Like the movie industry, the computer gaming world has its share of artistically superior products that somehow fail to get the public recognition they deserve. A strategy game called The Grandest Fleet gets my vote for the Best Sleeper Software of 1994.
Find it and you may discover that the game’s so addictive that you’ll spend countless hours trying to master it. The Grandest Fleet was produced by a small New Jersey-based company called QQP, so it lacks the multimillion-dollar advertising budget of the latest Sonic or Mortal Kombat game. But it has something more important than hype: great playability.
The premise is simple: You control one of two fleets; the computer-or a human opponent connected over a modem or network-controls the other. The side with the most victory points at the end of the contest wins. In this regard, The Grandest Fleet is like countless other simulations on the market.
What makes the game a classic are numerous elements that other programs lack. First of all, the computer opponent is a challenging one and, as your skill increases, the computer plays even tougher. Indeed, there are 21 levels of difficulty. To advance to the higher levels-that is, to earn promotions from lowly warrant officer to fleet admiral-requires thoughtful strategy and tactics.
Though the game comes with various scenarios loosely based on historical events (such as the Battle of Jutland), the designers wisely chose not to make the game a re-creation of history, with a myriad of ships and seemingly never-ending turns.
Instead, the designers sacrificed historical realism for good old-fashioned fun, keeping the number of ship types to a minimum and allowing you to play a game in less than an hour. Moreover, the basics of the game can be learned relatively quickly, and there’s a tutorial to help you along.
Finally, the game offers a variety of options that will have players coming back for more, including a random map generator and an option to play campaigns of more than one scenario.
The only downside to the game is that, at times, it’s hard to find what you’re looking for in the manual; an index would have helped. For the most part, though, playing The Grandest Fleet is smooth sailing.
In spite of being a small company, QQP is starting to attract attention for its high-quality programs. A forthcoming title called The Perfect General II promises to do for ground combat what The Grandest Fleet does for naval battle. Another recent release is Bridge Olympiad, which is a challenging simulation of a duplicate bridge tournament.
QQP is run by Bruce Williams Zaccagnino, an entrepreneur who is unusual even in the off-beat world of hackers. Besides being a game designer, he’s also a concert organist.
The Grandest Fleet is a fascinating little world of its own, and one definitely worth exploring. The Grandest Fleet is available for IBM-compatible computers for $59.95. QQP can be reached at 908-788-2799.
– The Grandest Fleet is cerebral fare. So if instead you’re a joystick junkie with an itchy trigger finger, check out Super Street Fighter II (Capcom; $69.95, Super NES, Genesis), the sequel to, well, you know what it’s the sequel to. Like its predecessor, SSF2 is a “twitch” game of lethal martial arts combat, which means that all ages should love it. At 40 megabits, this cartridge weighs in as the biggest Genesis game ever.
– Tetris II (Nintendo; $49.95; Super NES) is a rarity-one of the few Tetris sequels that actually deserves the name. It’s not to be confused with WellTris, Tris 3, or any of the other dismal follow-ups to the classic Tetris. Instead, it returns to the formula that made the original a success, and adds to it with souped-up graphics and sound, as well as interesting options, such as a puzzle mode. This version also injects a little humor with cartoons featured in between levels. It’s one of those video games that should have equal appeal for men and women, young and old.
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Dennis Lynch can be contacted online via e-mail. His address is DennyLynch@aol.com.
