Fighting Steel and the GNB series

[Revthought]

Hey guys,

I have seen it enough on the web recently to believe that both the NWS Fighting Steel Project and Fighting Steel itself now work on Windows 8.1. Unfortunately, I cannot get Fighting Steel to install from my CD onto my computer . If anyone has any tips for how to do this, let me know. If you're lucky enough to have it installed already, I thought I'd share.

I have also been able to get all of the GNB titles to run in DOSbox with sound! It's tricky and need to find the downloads for GNB 2-4 that includes the installer and isn't the already unpacked game--its pretty easy to find. Make sure you mount a C: drive to where you'd like the game to go, then mount the folder containing the installs as a separate cdrom drive. Run the installer from the D: drive (or whatever you've mounted as a cdrom) and extract into your C: drive.

The sound should work fine as long as you tell the intaller you have a 16bit soundcard. The only problem is it only creates a temporary sound.ini file. So you have to run the sound installer exe before every boot. This takes 2 seconds and can be done from your mounted C: drive.

 

[Revthought]

While I'm at it, understanding it might be better to post this on SubSim HQ, I thought I'd ask some questions about GNB4. I only had the opportunity to play GNBNA and her expansions in the early 1990s (I was 14! Wow!). Around 1993 the family computer became a MAC, and I never had the chance to play the other GNB titles. As such I'm having a little difficulty with GNB4.

First of all, while playing the tutorial mission (Bismarck/Prince Eugen vs. Hood/KGV) I noticed that GNB4 seems much more difficult than GNBNA. I managed what Lindermann had feared quite quickly--I had Bismarck shot out from under my ass! So it seems much harder. My real question is: does anyone know if there is a setting that turns on ship hit messages for either your enemy or your ship/squadron as in GNBNA? Because these notifications aren't on or are absent in GN4, and I've got to stare at the opposing ships through binoculars and hope I can make out when my shells hit.

Determining if you are hit is a matter of listening for the impact, then checking damage control. If I want to know what's going on with other ships in the TF I literally have to toggle over them to see. Very annoying.

Relatedly, spotting fire under manual gun control is annoyingly difficult in GNB4. From what I can tell you have to be on the bridge or on deck to see your shells land--you cannot see them from the gunnary station. This makes it hard as hell to know when your guns have a good "bracket" of their target.

Finally, since I already started semi-complaining about a game that was released in 1995, what the hell is with the damage model? Instead of three abstracted levels of the ship, there are now only two. So every single time a BB size projectile penetrates its causing flooding. Given the beating the vessels took under actual ballistic firing conditions during the war, and to some extent the first World War (Hood and the multiple Jutland Magazine explosions aside) it seems awfully easy to sink Battleships. 6 hits (though I suppose these could be multiple shell hits since I get no notification other than the impact noise) and the Bismark is sunk.

Both Bismarck and KGV took as many hits during the Battle of the Denmark Straights and, while damaged, neither were in danger of foundering. Bismarck took many, many more later and only foundered when scuttled (even though given enough time she would have gone down from her battle damage.)

 

[Redwolf]

Woah. I think I still have my fighting steel media.

Did they ever turn that into a good game?

 

[Revthought]

Woah. I think I still have my fighting steel media.

Did they ever turn that into a good game?

I think so, particularly with the addition of NWS Fighting Steel Project, which gives you a campaign mode. Problem I'm having is that I still have the media as well, and can't get it to install.