I am about half way through this book..and it has been absolutely nuts for a "Task Force 1942" remake!!!!!!! Guadalcanal and the battle of Savo Island. Great book, same author as "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" & "Ship of Ghosts".
Perhaps one of the smaller game companies will endeavor to capture the same battles again in a new naval game. I really miss TF1942 and the great naval battles series.
Probably never happen...so sad..was a great game. I wish I hung on to it!! It is lost in my parents basement somewhere...never the less.. I have no 3.5 inch floppy drive..hehe I remember playing for hours....and hours...
I'll have a look out for the book,thanks. You can still play TF1942 if you want,even with no floppy drive. I believe it's abandonware and it runs fine using DosBox http://www.dosbox.com/ I can't remember where I got the game files from now though.Google may tell you where. I did own the original,wish I still had it
Nice to hear people are still playing TF1942. I was co-designer and lead programmer on the project. I've been working at home on a new game that combines 1942: the Pacific Air War and Taskforce: 1942. I wrote both games and have wanted to re-do them both. The engine is mostly written at this point, but the problem is art. I have talked a couple of artists into helping me out, but they lack my enthusiasm to work in my spare time. So although I still work on it, the project will never really go anywhere until I get more art support. Sims aren't seen as big money makers, so I won't get any monetary support unless I've got something pretty much done....
What an honor. I spent many a sleepless nights in high school and college playing TF1942. Truly a great game. The intro to the game brought it all back for me yesterday (despite the lack of sound (dosbox config issues)). Thanks for your efforts. I do miss the golden era of pc sims in the 90's.. F-19, F-15 strike eagle series, Falcon, TF1942, M1 Tank Platoon. Too bad Microprose couldn't hang on.
I wish I had an ounce of programming or artistry knowledge, as I would offer up my time.
I went back to my parents place to recover my copy, however my box was the victim of basement flooding apparently. A had a large box of old pc games.. So I am left without a summary card or manual for TF1942..if anyone has a digital copy..could you point me in the right direction?
Ed, good luck on your endeavors. A quality WW2 naval sim would be awesome!
Truly great news, whilst many other surface sims have been released since TF1942 ie GNB series, Fighting Steel etc none have matched the brilliant interface design, the depth of command and control and the sheer replayability of Task Force 1942, a game which many are still playing almost twenty years on from its original release. If ever a game deserved a rebirth it is this one.
On your request for art it might be a good idea for you to contact Neal Stevens over at subsim.com as the game is very highly regarded over there and I'm sure many in the highly active modding "art dept" there would love to help out. Kim Biscoe who worked on many naval games (pirates!,silent service ii, great naval battles, silent hunter 1 & 2 ) would be a great choice for 2d interface stuff he can be reached through his facebook page
As a commercial alternative you could try Norm Koger & Jim Rose at Storm Eagle Studios (producers of Distant guns & Jutland) Martin (moon) at Battlefront.com (they have a publishing deal with naval game producers Akella)Mark Hessburg currently developing Wolves of the Atlantic for release on iOS or Maxim Ferapontov Totem games the Russian producers of the Ironclads series both have produced excellent ship models and environments for their respective series and may be able to lend assistance/resources. Perhaps even your old boss may be able to help as he has in addition to US publishing recently signed publishing deals in the EU for his Sherman M4 game.
Good luck with the project Ed, my credit card is at the ready!!.
Hello Ed! It is indeed an honour. I wish you all the best with your project. I would be the first to put my hand in my pocket and cough up the entry fee to a Pacific Air War/TF game.
Gunslinger,I've had no luck getting a manual.There are a few complete games on eBay,one in the US.
Luckily I more or less remember how to play it. Trial and error also works
Ed, we are not worthy! Thanks for your excellent work on TF1942. Like others here, I still run it from time to time using dosbox, with no problems. wishing you lots of luck and success with your new project. I am sure there are a lots of us right here who would buy the remake that you describe.
Chucky, don't fail to also pick up a copy of the same author's "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors." Superb work among a great many works about the Leyte Gulf engagements, and one of the best naval combat volumes I've ever read.
Couldn't agree more. "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailor's" is one of the greatest books on naval combat I've ever read. I wish they could make a series ala "Band of Brothers" or "The Pacific", only this time concerning the destroyer men of Taffy 3... "Ship of Ghosts" is also excellent, it follows the USS Houston and her encounter and demise and the story of her surviving crew and their internment.
I'll keep an eye on ebay, but if someone has and can post some of the basic commands that would be most awesome. I think I have the general view commands (F1-F8), Save/Load game F9-F10 etc. But I'm looking for commands to speed up and slow down time.
@ Gunslinger hopefully this should fill in the blanks...
Esc backup/return to bridge f1 bridge f2 charts f3 gun director f4 observer view f5 torpedo director f6 damage control f7 binoculars f8 save game f9 load game f10 options 1 inc speed 2 dec speed 3 gun director wide/close up 8 load/unload starshells 9 searchlights on/off 0 switch torpedo mount - dec time rate + increase time rate enter fire weapons arrow keys l/right view left/right arrow keys up/down adjust range longer/shorter shift+ arrow key scroll screen ctrl + arrow key move cursor to hot spot <> turn port/ stbd z zoom x unzoom space bar director targetting on/off alt p pause alt s sound on/off alt j joystick adustment alt q quit to dos(box)
There is an interesting thread over on the archived gamesquad Distant Guns forum (about half way down the page) about some of the shortcomings in the original title which might add as useful constructive criticism for the revamp. Bullethead who posts in some depth about TF 1942 in the thread is a member of the the Storm Eagle devteam.
Sonarman... I love you! Thanks for the key binding list! I alos found a TF1942 update zip file, which claims to be an update to the original title (not sure if it is patch or user community update etc.) I found it on a patch library at filefront. I'll see if I can install it.
Thanks again for the list and I'll check out the forum!
Thanks, that sounds like the official Microprose patch released shortly after the game's release, I still have a 3.5" floppy sent to me from Microprose UK with that update.
Nice to hear people are still playing TF1942. I was co-designer and lead programmer on the project. I've been working at home on a new game that combines 1942: the Pacific Air War and Taskforce: 1942. I wrote both games and have wanted to re-do them both. The engine is mostly written at this point, but the problem is art. I have talked a couple of artists into helping me out, but they lack my enthusiasm to work in my spare time. So although I still work on it, the project will never really go anywhere until I get more art support. Sims aren't seen as big money makers, so I won't get any monetary support unless I've got something pretty much done....
Ed Fletcher Formerly of MicroProse Software
Good god. This is amazing news Let me know where I can pre-order
First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long to respond to all your posts. I wanted to respond sooner, but only had the link to this site at work. I will send it home.
I worked with Kim Biscoe on two projects (688 Attack Sub - Sega Genesis and F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0). The problem I have with asking people for help is that I can't guarantee the game will ever be published and I'm worried about wasting their time. However, I feel encouraged by all your comments, and I will try contacting some of the people suggested on this thread.
I already spoke with Bill Stealey about this game, but he has limited resources and sees Warbirds as his priority. So that didn't go anywhere.
I will keep trying, but I'm a bit discouraged by the lack of enthusiasm I encounter from most people. Even the people who like the idea usually let me down when it comes time to set time aside to help me....
Gatorman... I can understand the feeling. Most people that can do the quality stuff that you need are probably working full time game development, and can't stomach more after being fed corporate gamedev all day.
I have a buddy that worked on SH4 and 5, really good 3D modeller and passionate about simulation and strategy, his eyes sparked when he heard about TF1942, but .... his spare time is no longer for game dev.
My advice is to get a publisher (but choose wisely) and get some funding.
Yo Gatorman, this is excellent news! All us guys over in the EAW forum have been modding EAW sim since it came out, and are still trying to figure out how to get the ship-wakes and ship evasion moves from PAW. EAW was supposed to be the sequel, but they left out the Pacific part. We also might have some artist that could help. Stop by anytime! AO
Nice to hear people are still playing TF1942. I was co-designer and lead programmer on the project. I've been working at home on a new game that combines 1942: the Pacific Air War and Taskforce: 1942. I wrote both games and have wanted to re-do them both. The engine is mostly written at this point, but the problem is art. I have talked a couple of artists into helping me out, but they lack my enthusiasm to work in my spare time. So although I still work on it, the project will never really go anywhere until I get more art support. Sims aren't seen as big money makers, so I won't get any monetary support unless I've got something pretty much done....
Ed Fletcher Formerly of MicroProse Software
Best of luck with your project, I really hope it will see the light. TF1942 was the best naval sim ever, and I also had tons of fun with PAW. Both groundbreaking and excellent products. Ciao, nibbio
I loved playing PAW 1942. Good luck in getting this game back into production. I'd buy it again.
I don't really know how to run dosbox or how to get PAW 1942 working on my Windows XP or Windows 7 computers.
I still have a windows 95 computer but can't get it to run PAW 1942 right. Might be the sound card settings not being right. Or perhap the bus speed is too fast for this old dos game? Wish I was more Dos literate and could figure out how to get Windows 95 to run the PAW 1942 game. I still have the game on an older Packard Bell 386 SX computer but that computer runs the game too slow to really enjoy the flight modeling. It's like watching a slide show in slow motion.
Well, I probably put in about 10 hours of TF1942 this past week/weekend playing through the historical battles. What a blast, pardon the pun!!! Especially having just read the book (see first post). Recognizing each battle was laid out pretty well in the game. At first I thought the dated graphics would be a turn off, but I believe they enhanced the gameplay.. During accounts of most of the night battles, ship recognition was almost impossible (hence friendly fire incidents that occured). And it is very hard to ID ships at medium to long range in game. Also the description of shell flight times, observation of large caliber tracer fire all seemed to match up...or was it my vivid imagination of trying to place myself there via a time vehicle as is TF1942...
Yes the damage modeling is general and the gun director/firing of the ships armaments are more arcade like, and the torpedoes are almost impossible to aim properly..at leas with my skill.. But it all adds up to a fantastic game... Lots of anticipation on where your salvo will land at long ranges...short, long, a hit...
Good stuff. One of few games from my box of golden memories that still truly lives up to that memory. The midi intro music brought back a lot of memories...
Nice to hear people are still playing TF1942. I was co-designer and lead programmer on the project. I've been working at home on a new game that combines 1942: the Pacific Air War and Taskforce: 1942. I wrote both games and have wanted to re-do them both. The engine is mostly written at this point, but the problem is art. I have talked a couple of artists into helping me out, but they lack my enthusiasm to work in my spare time. So although I still work on it, the project will never really go anywhere until I get more art support. Sims aren't seen as big money makers, so I won't get any monetary support unless I've got something pretty much done....
Ed Fletcher Formerly of MicroProse Software
WOW, this is great news, specially because my favourite WWII combat flight sim which was NOT IL2 (and whatever addons, next gen game that came out from this) and while EAW was one of my favoutites, my favourite WWII combat flight sim was DEFINITLY 1942: the Pacific Air War! This was by far for me, my favourite WWII combat fligth sim since it had a complete aircraft set (not missing Devastators or NO flyable Avenger like that IL2: Pacific Fighters crap) and you could play a DYNAMIC campaign (yes, it was a DYNAMIC campaign!!) as a pilot (career) or you could play the Carrier Battles where you played as an "admiral" that allowes you to control your fleets similary to a strategy game and could jump in as pilot and fly aircraft during the air battles if you wanted to! 1942: the Pacific Air War was a masterpiece that IL2 could never come close and even EAW it's direct sucessor which while being great still didn't come as good as in terms of features as 1942: the Pacific Air War was! And of course TF1942 was also great!
Regarding the lack of artists, that's a bit wierd since from what I've seen, "indie" projects like yours usually have problems finding programmers and not artists (3D modelers, texturing artists, etc...). Many of the existing "indie" projects (like for example Combat-Helo, Jet Thunder, OFF, etc...) didn't seem have any problems finding 3D or texture artists, by the contrary at least as far as I know! But programmers that's an another story... Anyway, I'm sure if you ask here around SimHQ (or other sim fan site, such as Subsim and others) for artists that could be available to help you, I'm pretty sure you'll find at least a good number of them willing to helo you with your great project!
Chucky, I've done the same on a few occasions. Mostly attributed to my screwing up combat formations and maneuvering. I was able to get a few lucky hits by closing to medium range and ordering my ships to launch en masse. Results in kind of a shotgun like effect.
Chucky, I've done the same on a few occasions. Mostly attributed to my screwing up combat formations and manoeuvring.
That was exactly how I did it.
I think that friendly fire adds to the realism and confusion of battle.When I first did it I thought what the hell just took out my cruiser? A quick look at the map revealed all.
I worked with Kim Biscoe on two projects (688 Attack Sub - Sega Genesis and F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0). The problem I have with asking people for help is that I can't guarantee the game will ever be published and I'm worried about wasting their time. However, I feel encouraged by all your comments, and I will try contacting some of the people suggested on this thread.
I already spoke with Bill Stealey about this game, but he has limited resources and sees Warbirds as his priority. So that didn't go anywhere.
I will keep trying, but I'm a bit discouraged by the lack of enthusiasm I encounter from most people. Even the people who like the idea usually let me down when it comes time to set time aside to help me....
Just curious, have you considered reaching out to the IGDA? You might be able to get a hold of some college students, looking to boost their portfolio, get to work with an industry veteran, and get their name in the credits. It's a potential win-win for everyone.
I have GNB 1 through 5 on CD still.Good times.Would love to see some new large surface warfare simulations out there as long as they were not hacked up like the Silent Hunter series has become.
Another possibility for you Ed would be to contact Paradox Interactive who have recently financed/published the age of sail titles "East India company", "Commander conquest of the Americas",the merchant ship sim "Ship Simulator Extremes" and the forthcoming modern naval RTS "Naval War: Arctic Circle" Quite a growing portfolio of maritime titles yet missing a wwii title, Task Force would be a perfect fit.
Wow, and here all along I though I was the only guy who ever bought TF1942! I would ask everyone at the computer clubs and anyone else I ever met if they ever played TF1942, but no one had a clue. One of my favorites of all time. Still kept the game and if I could scan the "Control Summary Card" for you to use I would gladly do it. Hope this comes to fruition!
I was lucky enough to read about that news just minutes ago. While being pressed by my work right now, I just wanted to spare a little moment to express my deepest pride and honor to be able to write a little word of thanks. I grew up playing Microprose sims, and TF1942 was my third one, after F-15 II and Silent Service II (but Dad was more into SS2, too scary for me ^^). TF1942, together with its extensive and impressive data and reading, was most probably the very game that made me. Going through the ship id manual, the battle reports, the campaign, was one of the most ecstatic experiences in my young life. Today, WitP:AE goes beyond some of the restrictions of the TF1942 and 1942:PAW, but still, it lacks the real time stress of these games campaigns offered, something that was never achieved or even done this way again, ever after. I spent countless weeks, or month of my life playing TF1942 and PAW, just like I did with F15II, M1TP, M1TP2 or EAW alike, some of them you had a connection with to I guess. These weeks were not lost, they are a tribute to how you, along with a few others, managed to actually make culture and history learning, fun and rewarding.
It lead me to history and simulations, made me like things I like today, made me what I was some years ago, and still am today. I still play the TF1942 intro music on the piano, I can still remember Anchors Away at the end of my successful campaign, I still picture these ships I grounded in Kula Gulf and the cutscene of the Japanese officer going down the stairs at night. I still remember waiting for Vandergrift to send me news about his offensive, or raging over the fact that even though I was prolonging artificially the campaign game, I couldn't get to see the BBs I was suppose to receive. I remember spending so much time playing custom naval battles that I still wonder how my parents could come along with that. I still remember I was playing TF1942 when I fried the 486's motherboard and went on outside pretending nothing happened. I remember all of this happened, and I remember I was barely 10. You, Sir, contributed to events that are (maybe to my shame!) among my most obvious memories from a lost past, long time ago.
I just wanted to say to you: Thank you, and Good Luck.
This is so amazing. I still have my TF 1942 in it's original box. I haven't been able to play it for many years now, but I loved the game so much I just couldn't bring myself to throw it out. It's in pristine condition..
As soon as I saw this thread on the frontpage of SIMHQ I had to check it out.. I wish I had the money or the computer skills needed to help with this project.
I have downloaded DOSBOX and the TF 1942 game from the net. Installed them and am happily back on the bridge of my Destroyer leading the division in for torpedo attacks against the Japanese Navy Heavy cruisers.
I feel like I'm 27 years old again. Thank you to everyone who posted links for me to find this game again and thank you to the new blood and interest in bringing back to life a classic.
The post bij Alain-James sums up pretty much the feelings I have had when playing TF 1942.
My intentional delaying of new troops to bring to Guadalcanal so the campaign would last longer is something I fondly remember. Unfortunately, the A.I. would only send the occasional APD (which got subsequently sunk by Betty strikes) to resupply the Americans on the island if I remember correctly..... so the Americans would eventually die off because of lack of supplies. The very original copy protection scheme where you had to recognize ships from the ship manual or would be banished to a battle one can't win was a great touch! Needless to say I was playing the bad guys most of the time, just like I do in my PBEM in WITP:AE.
TF 1942: great concept, great scale, great U.I.... all this in the mid Nineties! Let fly all the torpedoes again!
My favorite part of making TF1942 was the design sessions I spend with Adm. William P. Mack. Adm. Mack was serving in the Asiatic Fleet on an old WWI-era destroyer when war with Japan broke out. He was a gunnery officer at the time. He taught me all the tactics, how the gun directors worked, and threw in a few war stories as well. What an incredible gentleman, and great man. I was honored to spend so much time with him.
TF1942 gave me many dedicated hours of fun. Most of Microprose games did.
Regarding your remake; did you ever think of crowd sourcing? Im willing to sponsor the game via kickstarter.com or other crowdsourcing sites and I believe many others will follow. As simulator enthousiasts we have to come together and fund this great initiatives so we can continue to follow our passion.. I can build you slick preso if needed, make video and put it online and start getting resources in your project so you can find good quality people to help you. Start your FB page and create buzz. Let me know if I can help. Smash!
Just thought I'd chime in to say that I loved TF1942, played the bejesus out of it and would love to play it again! It is my favorite naval game of all time.
Too funny, I'm reading this now and am in the middle of the Battle for Cape Esperance and was thinking maybe there is a game I can "what if" this with? Hornfischer is a great writer and does a great job of delivering history, telling the story and providing a good study or the politics, personalities and technologies that effect the outcome. Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is another great book of his.
The project is on hold again for the same reason - lack of art support. I've talked to a number of people who volunteered help, but it never seems to work out. I can't offer any compensation, so I really can't complain.
Maybe it would be a good idea to contact Neal Stevens head honcho at Subsim.com (the internet's largest naval gaming community) the game is very highly thought of there.
Perhaps you could do a feature/interview on the creation of the original game and the possibilities of its successor for the site. With this year being the 20th Anniversary (ouch!) of the original game it would be an ideal time for such an article and would perhaps provide the impetus needed to attract the many talented 3D modellers over there to divert their attention from modding the "Silent Hunter" series for a while to assist in this great undertaking.
I did enjoy your games - both Task Force 1942 and Pacific Air War were pioneer in many ways, in terms of graphics, in-game 'physics' and highly engaging campaigns.
This is a late reply and I hope you have your support identified already, but these are a couple more you may want to consider. There are modders who built their 3D artworks for existing (also old) games like CFS2 and IL-2. Their works showed eyes for details and a love for the genre, so you may find a more receptive audience there.
Reading "Neptune's Inferno" and thinking of "Task Force 1942" (which I played via DosBox last night) brought me to this thread. Man I would love an update / remake of TF1942 and/or PAW 1942, two of my all time favorites!!!
There are all sorts of groups on Facebook that should result in finding people with the talent and naval interest in pursuing a task such as this.
