim running on it. I'll also xfer my saved games to it for when I'm successful! Will keep all posted on my progress.

Harumph. So far, neither Tico nor JFC run in Win 7. Will start tinkering when I have time to do so.

It's pretty cool that you're still following this up, fritz. I remember playing a demo shortly before it came out way back when. Didn't have a manual, so playing those three demo missions (Kharg oil terminal, Soviet naval defector, and some Korean theatre operation involving protecting the USS Vicksburg) were "interesting" to say the least. I found it interesting that the Vicksburg had LEAP/RIM-161 SM-3 in the sim years before it reached IOC.

I's trickier now than before as the installer won't even run! I was hoping to install it and run it in DOSBOX, but I'm stuck now. I know it's stubborn about installing off the HD, only wants to install/run off the d: drive, or so it went last time (in Win 98 and Win XP SP2)

Will dosbox run a prog off a CD-ROM? Any takers?

Can someone post some screenshots please? I cant find ANY screenies anywhere, I want to see what the sim looks like before buying it. Thanks in advance!

I am pretty sure DOSBOX will mount anything you point it to. There is a command to mount a drive AS A CDROM (e.g. for CD Checks, etc..) but I am guessing you want to mount it as if it were a regular drive.

Another trick you can try is to mount the CDROM as a CDROM, mount the folder on the HD that you want it in, and try to install the game from the CD to the mounted drive from within DOSBOX.

I have it somewhere, but haven't played or had it installed for a long long time. Maybe I will try it and see.

EDIT: Oh, I have XP SP3 so it probably won't help you. I assume it is a Win7 issue. Still would try the install from within DOSBOX.

The prob is Win 7 won't even let the installer run- an old DOS batch file. I actually copied the game form my old Win XP SP2 install and put it directly onto my Win7 computer.

Not lots of time to tinker around now. Easter, new PC, work and all. But this is a baby o' mine and I want it running. It's a seriously fun sim.

Downloaded the Harpoon CE Demo. This could be fun- it runs easily enough anyway. But we'll see. I really enjoy commanding a CG from a CIC more than a fleet from a general, albeit very good screen layout.

I look forward to hearing about your results as well, Recluse! Y'know- when and/or if.

When and if indeed!!! As you indicate, there seems to be much less time for tinkering than there used to be. I will definitely report whatever I find, though the results on XP SP3 may not be indicative of your Win7 issues.

The best hope seems to be install within DOSBOX...

DOSBOX is already up and running, FYI. But as you say... time....

I successfully located my Ticonderoga CD and manual and have them sitting next to the computer for the next step. PROGRESS!!

Any chance someone would take a few seconds of time and post some screenies pleeeeease??!

Recluse, I have forgotten just how I tricked the D drive thing (my drive is another letter). Probably mounted and told dosbox to call it D. It's been a while since I installed it. Have you installed?

I was never able to get screen grabs fromthe sim, but I did take some photos of my computer during gameplay. There's also a video:

Hi Fritz,

Just now I installed and played the first two missions.

Here is what I did:

FYI:
My main drive is C:, I have a D:drive where I generally load games.
My CDROM is G:

I made a folder on my machine, D:\Ticonderoga

Loaded DOSBOX:

mount c D:\Ticonderoga
mount d G:\ -t cdrom

Switched to the "D:" drive and ran the INSTTICO.exe

When asked for a Path, I specified C:

Selected SB16 as Sound device.

All installed fine. Ran it from "C:" using the TICO.BAT file.

Initially I got a warning on low conventional memory and DOSBOX crashed. Just when I was thinking I needed to refresh my DOS memory management skillz, I tried again and this time, despite the error it ran ok.

Took me quite some time to remember how to do everything. Glad I had the Manual handy!!

It really bothers me how the map zoom works. I thought I could right click to center and then zoom, but it seems like I have to ZOOM first then right click around till I find my battle group and contacts.

100% on the first mission, 64% on the 2nd (Probably because I didn't shoot down the bombers that show up in the beginning.

Recluse, in order to run the sim without the cd, can you make an iso/image of it, then mount it with Daemon or a similar utility, and mount that image (regardless of whatever virtual drive it's labeled) as "D" drive using dosbox and the -t cdrom switch (or is that switch not needed?); then pick up as you describe above for running it?

I am recalling, perhaps incorrectly, that Tico wants you to have the disk in its drive, and still wants that drive to be D, after installing and in order to run.

Installed with disk and tested - ran ok in dosbox 1.74 - received 100% in Mission 1. The weapon launch videos ran for some launches but not all. Otherwise seemed to proceed well.

Now to test the image replacement for the disk.

I made an image of the CD but didn't get to test it. With DOSBOX mounting command, you can alias the image to any drive letter you want, so D: is perfectly available.

I've used the image mounting technique for other games in DOSBOX with no problem. Just have to hunt up the correct MOUNT command for it.

Looks like: Z:>imgmount d "C:\MyISO.iso" -t iso

I actually made a .nrg with Nero. Not sure if DOSBOX will mount it directly, but I can probably mount it first with Daemon tools, then use the usual CDROM mounting command within DOSBOX. Probably easier to just re-rip as an .iso!

In the first mission I kind of wanted to get within gun range, instead of wasting expensive Tomahawks, but didn't have the patience.

Mounted the image with Daemon, then mounted it as a cd "D" drive in dosbox - ran Tico bat in dosbox. All went well. Can proceed to second mission as time permits. Kind of interesting alternate, simpler world of "Harpoon" that you could dip into without the full complexity and heavy lifting of "Harpoon."

The missile launch videos never showed for every instance. Just every 2 or 3, even back when I played it in Win 98. So that's not an issue.

Can't wait `til I get time to try all this out myself. Thanks for puttin' the time in, guys!

While I admire Harpoon and JFC for their strategic content, I've always been a first person/simulator kind myself. Harpoon is hard for me to relish, though I enjoy the challenge. JFC is closer with the prettier meshes and so forth. But I'd rather be a pilot, squad member, or CO of the USS Bunker Hill.

Funny thing on the Third Person Fleet Commander vs. First Person role: When I first played JFC, I would curse the stupidity of the F/A-18 pilots I would send out to attack ships for always getting shot down before delivering their payloads.

Then when I started flying Janes F/A-18, and I *WAS* that F/A-18 pilot, I had a lot more sympathy for the impossible task I had set them!

Have a window of fun time tonight. Going to give this a shot, now that I've gotten LOMAC pretty much working on the new PC.

Finally had time to sit down and make it work! And it not only works great, I'm getting screenies with the dosbox/mgrab combo. Wow. So glad to have this running again. Completing Mission 5 now (I had backed up my whole game from my old computer).

Yippee-Kay-yay-ker-Splash!

Good grief. Looks like Iran's throwing its whole air force at me.

Looks like I've taken out their entire air force.

There's the Joshan. She must be upgraded. She's knockin' my Harpoons down pretty good. I'll have to swarm her from 3 diff ships n directions.

HOLY CRAP. The Arleigh Burke is sinking!

Wonder if this is the end of the campaign...?

OK, go tot the end of the mission. Took 3+ hours to complete. Wow. Came out victorious though I lost a DDG, but it must have only been a flesh wound cuz it shows up in the next mission. Hmmm. Will post screenies soon as I can.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Thanks Fritz! Interesting reading. Will watch for your next. Glad it is working properly.

I can't get it to launch.. but have a few ideas. Thanks for the post!

SaashimiSim- try the above Dos Box variations- they work perfectly for me.

I Almost got my screenies posted last night, but son ha dother ideas. Will keep trying!

As promised, here are some screenies of this sim. This entry is mostly action shots.

And here are some ship interior "virtual" shots...

Finally got this mounted on a virtual drive- no need to risk my antique CD-ROM anymore. Now I just need to remember how to write a batch file so I can just click on that. Then this sim will be as automated as it was meant to be!

So... um... I think I finished the Iranian Campaign. We sank a few ships and then... Admiral chews me out, but I keep my commission... then it shows my Ticonderoga Class cruiser sailing off into the sunset.

I think I won the Iran Campaign.

I used to play that game something like xx years ago and I liked it.

2 questions:
- Where can I buy it?
- How would I make it work on Vista 64-bit?

In advance thank you!

It needs DOSBOX to play it. There's a conversation a while back in these forums how to set it up- different things worked for different people. I've used DOSBOX with it in Win98, WinXP and Win 7... so it should work no matter what.

Where is it available? Amazon has a few copies for cheap. For the fun I've gotten out of it, it's a steal.

Maybe the best thing about this game is you can window it and work on something on one part of your screen and watch the battle unfold on the other. Play and work!